PHIL SPECTOR - JUDGE BLASTS SPECTORS FOR INTERVIEWS

JUDGE BLASTS SPECTORS FOR INTERVIEWS

As jurors in the Phil Spector murder trial began deliberations Monday, the judge presiding over the trial expressed anger over interviews with Spector and his wife Rachelle that recently appeared on Court TV and in the press. Addressing Rachelle Spector, Judge Larry Fidler said, "I'm making an order. You want to violate my order, go ahead and do so. I can assure you I will hold you in contempt of court." When she began shouting a reply, he cut her off, saying, "I'm telling you, you are doing nothing to affect this trial, and if you do ... you will suffer the consequences." Rachelle Spector's interview with Court TV was posted in two segments on YouTube, and she herself linked to them from her personal website, rachellemarie.com. An interview with Phil Spector that appeared in London's Mail on Sunday and picked up by the Associated Press and CBS News also drew Judge Fidler's wrath. In the interview Spector accused the judge and jury of prejudicial attitudes towards him. "This case is going to be decided based on the facts presented to the jury and the instructions on the log and nothing else," he said. The interview had been given to Oscar-winning documentary film producer Vikram Jayanti (whose films include When We Were Kings, about the 1974 "rumble in the jungle" between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman) who said that he is producing a biographical film about Spector for the BBC.

11/09/2007