LOS ANGELES (AP) – The judge in Phil Spector’s murder trial ruled Wednesday that renowned forensic expert Henry Lee removed something from the scene where actress Lana Clarkson was shot and hid it from the prosecution, but said he would not hold Lee in contempt now because of conflicting accounts of what happened.
Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler rejected a prosecution bid to instruct jurors that Lee is not a credible witness, saying he would allow the jurors to make that decision themselves.
But he said the prosecution would be allowed to present all of the evidence on the so-called missing fingernail issue to impeach Lee’s credibility if he testifies for the defense.
The prosecution contends the item was a piece of a fingernail with the trace of a passing bullet that would show that Clarkson was resisting having a gun placed in her mouth. The defense claims she shot herself.
Lee, a former Connecticut public safety commissioner who teaches at the University of New Haven, denied taking any such thing from the crime scene when he testified earlier.
The judge acknowledged that Lee has “a large reputation” and is a renowned forensic expert.
“Dr. Lee has a lot to lose here,” the judge said in a hearing without the jury present.
He said of all the witnesses who testified over several weeks on hearings on the issue the only one that he found completely credible was attorney Sara Caplan, who said that she saw Lee pick up a white object with a rough edge and place it in a vial during the defense search of the foyer of Spector’s mansion.
Fidler said, “If Dr. Lee has this object he’s to produce it forthwith.”
But the judge said he had little confidence that would happen and “I’m not going to hold Dr. Lee in contempt.”
Lee has been a major witness in such trials as those of O.J. Simpson and William Kennedy Smith. He also had his own show on Court TV dealing with issues of trace evidence.
AP-ES-05-23-07 1403EDT
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