I'm not much of celebrity trial watcher, so I haven't been following the Phil Spector murder trial closely, if at all. (Moreover, I've been down on Spector ever since the Ramones described working with him as "a hassle.") However, it did catch my eye this morning when I noticed that one of Spector's former lawyers, Sara Caplan, who worked with Robert Shapiro while the latter served as Spector's attorney, has been held in contempt by trial Judge Larry Fidler for refusing to testify as a prosecution witness at the trial. (Here is the link to Court TV's report of the judge's ruling). The prosecution seeks to call Caplan for purposes of impeaching defense expert Henry Lee (of O.J. Simpson defense team fame). Caplan testified at a pre-trial hearing that she saw Lee remove evidence from the crime scene which Lee improperly failed to disclose to the prosecution. (Lee denies this.)
Judge Fidler is certainly correct that Caplan's observations at the crime scene are not covered by the attorney-client privilege. However, Caplan is also correct that her broader duty of confidentiality to former clieint Spector prevents her from voluntarily disclosing this information against his wishes. (California's confidentiality rules here are at least as strong as the Model Rules, as California's rules do not contain an express exception to confidentiality "pursuant to court order" as in MR 1.6(b)(6)).
What is surprising is that Caplan apparently did not raise any such objections prior to testifying at the pretrial hearing six weeks ago. Caplan's current argument simply seems to be that testifying against her former client in front of a jury is impermissibly disloyal in a way that testifying against her former client in a pre-trial hearing wasn't (even though the prior testimony was reported widely throughout the media). Does this make any sense?
By the way, it appears that discussions are under way to allow Caplan's testimony to be read to the jury by way of stipulation in an effort to spare her from incarceration for contempt.
Steve Berenson