Phil Spector’s ex-girlfriend acknowledged Wednesday that she attended events with the rock music legend after she says he pistol-whipped her and threatened her with guns, telling the court that “he’s easy to forgive.”
Dorothy Melvin testified at Spector’s murder trial that she enjoyed being with the producer when he wasn’t drunk. After the gun incident, she said, they attended an awards dinner at New York’s Plaza Hotel and went to a Los Angeles Lakers game but were never alone.
“When Phil is not drinking he’s the most charming man in the world,” she said. “He’s witty. You want to be with him.”
Melvin acknowledged she may have exchanged e-mails and phone calls with Spector as many as 10 years after the 1993 incident, in which she claims he struck her with a pistol and chased her with a shotgun.
She called Spector “very charming” and “easy to forgive,” but under further questioning by Spector’s attorney she declared she should have cut ties with him.
“I was stupid,” Melvin said. “What more can I say?”
She said she broke off all contact after he was charged in the February 2003 shooting death of actress Lana Clarkson, and she was contacted to testify for the prosecution.
“I didn’t want him to get wind that I was part of this,” she said. “I know how menacing Phil can be.”
Spector is being retried for murder in Clarkson’s death a year after the jury in his first trial deadlocked 10-2, with the majority favoring conviction. The defense claims Clarkson may have killed herself.
Spector’s attorney, Doron Weinberg, who is new to the case, introduced a different strategy, seeking to show that Spector pulled guns not only on women, but also waved guns at men in the past. Outside the jury’s presence, he told Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler that the only way he can defend Spector against prosecution claims of raging hatred for women is to show that men were sometimes targets of his anger.
“It’s not raging anger against women,” said Weinberg, who then elicited from Melvin two incidents in which she said he waved guns at men. He complained to the judge that the incidents had not been disclosed by prosecutors.
Prosecutor Truc Do asked Melvin about one of the incidents, in which Spector allegedly waved a gun at a man in a stairwell at a Joan Rivers Christmas party.
“I just thought he was crazy,” she said.
“Did you feel threatened?” Do asked.
“No,” Melvin said. “I’m not easily intimidated.”
Melvin, who is Rivers’ manager, said she invited Spector back to the next year’s holiday party with Rivers’ agreement, “if he didn’t bring a gun.”
“He had a keyboard and played, and everyone enjoyed it tremendously,” she said.