Phil Spector Retrial: Day Fifty, No Testimony

As some of you may know already, there was no testimony today. I woke up very late this morning and was complaining to Mr. Sprocket that he would have to drive me to court because I was going to be very late. He didn't want to do that so he kept insisting that I "call ahead" to see if court was dark. I finally humored him and called at 8:45 am. Sure enough, Wendy said court was dark today. I asked about tomorrow and she said it was unknown. So I lucked out on waking up late and saved a trip into downtown.

From the E-mails I received today, there were other trial watchers who were not as lucky. A few people who did show up at court told me about their experience and shared information they learned from Alan Jackson and other trial watchers who were there. (Y'all know who you are and I thank you for writing.)

There were two things I was told that were significant. The first was, Mr. Spector was having a "medical procedure" and the fact that the jury was excused for the day.

The fact that the jury was at the courthouse and had to be excused tells me the prosecution (and the court) was not notified of this "procedure" until sometime Saturday or most likely Sunday. The reason I'm leaning towards Sunday is because Fidler has stated in court recently, in regards to a hearing outside the jury's presence, "I came in on Saturday to research case law on this issue...." So Fidler and other employees can get in the building on Saturday, probably even on Sunday. They could get into the building to get the list of phone numbers for the jurors and call them. I would think that, if the court and the prosecution was notified at a reasonable time on Saturday, say, like after a Saturday morning doctor's appointment, they "could have" gotten the list and called the jurors.

There's also the remote possibility that Wendy has the list of phone numbers with her, at home and could have called the jurors from there. However, I don't think that's likely considering that the court has gone to great lengths to protect the juror's privacy. Supposedly, even the court does not know their names, only their juror number.

We know that Spector was "supposed" to have the surgery on his vocal cords in December. In fact, his counsel even requested two days off for it (Friday and the following Monday). But even before the surgery was scheduled to happen that weekend, I overheard the ladies at the defense table (Susan Matross and Jennifer Barringer) tell Wendy that it most likely wasn't going to happen. The following Monday was still dark, but Spector did not have the throat surgery. This was somewhat confirmed by the fact that his voice sounded the same when he returned to court.

So, it is "possible" that Spector had an emergency doctor's appointment on Saturday morning and it was decided to schedule the vocal cord surgery for Monday. Another possibility is, Spector woke up over the weekend and could no longer speak. He contacted his doctor and they scheduled the surgery that was postponed from December for Monday.

There are a few other possibilities, too. Spector is seeing the writing on the wall with his crumbling defense and could be pulling a last minute stall tactic to delay his last few weeks of freedom. Or, Weinberg could be pulling a stall because he hasn't been able to locate Punkin Pie. Maybe his star witness, the "best friend" has disappeared, flown the coop so to speak. Jennifer Hayes Riedl testified she hasn't spoken to Ms. Pie since the last trial in 2007. Hayes Riedl's explanation was, she moved and was in a new job and she hadn't been in contact with Ms. Pie or that entire social scene. Or maybe another witness Weinberg wants to call can't make it.

What do I think has happened? Well, please understand that this is all speculation on my part and I have no secret knowledge or sources. These are just my thoughts. Do any of you know the lyrics to John Prine's Spanish Pipedream? I'm thinking of this line: "For I knew that topless lady, had something up her sleeve." It's my opinion that Weinberg has something up his sleeve that he is going to present in court this late in the game. Either a surprise witness or new evidence. Again, this is just speculation and I have no knowledge of what really happened this weekend. However, here are some reasons why I have this opinion.

Weinberg stalled and stalled and stalled regarding turning over the discovery on his suicidologist, Dr. Sieden. He had to be ordered by Fidler to sit down with the prosecution, that day, and was also given a deadline to turn over a written summary of what Dr. Sieden's testimony would be. He delayed until the last possible moment to turn over Stuart James's power point presentation as well as the three power point presentations by James Pex. Pex testified he turned over his rough draft notes with the presentation to Weinberg. However Weinberg insisted to the court he didn't get the notes from Pex until later. I don't specifically remember Fidler stating that the prior testing by Pex was a discovery violation. What I do remember Fidler ruling was, "If it wasn't discoverable before, it is now. [...] Turn the September 3rd, 2008 testing over to the prosecution."

Then we have the latest issue that was ruled a discovery violation, with Greg Sims dramatically embellishing his testimony from the first trial. It's because of all these events that it's my opinion that something is up and Weinberg needed more time.

What do you think, dear readers? I thought I would give you a poll to vote on your favorite theory. I'm going to wait until 8:30 am tomorrow to find out if court is still dark before I leave.