Spector trial claim: bombshell or sideshow?

Gregory Diamond went to law school but never passed the bar exam. An aspiring television producer, he has yet to sell a show that made it on air.

But this week, he managed to shake and stir the Phil Spector murder trial with an allegation that he saw a member of the defense team pick something up off the floor where actress Lana Clarkson died.

The object, if it exists -- perhaps a tooth, perhaps a fingernail -- is potentially a key piece of evidence and was never revealed to the prosecution, according to court testimony.

Diamond’s explosive assertion brought a parade of famous lawyers and experts to the courtroom and will continue to cast a shadow over the trial as it heads into its third week. The central figure in the imbroglio, famed criminalist Henry Lee, is out of the country, and Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler has said that he will not decide what to do until he hears from him.

By week’s end, it was unclear whether Diamond’s allegation would result in a showing of wrongdoing by the defense, or simply represented the kind of spectacular but ultimately pointless sideshow that often erupts in celebrity trials.

Spector defense attorney Roger Rosen made it clear that he saw the matter as a distraction: “When you start televising things, slime oozes up from under the rocks,” he said of Diamond.

But in three days of testimony, there was no agreement on whether anything was taken from the crime scene, who took it, what it was or what relevance it might have to the murder case.

“Maybe we have a tempest in a teapot,” Fidler said at one point. “Maybe we don’t.”

USC law professor Jean Rosenbluth, who has been watching the trial, said, “It appeared on at least some level [Diamond] was telling the truth. What the truth here is, I’m not sure any of us will know.”

Clarkson was shot to death Feb. 3, 2003, in Spector’s mansion in Alhambra. Prosecutors in 2004 first raised the possibility that the defense, in a crime scene sweep the day after the shooting, may have taken a piece of Clarkson’s acrylic fingernail from the red-carpeted foyer where her seated and slumped body was found.

The significance of the nail, which the coroner reported missing from Clarkson’s right hand, has never been completely clear. It has been described variously as a broken fragment, which could suggest that Clarkson fought with Spector before he shot her, or stained with gunshot residue, which could help show that Clarkson shot herself. The prosecution contends that Spector shot Clarkson when she tried to leave his house, while the defense contends that the shooting was an “accidental suicide.”

The defense back in 2004 denied any knowledge of the nail, and the matter appeared to have been put to rest. But last month, as the case neared its televised debut, Diamond, a former intern and clerk for Spector lawyer Robert Shapiro, called the district attorney’s office and said he had important information to share.

Prosecutors notified Fidler, who assigned a special master, Loyola Law School professor Laurie Levenson, to look into the matter. After receiving Levenson’s report, which was not made public, Fidler called a court hearing Wednesday, which, as it continued through the week, made it clear that the fingernail was once again an issue.

The hearing took place out of the presence of the jury, which was on a weeklong break because of defense attorney Bruce Cutler’s medical problems.

Diamond, who one courtroom wag said bears an uncanny resemblance to the bald, bespectacled television character Stanford Blatch from “Sex and the City,” arrived saying that he did not wish to testify. Fidler told him he had to.

Between protestations of memory lapses and abortive attempts to invoke his 5th Amendment protection against self-incrimination, Diamond testified that he saw Sara Caplan, an attorney then in practice with Shapiro, pick up a white item from the crime scene and hand it to Michael Baden, a defense pathologist. Diamond said he heard Baden tell Caplan that it looked like a piece of tooth.

Flown in from New York, where he is the chief pathologist for the state police as well as the host of an HBO forensics show, Baden denied that the exchange took place.

Outside the courtroom, Shapiro, who had been subpoenaed, sat waiting on a hard bench, but Fidler determined that his testimony wasn’t needed.

But Leslie Abramson, Spector’s attorney when the missing nail was discussed in 2004, appeared in the courtroom to assist the music producer’s current lawyers. (Neither Shapiro nor Abramson now represent Spector, who has a team of six lawyers that includes Rosen and Cutler.)

As Fidler and the attorneys discussed the nail, Abramson repeatedly shook her head “No,” prompting a warning from Fidler. “This is the ghost of Christmas past,” she said, unapologetically.

At Fidler’s second admonition, Abramson said in an incredulous tone, “You want me not to be Jewish now?” Later, the salsa ring tone on Abramson’s cellphone went off, prompting her departure from the courtroom amid a wave of laughter. Fidler stared at the ceiling in exasperation, but the trace of a smile played across his lips.

Those antics were followed Thursday by a repeat performance from Diamond, who was needled by Spector attorney Christopher Plourd about his failure to pass the bar and his unsuccessful attempts to persuade the Los Angeles Times, New York Times and others to print his story.

Soon after, Caplan took the stand to deny Diamond’s story. But she said that she saw Henry Lee retrieve a flat white object the size of her thumbnail from the foyer.

Stanley White, a defense investigator, said he also saw Lee with what appeared to be a fingernail.

White was the source of the first report in 2004 of the fingernail. During his testimony Thursday, White, a retired sheriff’s deputy, said that when Abramson found out that he had told the story to a sheriff’s homicide investigator at a barbecue, she phoned him at home and swore for three minutes while threatening to sue him. She hung up only after he swore back with greater intensity, White testified.

Fidler said Friday that he would continue the fingernail hearing as witnesses became available. But he added, “I’m a long way from making any determination.”

He also vowed to resume testimony today with or without the ailing Cutler. The prosecution is expected this morning to begin calling witnesses, including Stephanie Jennings, a photographer who has said Spector threatened her with a gun in 1995.

peter.hong@latimes.com