All Blog Posts from Crimesider

NEW YORK - A TV news producer accused of blackmailing David Letterman in exchange for keeping quiet about his sexual affairs was only trying to sell the late-night comic a screenplay, a defense lawyer said Tuesday.

Robert J. "Joe" Halderman's lawyer asked a judge to toss the attempted first-degree grand larceny case, saying the producer did nothing illegal in slipping Letterman documents alluding to the "Late Show" host's dalliances and taking a $2 million check from Letterman's lawyer.

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NEW YORK - A lawyer for the TV news producer accused of blackmailing talk show host David Letterman plans to ask a judge to dismiss an extortion case that prompted the late-night comic to acknowledge affairs with staffers.

Robert "Joe" Halderman is due in a Manhattan court Tuesday. His defense attorney, Gerald Shargel, said he planned to challenge whether the evidence presented to a grand jury was sufficient and ask a judge to dismiss the attempted first-degree grand larceny charge against his client.

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NEW YORK - Was Stephanie Birkitt, 34, romantically involved with David Letterman and his alleged extortionist, Robert "Joe" Halderman at the same time?

If you believe a report in today's New York Post, the long-time Letterman staffer, whose secret diary police say is at the center of an alleged extortion plot against the late night king, was indeed two-timing the man now accused of threatening to reveal Letterman's office sex trysts unless he coughed up $2 million.

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NEW YORK - Last night David Letterman once again used his "Late Show" platform to address his affairs with several female employees of his production company Worldwide Pants, and apologize to his wife Regina Lasko.

"My wife Regina, she has been horribly hurt by my behavior."

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NEW YORK (CBS/AP) - The pages of Stephanie Birkitt's personal diary were presumably not meant for the eyes of her former lover, David Letterman, or a recent one, long-time CBS News producer Robert "Joe" Halderman.

But it was pages copied from the diary, that were the centerpiece of Halderman's plan to extort $2 million from the late night king, threatening to expose his office sexcapades if he did not comply, according to law enforcement officials.

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NEW YORK - An attorney for Robert "Joe" Halderman, the CBS producer accused of extorting David Letterman over the talk show host's sexual affairs, says he wants to put the late night king on the stand.

"I look forward to cross-examining David Letterman," Gerald Shargel told Ann Curry on the "Today Show" Monday.

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NEW YORK - A CBS News employee has been indicted in an extortion plot against David Letterman, who was forced to acknowledge sexual relationships with female staffers on his show after the man tried to blackmail him for $2 million, the Manhattan district attorney said Friday.

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LOS ANGELES - It was business as usual for David Letterman and CBS' "Late Show." The band played. The host, dapper as always in a well-tailored suit, recited his monologue; some jokes hit, some missed.

Then Letterman proceeded to take viewers, and television, on an extraordinary journey that was part confessional, part entertainment and wholly, if jarringly, hypnotic.

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NEW YORK - Long-time CBS News producer Robert Joe Halderman has been named in a sex extortion plot against "Late Show" host David Letterman, according to the Associated Press.

The Emmy-nominated producer is accused of trying to extort $2 million from Letterman, forcing the late-night host to admit in an extraordinary monologue before millions of viewers that he had sexual relationships with female employees.

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