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 (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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