When Phil Spector was booked for murder in 2003, he was a jet-setting millionaire who stayed in luxury hotel suites, left $450 tips on $13 bar bills and paid cash for a 30-room mansion. Six years later, with the case against him in the hands of a jury for a second time, the famed music producer still flashes trappings of wealth -- bespoke suits, a chauffeured car and a pretty, young wife who walks down the courthouse hallway next to him in designer pumps.
But there is no doubt the lengthy legal battle has drawn down the fortune Spector, 69, amassed by writing and producing some of pop music's catchiest hits.
Since his arrest, he has used the services of at least 11 criminal defense attorneys -- including one who charged $1 million for a year of representation, four private investigators, five paralegals, a jury consultant and a stable of expert witnesses. The bill for those scientific witnesses -- more than $500,000 over the course of a trial and a retrial -- does not include the cost of a handful of other big-name forensic specialists, such as Henry Lee and Cyril Wecht, whom the defense retained but did not call to the stand.
“I doubt there is one-tenth of 1% of people in this country who can afford what Mr. Spector has had to put together so far for his defense," his current lawyer, Doron Weinberg, said.
A verdict in his murder trial will not relieve the financial pressure on Spector. Whatever the jury's decision, he faces a wrongful-death suit by the mother of Lana Clarkson, the actress he is accused of shooting to death in the foyer of his mansion. In civil court, the standard of proof to hold Spector responsible for Clarkson's shooting -- his defense contends it was suicide -- is much lower than in the criminal case where a conviction requires proof beyond a reasonable doubt.
