L.A. law enforcement has gotten a tip that the producer, arrested in February after the body of actress Lana Clarkson was found in the foyer of his home, may be a flight risk.
A member of Spector’s camp told authorities that the eccentric architect of the “Wall of Sound” and producer of numerous pop hits of the 1960s might flee the country.
(Director Polanski, you’ll recall, was awaiting final sentencing after pleading guilty to a charge of unlawful sex with a minor when he slipped off to France in 1977.)
Spector told cops that 6-foot blond B-movie actress Clarkson committed suicide, but the L.A. County coroner last month ruled her death a murder. Last Monday, an L.A. Superior Court judge extended Spector’s $1 million bail to his Oct. 31 hearing. Spector is the only suspect.
“Spector has a private jet,” a source tells us. “The sheriff’s office has been told that he might use it to take off. The police said they appreciated the information, but that they didn’t have the manpower to keep watch on him 24 hours a day.”
Asked if Spector might be charged at his Oct. 31 hearing, L.A. district attorney spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons told us, “I’m not going to pin us into a time frame.”
Spector’s lawyer, Robert Shapiro, whose former client O.J. Simpson famously led cops on a low-speed chase, didn’t immediately return a call.
But Capt. Frank Merriman, head of the L.A. sheriff’s homicide bureau, told us: “If we felt it was necessary to watch him, we would. I’m not worried about him. If he’s charged, he’ll either turn himself in or he’ll flee. But where’s he’s going to go? Let him run. We’ll catch him.”
Credit: NY Daily News