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The latest witness called by the prosecution in the Phil Spector re-trial didn't prove overly useful to the case against the legendary producer by contradicting the testimony given by the preceding witness.

Spector, of course, is accused of murdering actress Lana Clarkson at his Beverly Hills home in 2003, he contends she shot herself. The prosecution have been busy lining up other women who claim to have been attacked or threatened by Spector in the past, and the first one to take to the stand this time was Dorothy Melvin, Joan Rivers' former manager.

As previously reported, Melvin retold how one night in 1993 while alone with the producer at his home in Pasadena, Spector had turned nasty, turned a gun on her, pistol-whipped her, refused to hand over her purse, and then chased her off his property. Although Melvin didn't press charges, she did ask local police for help in retrieving her purse.

One of the policemen involved was next on the witness stand - Sgt Chris Russ. He confirmed that he and a colleague had been called out to help Melvin. Describing the call out as "something of a domestic incident", he recalled how Spector, then Melvin's girlfriend, "had displayed a gun and kept her purse". But, importantly, he claims he saw no bruises on Melvin, and adds that he does not recall her claiming to have been pistol whipped at the time. Asked by Spector's defence attorney Doron Weinberg "you never observed any injuries, did you?", according to the AP Russ responded: "No, I didn't". Weinberg added: "You don't recall her saying anything about being hit with a gun?", to which Russ responded: "No, I don't".

Russ continued that Spector was wearing a shoulder holster when they went to his house, and that they saw a shotgun there. When the producer became "agitated and aggressive", they handcuffed him and called a supervisor. The purse was eventually retrieved which brought an end to the incident because Melvin didn't press charges. Melvin previously explained she didn't want the potential bad publicity for her and Rivers that pressing charges against Spector might result in.

Weinberg is keen to convince the jury that the prosecution is exaggerating stories of past altercations between Spector and others to incorrectly show him as a violent man (rather than just a bad tempered man), and that they are selecting only those involving women in a bid to portray him as being a misogynist. He'll therefore have been happy that Russ' testimony questioned certain details of Melvin's previous claims.

The prosecution's next witness was more useful - a return to the stand for another woman with a grim Spector story to tell. Another ex-girlfriend, Devra Robitaille again recalled how Spector had pointed a gun at her when she once tried to leave a party at the producer's home. She told the court: "I was standing in the foyer and when I turned he had a gun pointed at my temple ... it stopped me cold. I didn't know what to do".

Asked how she felt during the altercation, Robitaille continued: "Outraged and disrespected ... he was shouting at me different permutations of, 'I'll blow your head off, blow your brains out'". The British born woman said she diffused the situation by "becoming British" and telling him to "stop mucking about". Like Melvin, she continued to see and work for Spector after the incident. Flowers and apologies followed, she said, adding: "There was more good than bad. It was interesting and exciting and for the most part Mr Spector was a good guy. I put it aside".

The case continues - though not till next Wednesday. For some reason they all get a break.

-- from today's CMU Daily, www.cmudaily.co.uk