"Drink makes him a demon": Spector trial update
She told the court that her ex was a real "charmer" but that when he drank his personality changed completely. "When he's drinking", she said, "he loses it and becomes a demon". But she admitted that she had tolerated his bizarre behaviour because the good times were good. Asked about Spector's foul language ("all women are cunts", that kind of thing) she confirmed the producer could be quite sweary, but added that that's not unusual for the entertainment industry.
She was asked, also, to corroborate the testimony of first prosecution witness Vincent Tannazzo who, as previously reported, told the court for a second time this week about an incident at one of Rivers' Christmas parties where he was working as a security guard. It was there that Spector allegedly said "all women were cunts and they all deserve a bullet in their heads", or words to that effect.
As also previously reported, Spector's defence team objected on Monday when the prosecution started to ask Melvin about the party on the rather strange basis it was unfair to do so because no such questions had been asked at the first trial. But Judge Larry Paul Fidler allowed the questions to be asked yesterday, and Melvin confirmed Spector's ranty and misogynistic behaviour at the Rivers party. She also revealed how she had once seen Spector chase some young people with a gun because they had mistaken him for actor Dudley Moore.
Returning to the story at the heart of Melvin's original testimony, of how Spector had once hit her and then chased her off his property after turning loopy one night, the prosecution played a phone message the producer had left the artist manager after that incident. In it Spector apologises for striking her with a gun and for chasing her down his driveway, but he adds somewhat mysteriously: "Be very careful what you say to me because nothing you say is worth your life". Adding that after that incident she never let herself be alone with Spector again, Melvin concluded: "I didn't want to be alone with Phil again. I thought he was dangerous".
The trial recessed early yesterday because apparently there was some election going on and it was thought that participants might want to vote. The hearings will continue later today.
-- from today's CMU Daily, www.cmudaily.co.uk