LOS ANGELES, CA (CNS) -- A former attorney for rock music producer Phil Spector could go to jail for her refusal to testify before jurors in her ex-client's murder trial.
Spector, 67, is accused of fatally shooting Lana Clarkson, a 40-year-old actress and House of Blues hostess, in the foyer of his Alhambra mansion during the early hours of Feb. 3, 2003. He maintains Clarkson's death was a suicide.
Sara Caplan, 51, was held in contempt of court last week by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler for refusing to testify the prosecution in front of the jury. Caplan said her testimony is barred by attorney-client privilege.
Fidler -- who ruled the privilege doesn't apply to possible evidence tampering by the defense -- stayed her jail sentence until 4 p.m. today, pending a decision by a state appellate court. That court may stay her sentence further, Fidler said Wednesday.
Caplan testified twice last month at a hearing outside the presence of jurors that she saw defense expert Henry Lee pick up an object in the foyer and place into a vial on Feb. 4, 2003.
Prosecutors have long accused Spector's defense team of withholding part of Clarkson's acrylic right thumbnail, which they say could prove Spector and Clarkson struggled before she was shot. Defense attorneys have denied the allegation.
Fidler ruled May 23 that Lee compromised possible evidence in the case. Lee has vehemently denied allegations of evidence tampering.
When testimony resumes today at 9:30 a.m., Lynne Herold, a forensic scientist at the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, is expected to continue her testimony.
On Thursday she told the court that Spector likely had his arms raised and was standing about two feet away from the seated Clarkson when the actress was shot.
Defense attorney Linda Kenney Baden, in her cross-examination, suggested that Spector may have been standing up to six feet away from Clarkson -- too far for him to have been the shooter.
Clarkson was a Long Beach native best known for her starring role in the 1985 Roger Corman cult film ''Barbarian Queen.''
Spector, 1989 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee famed in music circles for his layered ''Wall of Sound'' recording technique, is free on $1 million bail.
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