Letterman Reveals Extortion Attempt

[MacNut]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/03/business/media/03extort.html?em

The Manhattan District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau, saying his office would not tolerate extortion against “anyone rich or poor,” announced charges Friday morning against a CBS employee, Robert Joel Halderman, who is accused of trying to extort $2 million from the late-night talk show host David Letterman.

Mr. Letterman first revealed the extortion attempt on “The Late Show,” on CBS on Thursday night, describing how he had been approached by a person who wanted $2 million from him not to go public with information that Mr. Letterman had been in sexual relationships with women who work on his show.

Mr. Letterman admitted to the relationships on air, as he said he also did to a grand jury, but revealed that he had alerted the district attorney’s office immediately after receiving the first demand last month.

Mr. Halderman, an Emmy Award-winning producer for the CBS program “48 Hours Mystery” was arrested outside the CBS studios in Manhattan on Thursday and charged on one count of first-degree attempted grand larceny, which carries a maximum sentence of 15 years. He will be arraigned on Friday afternoon at Manhattan State Supreme Court.

“New York will not tolerate the coercion or extortion of anyone, be the victim rich or poor, famous or anonymous,” Mr. Morgenthau said at a news conference from his office on Friday.

Mr. Morgenthau detailed an elaborate investigation, which included a series of three meetings between Mr. Letterman’s lawyers and Mr. Halderman last month. In the second and third meetings, which were not attended by Mr. Letterman, his lawyers wore a recording device. Mr. Letterman had signed a fake $2 million check to Mr. Halderman on Wednesday, who attempted to cash it on Thursday morning in Connecticut. Mr. Halderman was arrested shortly after that.

He said Mr. Halderman had given Mr. Letterman a letter threatening that his “world is about to collapse around him” and that he would have a “ruined reputation” once details of his private life were disclosed.

The district attorney declined to provide details about the motive Mr. Halderman might have had for the alleged extortion, nor the “personal and private information” Mr. Halderman claimed to know.

 

[Gregg2]

I can't wait for...
Top Ten Reasons Not to Have Sex With Your Subordinate Employees

I'm sure it could be funny, but the truth is sad.

 

[zephead]

While that's obviously a pretty slimy thing to be doing in the first place, I say Letterman handled the situation pretty well. Instead of the douche trying to ruin him having all the leverage, Letterman just came out and said it and bam - no more leverage. Plus the guy thought he made off with a real $2 million check, but he fell right into the trap! Serves him right!

 

[Lord Blackadder]

Interesting story, but Letterman made the best play - clear the air and call the extortionist's bluff.

He and his wife need to have a little chat now, though....

 

[Mousse]

I would have accepted nothing short of a cashier's check if I was going to blackmail someone. Cash would have been better; non-sequential and unmarked and in small denominations would have been ideal. Not that I'm into extortion business. A check can be stopped by the payee anytime before it clears. A check that amount would require several days, at least, to clear.

The thing I find hard to wrap my head around is that someone would sleep with Letterman. I wonder if it was "Monty" aka "Dutch" aka "Gunter" aka "Kitty" I'm thinking: Not.

 

[velocityg4]

I don't know how this guy thought this extortion attempt would work. Celebrity has sex outside of marriage, I am so shocked. If you want to blackmail a celebrity it needs to be proof that they only have strictly monogamous relationships.

The thing I find hard to wrap my head around is that someone would sleep with Letterman.

He is rich and famous. For some that is reason enough.

 

[xIGmanIx]

and the realism is that more than likely his image will take less of a hit if this had been leaked and he denied denied denied, etc. As a brand, smart move, and the relationship part will have to figure itself out.

 

[aross99]

Not condoning what Dave did, but he handled this perfectly. I doubt this will effect him at all.

Does it seem odd to anyone else that the blackmailer took a check?

Maybe I have seen too many movies, but I would have expected someone to demand cash. I guess $2M in cash would be alot of cash, but still.

I guess since Dave knew who he was, he didn't care about the paper trail?

 

[MasterDev]

What a pimp!

 

[xIGmanIx]

sometime criminals are smart and it does pay, sadly this is not the case. Who doesn't know that taking a check when your doing something illegal is a boneheaded move? Probably why this thing got blown up in the first place.

Does it seem odd to anyone else that the blackmailer took a check?

 

[gnasher729]

sometime criminals are smart and it does pay, sadly this is not the case. Who doesn't know that taking a check when your doing something illegal is a boneheaded move? Probably why this thing got blown up in the first place.

Didn't make much difference. A blackmailer who is known to his victim can only get away with it if the victim doesn't call the police (and doesn't take any other, more drastic, action).

 

[Rt&Dzine]

Workplace relationships are common. In this case it's a boss abusing his position. One relationship may have been a fluke, but he had sex with more than one woman who worked on his show. Letterman admitted to them which was smart.

I wonder if the employee that Halderman lived with was one of Letterman's conquests? Seems like something personal. The extortion attempt was downright stupid.

 

[Thomas Veil]

I don't admire Letterman's philandering, but I do admire the way he handled this situation.

What really gets me is the way the audience took it when he made what must have been a very painful and embarrassing admission: they laughed. In at least three inappropriate parts of Dave's confession. Dave is clearly annoyed at one point where he asks, "Now why is that funny?" Never lost his temper though.

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=5357358n&tag=api

This whole affair will be fodder for the Palinistas, but it won't hurt his career.

 

[Keebler]

and the realism is that more than likely his image will take less of a hit if this had been leaked and he denied denied denied, etc. As a brand, smart move, and the relationship part will have to figure itself out.

+1

you are so correct - with so many 'celebrities/athletes' getting caught lying, it was refreshing to hear one of them come out and be honest ahead of time.

I'm not condoning the sleeping with employees, but if this was before his wife, no biggee.

And i'm sure he told his wife what he was going to do.

Wouldn't you love to have seen video of that guy when he heard Letterman starting that conversation on TV? I bet he was thinking, "Oh f***...you sonofab****" Then, "Oh oh...i should be leaving right about now." Oh no...there are the po-lice. "

doh!

 

[dmr727]

Workplace relationships are common. In this case it's a boss abusing his position.

It could be, but not necessarily. What's unique about this over a typical workplace environment is that Letterman is a celebrity. It's very possible he didn't have to use his position as the boss to make any of this happen.

 

[yg17]

This whole affair will be fodder for the Palinistas, but it won't hurt his career.

Ditto. The haters will hate him more. The fans will love him more. And the people who didn't care before still won't care.

 

[iJohnHenry]

He and his wife need to have a little chat now, though....

Perhaps, but his wife is also one of his former employees, so I hardly expect that she is so naive as to believe he didn't have other dalliances.

Remember, he lived with her for many years, and they even produced a child together (the adorable Harry), before they got married.

 

[Rt&Dzine]

It could be, but not necessarily. What's unique about this over a typical workplace environment is that Letterman is a celebrity. It's very possible he didn't have to use his position as the boss to make any of this happen.

Possibly. But ethical bosses don't sleep around with multiple employees.

 

[iJohnHenry]

Possibly. But ethical bosses don't sleep around with multiple employees.

Excuse me, but no harm, no foul.

They had every opportunity to file sexual harassment charges against him.

Do you have some knowledge that the rest of us do not possess??

 

[Rt&Dzine]

Excuse me, but no harm, no foul.

They had every opportunity to file sexual harassment charges against him.

Do you have some knowledge that the rest of us do not possess??

No. I'm not talking about the legality of his behavior.

 

[Mac Kiwi]

I wonder what possible divorce might end up costing him,if she {his wife} is mega pissed that is.


The extortionist will find a way of still getting the skinny on Dave into the public domain.

 

[electroshock]

He said Mr. Halderman had given Mr. Letterman a letter threatening that his “world is about to collapse around him”

Well, the blackmailer was sorta right. Sorta. Only, it was his own world that collapsed, rather than Letterman's.

 

[Thomas Veil]

Latest info:

...According to one person inside the company, CBS executives did quietly seek and receive assurances that none of the women Mr. Letterman was talking about were under age and that no woman who was involved with him had felt threatened about her job....

Both Mr. Letterman and CBS tried to get control of the story Friday, with representatives of Mr. Letterman’s company making a point — which they said he should have raised during his confession of the plot’s details on Thursday’s show — that his affairs with his employees had all taken place before he married his longtime girlfriend, Regina Lasko.

CBS executives declined to comment on the record and released an official statement that the network was cooperating with the investigation. But representatives of Worldwide Pants noted that CBS does not employ Mr. Letterman, and CBS representatives affirmed that point.

That distinction seemed to be made to underscore that Mr. Letterman was not subject to any of the CBS policies regarding harassment on the job. Worldwide Pants does have a policy. A spokesman issued a statement that read: “Dave is not in violation of our policy and no one has ever raised a complaint against him.” The spokesman said the policy “does not prohibit relationships within the company — only that they cannot be tied to an employee’s performance.”...

Several longtime associates of Mr. Letterman said he has a long history of pursuing relationships with employees, dating to his first days on television on NBC in the early 1980s. At that time he was known to frequently date interns and other young women connected to his show, one associate said.

His first longtime relationship was with Merrill Markoe, who was his head writer on his NBC show, “Late Night With David Letterman,” and before they became a couple, Mr. Letterman and Ms. Lasko worked together on his show. Some veterans of the show said it was well-known inside the production that he had also had a close relationship at one time with another previous assistant....

So barring other revelations, no sexual harassment, and no philandering after his marriage. Still not nice, considering he had a long-term relationship with Ms. Lasko, but as scandals go, this seems pretty mild.

As to how women would want to be in a relationship with Dave, it goes beyond him being rich and famous. He's obviously very funny, which characteristic is quite attractive to women, and this event aside, he's said to be a very nice guy.

BTW, if they ever re-make the movie "Dick Tracy", that district attorney has the role of Mumbles.

 

[MacNut]

I don't admire Letterman's philandering, but I do admire the way he handled this situation.

What really gets me is the way the audience took it when he made what must have been a very painful and embarrassing admission: they laughed. In at least three inappropriate parts of Dave's confession. Dave is clearly annoyed at one point where he asks, "Now why is that funny?" Never lost his temper though.

I don't think the crowd knew what to do, you could hear it get uncomfortable halfway through.

I wonder what possible divorce might end up costing him,if she {his wife} is mega pissed that is.


The extortionist will find a way of still getting the skinny on Dave into the public domain.

I'm sure Dave has a fairly strong pre-nup. As for the producer, his dirty laundry is going to get aired out more than Dave's.