Clasping at straws
It’s official, now I really have heard everything. At least in terms of excuses defense lawyers give for their client’s misdeeds.
Remember when you were a kid and got busted for doing something bad by someone in authority and your response was “But ______ did it too!” as if that excused you? Well, apparently now that’s an actual legal defense.
Gerald Shangel, the defense attorney for Robert Halderman (the guy that tried to blackmail David Letterman earlier this year with a thinly disguised extortion plot in the form of a “screenplay” about a comedian and talk show host who’s life starts to unravel once news of his affairs becomes public knowledge) is pointing to Faithless Hussy (Rachel Uchitel) as an example of why his client should be exonerated.
Referring to reports that Faithless Hussy has been given hush money to keep her mouth shut over her affair with Tiger Woods, Shargel wrote “Evidence of celebrity misdeeds has a significant fair market value. “… evidence of such misdeeds is routinely suppressed through private business arrangement.”
Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight. Also? Nice try, but no cigar.
The difference, of course, is who first offered what to whom (and Woods and Faithless Hussy ain’t talking), unlike Halderman, who wanted $2 million to make the screenplay story ”go away”.
If this is the best his defense team can come up with, there’s no question Halderman will be going away too, for up to 15 years.
