Robert "Joe" Halderman pleaded guilty yesterday for his attempt to extort $2 million from David Letterman by way of revealing Letterman's many affairs. The former CBS News producer admitted his scheme to sell a movie treatment to the talk show host "was just a thinly-veiled threat to ruin Mr. Letterman if he did not pay me a lot of money."
Halderman also confirmed that he deposited a fake $2 million check from Letterman's lawyers. With his guilty plea for second-degree grand larceny, he faces six months at Rikers (though he'll probably just serve four), four and a half years of probation, and 1,000 hours of community service. The Post calls it a "sweetheart deal," noting that Halderman promised to keep quiet about Letterman's affairs, including one with Halderman's former girlfriend Stephanie Birkitt. Halderman also apologized to "Mr. Letterman and his family; to Stephanie Birkitt and her family and everyone else that I have hurt or disappointed."
Halderman's lawyer Gerald Shargel told the NY Times, "We raised some novel legal issues, novel defenses"—like the Tiger Woods defense—"I couldn’t be at all certain that they would prevail. Weighing the risks against the rewards, I thought this was an opportunity to make the best of a bad mess."
Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance Jr. credited Letterman with coming to the authorities after the threat, "Mr. Letterman risked the disclosure of certain aspects of his private life. Like all New Yorkers, he has a right to a certain degree of privacy in his personal life." Letterman said on his show last night that the matter was "was handled professionally, skillfully and appropriately," and thanked Vance as well as former DA Robert Morgenthau.
