A CBS News employee pleaded not guilty Friday to trying to blackmail David Letterman for $2 million in a plot that spurred the TV host to acknowledge sexual relationships with women who worked on his show Thursday.
Robert J. (Joe) Halderman, a producer for the true-crime show "48 Hours," entered the plea in a New York City court on one count of attempted first-degree grand larceny. Bail was set at $200,000.
Assistant District Attorney Judy Salwen told the judge Halderman was in debt, but didn't elaborate. The evidence "shows the defendant is desperate, and he is capable of doing anything," she said.
The prosecutor said Halderman gave the talk show host a package that "contained clear, explicit and actual threats that indicate this defendant (wanted to) destroy the reputation of Mr. Letterman and to submit him and his family to humiliation and ridicule." A law enforcement official told the Associated Press that the district attorney's office set up an undercover sting operation in which Letterman's attorney met with Halderman and discussed terms of the extortion.
His lawyer, Gerald Shargel, said Halderman worked at CBS for 27 years and had no criminal record. He described him as an involved father of two kids, 11 and 18. "This story is far more complicated than what you heard this afternoon," Shargel said outside court. AP
