'The Jinx - The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst' on HBO (2 Viewers)

[Ken H]

Excerpted from The LA Times and ABC News, Tuesday 3/17/15


Durst was in court again this morning, as New Orleans authorities determine how to handle lesser allegations related to possession of a firearm and marijuana by a convicted felon.


In court Tuesday morning, Orleans Parish Assistant Dist. Atty. Mark Burton asked Magistrate Judge Harry Cantrell Jr. to detain Durst for five days, "until a hearing to determine whether bail can be set given his flight risk." The judge suggested a Friday hearing, but Burton said a longer delay would be needed to assemble relevant evidence from out of state and from federal records.


Durst's attorney, Richard DeGuerin, said on the court house steps today he wants to resolve matters in New Orleans to speed his client’s extradition to California to face the murder charges - "We want to contest the basis for his arrest because I think it's not based on facts, it's based on ratings. So we will continue to fight for Bob. We want to get to California as quickly as we can so that we can get into a court of law and try the case where it needs to be tried,"


Another new development is that ABC News is saying the LA Police told them the "fateful tip" that led to the arrest was called in by a viewer of The Jinx.


It remains an open question how much of the evidence uncovered in the documentary, which also included arguably incriminating statements by Durst, will make its way into the courtroom. Legal experts said the prosecution probably will try to limit how much it relies on the documentary in order to keep Durst's defense team from raising doubts about the film's accuracy and from challenging the unusual role the filmmakers played in building the case against Durst.


For their part, the filmmakers said they expect they will be called as witnesses, and they canceled a raft of planned interviews, saying it would be inappropriate to comment.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

For their part, the filmmakers said they expect they will be called as witnesses, and they canceled a raft of planned interviews, saying it would be inappropriate to comment.

My take is that their cancelations has more to do with them potentially being caught fudging the timeline in the documentary than any potential legal matters. As I said earlier and this is obviously just one person's opinion, I found the first parts of the documentary to be fascinating but I didn't like the way the filmmakers made the last episodes as much or more about themselves than Durst. What's worse to me about that it seems that the filmmakers had no need to do that. I thought Durst was guilty before I saw a single second of the documentary, just based on what was already in the news over the years. I still believe he's guilty, but the filmmakers with their timeline stunt have caused me to lose trust in their reporting. If the filmmakers lied or exaggerated about what really is a minor point and a very simple question (that being the question of "Did the final Durst interview happen before or after his 2013 arrest" - the NY Times says before, the film implies after, the filmmakers now refuse to comment), that really creates a lot of credibility and trustworthiness issues with the filmmakers that they're the sole cause of.

Ken, you've posted a lot of articles about this but I haven't really seen your opinion on all of this. (Or if you posted your thoughts on the timeline I might have missed them, so my apologies if that's the case.) Do you have a take on that?

 

[Ken H]

Ken, you've posted a lot of articles about this but I haven't really seen your opinion on all of this. (Or if you posted your thoughts on the timeline I might have missed them, so my apologies if that's the case.) Do you have a take on that?

For me it would be hard not to have a 'take' on all this, but where to start?


From a layperson's perspective, it's hard for me to imagine Robert Durst not being guilty of something more than he's already plead guilty to. (After the acquittal in the Black murder trial, he copped a plea and was sentenced to 5 years in prison for two counts of bond jumping and one count of evidence tampering. Given credit for time served, he was in prison for about three years total before being paroled in 2005.)


The circumstances of his first wife Kathie’s disappearance, his friend Berman’s execution, and his neighbor Black’s killing, all seem simply too much to be sheer coincidences. My best guess is he probably killed all three of them in cold blood (thanks to Truman Capote).


The problem is that by most accounts Durst is no dummy, and that could well account for law enforcement authorities not being able to really nail him up to this point. But like I said above, it’s my belief the evidence we’ve seen in The Jinx is just not enough to make the case against him for Berman’s murder, and I really wonder what they have beyond what we already know.


As for the filmmakers roll in all this, I have no problem whatsoever with how they inserted themselves into the story, because in my opinion they became part of the story as it developed, regardless if they wanted to or not. Due to the work on the film, events took on a life of their own and they were part of it. To some degree this part of The Jinx was just another fascinating aspect of it for me.


As for the timeline gaffe, I agree the filmmakers are most likely running for cover right now as opposed to declining to comment due to legal issues. The fact they had numerous interviews lined up well before Chapter Six aired clearly shows they had the chance to consider their options beforehand and decided to get on the publicity bandwagon as opposed to being concerned about legalities. If the legal aspect was an issue after Durst’s arrest, there was plenty of time and opportunity to gracefully back out. Only after the timeline became an issue did they disappear. Unless they come up with a really solid explanation, which may be possible, or great excuse, much less likely, they will need to throw themselves on their swords and take the hit. Which is really too bad because this little mess tarnishes an otherwise stellar effort.

 

[Ken H]

Today's update, which in the grand scheme of things is relatively benign.


- In New Orleans, the Sheriff's Department became concerned about Durst's mental condition and moved him to a mental health facility in a Louisiana State Prison about an hour away from New Orleans, for his own safety. The move was contested by Durst's legal team and it took an appellate court decision to approve the move.


- Law enforcement authorities in Houston, TX executed a search warrant for Durst's residence there. New Orleans law enforcement authorities referred all questions to LA officials, who had no comment. A neighbor in Durst's Houston condo complex told local ABC affiliate KTRK she saw him leave with two suitcases last week, and that his assistant came several days later and took most of his belongings.


- In California, law enforcement authorities are now looking into Durst's possible relationships to other missing people. In particular Durst was known to be in and around Eureka, CA about the time 16 year old Karen Mitchell went missing from Eureka in 1997. Officials were very clear that no known link between Durst and Mitchell exists. Also, investigators have previously looked at Durst in connection with Kristen Modafferi, a college student from North Carolina who went missing in San Francisco in 1997 when Durst was living there at the time. Durst’s lawyers have said they know nothing about Mitchell or Modafferi.


It appears Durst's situation is keeping the police and prosecutors busy in many, many places these days.

 

[Ken H]

Today's update, with more unusual stuff.


When arrested Durst had $42,000 in cash, mostly $100 bills in small envelopes, in his New Orleans hotel room, along with a latex mask. When asked, Durst told agents that a series of numbers scrawled on a piece of paper in the hotel room was a UPS tracking number and that he was expecting a large shipment of cash.


The search of Durst's condo home in Houston turned up a copy of "Without a Trace," and two copies of "A Deadly Secret"; both books about the disappearance of his first wife Kathie. Also found were a cell phone, seven credit cards, seven blank checks and five boxes containing court documents, news articles, CDs, handwriting samples, and photographs. He also had a trash bag filled with court transcripts; the contents of the transcripts were unknown.


On the missing persons front, U.S. law enforcement officials are now looking for possible connections to Durst across the country including unsolved cases in Vermont and upstate New York, in addition to the the San Francisco and Eureka, CA areas.


Info from the arrest and search warrants:

- A previously unknown letter was sent to the LA Police from New York on January 9, 2001. The typewritten letter, titled "Possible motive for Susan Berman murder," referred to the disappearance of Durst's first wife, Kathie. It indicated that Durst's friend Susan Berman suspected him of being involved in his wife's disappearance.

- An LA Police document examiner's flawed handwriting analysis in 2001 delayed linking Durst to Susan Berman's killing by as much as 16 months. Police focused on Durst's handwriting after receiving 'The Cadaver Note' in December 2000, but in 2001 an LA police document examiner concluded it was "highly probable" that the envelope and note were written by Nyle Brenner, Berman's manager and friend. The assessment was "rubber stamped" by a supervisor, who told detectives in September 2014 that she had not performed her own technical review. At the time, investigators had not analyzed examples of Durst's handwriting, and it wasn't until eight months later that a comparison of 'The Cadaver Note' was made. Similarities were enough to request more handwritten documents by Durst, which police eventually obtained. In June 2003, it was concluded the handwriting was likely Durst's, but by that point Durst had been charged in Texas with the murder of his 71-year-old neighbor, Morris Black. Eventually, the envelope, letter and writing samples were sent to the California Department of Justice and an investigator determined Durst as "probably the author of the cadaver letter and note." The Los Angeles case went dormant until 2012, when law enforcement learned of the HBO documentary The Jinx, who's filmmakers say they shared video footage with police months ago of the interviews with Durst. In October and November of 2014, the LAPD had two independent forensic examiners, one being Lloyd Cunningham, analyze the Durst documents and both concluded Durst was the author of the now infamous 'Cadaver Note'.
- The FBI estimates Durst's worth at over $100 Million USD, and that he had been making bank withdrawals of $9000 per day more than 35 times since last October. The Bank Secrecy Act requires banks to report all withdrawals greater than $10,000, but banks are also required to report "structured transactions" that appear to be trying to circumvent the BSA. As a former bank officer, I can tell you these transactions would most likely be reported.

 

[Ken H]

From Newsweek.com


The Shadowy History of Robert Durst's Real Estate Holdings
By Polly Mosendz 3/18/15 at 1:26 PM

Durst may have been booted from his namesake company, but his real estate connections live on. Lee Celano/Reuters



Robert Durst has real estate in his blood, if not blood on his hands.


Arrested on Saturday on charges of the 2000 murder of Susan Berman, Robert Durst was at one time a leading executive at the Durst Organization, the real estate powerhouse that owns the World Trade Center, the Bank of America Tower and other large commercial properties in New York City. Durst’s arrest came a day before the airing of the final episode of HBO’s The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst, in which Durst was recorded saying, “ killed them all, of course.” Durst was also tried for the murder of Morris Black, his onetime neighbor, and has long been considered a suspect in the disappearance of Kathleen McCormack Durst, his first wife.


According to records filed with the New York Department of Finance, Robert Durst did not have any real estate dealings exclusively in his name between 2002 and 2012. In 2006, amid family infighting, Durst gave up any right to the Durst Organization fortune in exchange for a $65 million settlement. At the time, he said he sued the Durst family trusts and trustees for control of his stake in the company because he thought the trustees did not want his second wife, Debrah Lee Charatan, to inherit his portion of the company.


Charatan is no stranger to real estate. In 2002, public records list her as owner of Debrah Lee Charatan Realty, Inc. In 2008, two years after Robert Durst formally split with Durst Organization, Charatan founded BCB Property Management along with her son, Bennat Charatan Berger.


Robert Durst’s relationship to BCB is difficult to nail down. In documents provided to Newsweek by a New York–based real estate investor with knowledge of the matter, a business relationship between Durst and Charatan is suggested through LLCs that overlap addresses. Public records linked to some of those LLCs show that Durst and Charatan transferred titles between themselves several times. The source suggested that BCB could be a “front” for Durst’s purchases, carrying out his business dealings without the attachment of his controversial name. Additionally, lawyer Steven I. Holm is referenced by both parties in various public records, such as real estate closings and mortgage payment documents.


BCB would neither confirm nor deny that Robert Durst was an investor, hanging up on numerous Newsweek reporters who attempted to inquire.


A spokesman for Douglas Durst, Robert’s brother and current chairman of Durst Organization, told Newsweek that the company has never had a relationship with BCB Property Management and that they did not know the nature of Robert Durst’s relationship to BCB.


In the summer of 2002, shortly before his trial for the murder of Morris Black began, Durst granted Charatan power of attorney. In that document, reviewed by Newsweek, Durst granted her traditional powers such as control of his real estate transactions, tax matters, claims and litigations. In a supplementary division to the power of attorney, Durst’s lawyer added that Charatan had the “power to make gifts in any amount and from time to time to such individuals, including Debrah Lee Charatan, and organizations as my attorney-in-fact determines.” In other words, she was granted the power to gift Robert Durst’s money to herself and/or to companies she owns.


Between 2002 and 2012, Charatan’s name appears as the sole party nine times in New York Department of Finance real estate records. In 2010, she appears as the seller of a more-than-$3 million property at 311 West 43rd Street. The Douglas Durst 2005 Family Trust is listed as another seller at the same property, receiving $9 million in the sale. Both parties sold to Zuberry Associates LLC. According to a spokesman for Douglas Durst, the property was owned by the Durst children—four in total. Robert signed his portion over to his wife, and she carried out the transaction.


In a February 2012 transfer document, Durst is listed as the seller of 409-411 East 6th Street, and Charatan as the buyer. Durst used a Houston address in records for the deal; Charatan used an office address in New York. Two months later, in April 2012, Durst made what some call an audio confession during filming of The Jinx, after director Andrew Jarecki presented him with evidence possibly linking Durst to the Berman’s murder. The audio was recorded while Durst was in the restroom and, presumably, did not realize his microphone was on. “You’re caught,” he is heard saying to himself. That statement while a fitting denouement for the HBO documentary series, may not stand up in court.


Charatan did not participate in The Jinx, and Jarecki told Newsweek she was opposed to the series’s creation. While one source referred to Charatan and Durst’s marriage as estranged, Jarecki spoke of their relationship as close but extremely private, for obvious reasons. “Bob is married, and he has had many girlfriends in the past,” Jarecki told Newsweek in a January interview. “He has a surprising network of people who love and trust him.”


In the Black case, Charatan is heard in deposition audio being rather aloof about her husband’s whereabouts. Later, she is heard arguing with Durst (when he was in jail) over who the best lawyer is for the case. The two disagree, then ultimately hire both lawyers for a total of $3 million. Charatan sends the funds. The exchange seems particularly prescient as Durst now faces a new murder charge whose conviction could come with the death penalty. Durst already has legal representation through Texas-based Chip Lewis (and Richard DeGuerin, who both represented Durst in the Black murder trial) but may seek to hire in-state counsel for his Los Angeles trial, as he did in the Black case.


Despite her husband’s involvement in an HBO series about his alleged murders--and a more recent criminal mischief charge against Durst for urinating on a candy display at a Houston convenience store--Charatan has continued to manage a relationship between BCB and Robert Durst. In July 2014, Durst’s sale of two Brooklyn properties for more than $21 million was announced by BCB, though Durst appears as the sole owner in public records.


Durst’s murder charge means he will likely need Charatan’s help arranging his finances and attorney payments while in custody. Douglas Durst and the Durst Organization told Newsweek they will absolutely not pay Robert Durst’s legal bills.


http://www.newsweek.com/shadowy-history-robert-dursts-real-estate-holdings-314764



By Durst's own account in The Jinx, his marriage to Charatan is one purely of convenience. His comment that he married her because he was preparing to become a fugitive, appears to be relevant once again. In 2013 Charatan listed the couple's former co-op apartment at 860 Fifth Avenue on Manhattan for $4.5 Million, which she's owned since 2003. One can only guess at the co-op they'll buy if he gets off this time.....

 

[Ken H]

Excerpted from ABC News, NBC News, Inside Edition, LA Times, Newsweek


- Robert Durst's transfer to a Louisiana State Prison that has a medical facility may have been for legitimate reasons, as opposed to the Orleans Parish Sheriff Department story that Durst is a suicide risk. It turns out that the 71 year old Durst has a number of medical issues unrelated to his state of mind. According to sources, including defense attorney Richard DeGeurin, Durst has Esophageal cancer which he's has surgery for, spinal surgery on his neck, and hydrocephalus (water on the brain) that he underwent neurosurgery for last year to put in a stent that's not working. He also has a nerve disorder causing numbness in his right calf. Medical sources said only 20% of people with advanced esophageal cancer lived more than five years, and the condition could explain Durst's belching when he was interviewed on The Jinx. The odd gait of Durst's is due to the nerve disorder. DeGeurin was quoted as saying he believes Durst should be in a hospital.


- The former Texas judge who presided over Robert Durst’s 2003 acquittal of the murder of neighbor Morris Black, said she thinks he’s a serial killer — who also left a severed cat head on her doorstep. Judge Susan Criss said that she found the dead cat's cranium after Durst was released from jail for dumping the dismembered remains of Black into Galveston Bay and illegal gun possession in Pennsylvania.“This was a perfectly clean and preserved cat head cut up by someone who knew what they were doing laying right there,” she said. When asked who she thought did it, Criss replied: “I strongly believe it was Robert Durst.” Criss alluded to remarks made by Durst’s younger brother, Douglas, who last year told an interviewer that Robert had a “series” of seven Alaskan Malamute dogs, each named Igor, who “all died mysteriously, of different things, within six months of his owning them.” Papers found in Durst's trunk when he was arrested in Pennsylvania when fleeing from the Morris Black murder charges had a list of people considered to be Durst's enemies with the word 'Igor' next to them.


- Meanwhile in New Orleans, prosecutors are considering their option of trying Durst for the charges filled against him there; illegally carrying a weapon in the presence of a controlled substance and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. According to Orleans Parish district attorney's office spokesman Christopher Bowman, for someone with a felony record the maximum penalty could be life in prison. Bowman declined to say Thursday whether his office plans to prosecute Durst before he is extradited to California.“We’re still evaluating the case,” Prosecutors in New Orleans have the right to try Durst before he is sent back to California to answer for the murder of his friend Susan Berman, but that does not mean he will be tried first in New Orleans, legal experts say. “Usually they’re going to ship him off to the place where the charges are more serious,” said Dane Ciolino, a professor at Loyola University New Orleans College of Law. “But there’s no obligation. ... In theory, they could keep him here, prosecute him and, if he’s convicted, force him to serve his sentence and only then would he be sent to California.” Still, Ciolino said, it’s “too early to tell” if the Orleans Parish District Attorney will actually take that route. “I think New Orleans surprised the defense team,” said T. Gerald Treece, a professor at Houston’s South Texas School of Law who has also taught at Pepperdine University in Malibu. “Usually extraditions are worked out through professional courtesy. But there’s no law that says Louisiana has to give him up.” Ciolino said prosecutors in Los Angeles and New Orleans could work out a “re-extradition agreement,” under which Durst would be returned to Louisiana after being tried in L.A.


- In court papers filed today, Durst's lawyers requested a preliminary hearing to prove that Durst was illegally arrested March 14 on murder charges as well as drug and weapons charges. A judge granted the hearing, which is expected to occur during Durst's next court appearance slated for Monday. In their filing, Richard DeGuerin and the defense team of attorneys called the March 14 arrest warrant "invalid" and said it was filed "to coincide with the final episode of the HBO documdrama." They have also requested his release.


- Bank records found during the search of Durst's Houston condo home show he recently made over $315,000 of cash withdrawals in less than a month.


- Two individuals who worked for Robert Durst have come forward on the condition of anonymity. The first individual, (referenced here as #1), said “He had a scanner, copier and a laminating machine,” “What I didn’t realize is that I unwittingly saw what would have allowed Robert Durst to make a fake driver’s license.” When Durst was arrested on March 14 as a suspect in Berman’s murder, he had a fake identification in his hotel room. While on the run in the past, Durst used dozens of aliases to check into hotels, as outlined in HBO documentary series The Jinx. #1 first worked for Debrah Lee Charatan, Durst’s second wife, in the late 1990s and early 2000s. #1's identity was verified by cross-referencing statements and addresses, but Charatan’s office hung up on several attempts to confirm employment history. Durst’s lawyer did not reply to request for comment regarding employment. #1 said they were hired in the 1990s by Debrah Lee Charatan Realty Inc., which public records show was affiliated with Charatan until 2002. “I got Durst as a client through her,” “They were tied together.” “His place was fuming with weed and he was stoned all the time,” “Instead of having a bulletin board on his wall, he would take sticky notes and thumbtacks and stick them right into the wall of a nice, New York apartment.” #1 added that Durst “quite liked his [drugs],” a characterization that jibes with prior media reports that categorize Durst as a marijuana user. #1 claims to have been paid sporadically in cash by Durst, in stacks of bills in envelopes. who would on occasion smoke pot with Durst, also grew close to Charatan. “Debrah felt comfortable and close, she considered me a friend,” It was because of their closeness that #1 was surprised when Charatan let him/her go in 2001, just weeks after Durst was arrested on charges of murdering Black. #1 claims they discovered new hires within the firm did not have access to past information that old employees had been allowed to see. In deposition video that appears in The Jinx, Charatan says she did not know Durst was living in Galveston, Texas until after he was arrested for Morris Black’s murder. “I never even heard of Galveston, Texas,” Charatan says, adding that she did not know he had an apartment in Galveston until after he was arrested (Durst was later acquitted of killing Black, a neighbor, in this apartment building.) Sources found this hard to believe. "They spoke relentlessly," said #1. “They were always, just always, on the phone,” According to 2003 media reports, Charatan was Durst’s most frequent visitor when he was in jail in Texas.

The second individual (referenced here as #2), who occupied a leadership role at Debrah Lee Charatan Realty at the time said that Durst “gave Debrah [money],” adding: “It’s absolutely Bobby Durst’s money.” A third source, a real estate investor with knowledge of the matter, told Newsweek earlier this week that they believed Charatan’s companies were a “front” for Durst’s business dealings. Indeed, in 2014, Charatan’s company announced the $21 million sale of two Brooklyn properties owned by Durst. (#2 confirmed their identity with records linking them to Charatan’s business.) #2 was less effusive, calling Charatan a “not lovely person.” Charatan did not respond to request for comment. Despite Durst’s idiosyncrasies, though, both sources said they never saw him commit any major wrongdoing. “He never did a bad thing to me,” “He was a kooky guy.”

 

[Ken H]

Today’s update, as tomorrow's bond hearing is awaited.


Excerpted from The New York Times, NBC News, and CBS News


Law enforcement authorities in New York State used a search warrant last Monday to find approximately 60 boxes of documents, videos, and other materials belonging to Robert Durst, in the home of a long time friend. It's not known if they were looking for something specific, or just taking a shot to see if they'd get lucky.


The authorities moved swiftly to search Durst’s condo home in Houston as well as a hotel room in New Orleans after his arrest on first-degree murder charges there a week ago. (A new development is that records show an eighth credit card was found in the New Orleans hotel room search, but unlike the other seven it is not in Durst’s name. The card is a MasterCard in the name of “Stafford J. Demouchette July 15 Real Estate L.L.C.”.)


But the police found the largest quantity of Durst materials in a friend’s house about 1 ½ hours north of New York City. The Hudson Valley home is a rural spot Durst visited occasionally when he wanted to seek refuge.


The authorities believed that Durst, who is from a New York real estate family and has been a longtime suspect in several murders, was preparing to flee to Cuba and meet his wife Debrah Lee Charatan when he was arrested last Saturday night in New Orleans for the shooting death of his friend and close confidante, Susan Berman, in Los Angeles in 2000. Durst met Ms. Berman while both were attending UCLA in the mid to late 1960’s. Durst is also a suspect in the disappearance of his first wife, Kathleen Durst, in 1982.


The boxes taken from Ms. Giordano’s home contain the same materials mined by the producers of the HBO documentary, “The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst.”


Only hours before the conclusion of the HBO documentary last Sunday, a New York State Police investigator, Joseph Becerra, arrived at the home of Susan T. Giordano in Campbell Hall, N.Y., to seize Durst’s belongings stored there. Ms. Giordano said Mr. Becerra told her that she could release the material to him or he would obtain a search warrant and return. Ms. Giordano said she decided to let him have the documents. The authorities ultimately hauled away about 60 file boxes, Ms. Giordano said, including phone records, bills, family-trust documents, photographs, video depositions from a lawsuit he filed against his brother and transcripts from his 2003 murder trial in Texas, where he was found not guilty of murdering his neighbor.


Ms. Giordano defended Durst against the latest charge. “He didn’t do this,” said Ms. Giordano, who first met Durst through mutual friends about 30 years ago. “I’m such a strong believer in him. There’s probably some explanation. I don’t know what it is. I’m still waiting to hear from him.”


Mr. Becerra, who declined to comment, reopened the investigation of Durst’s first wife Kathie in 1999. Acting on a tip, he dusted off old records and interviewed witnesses again. The case is still open. Investigators representing New York law enforcement were speaking with Ms. Berman in regards to Kathie's disappearance just days before she was murdered.


Durst’s spending time at Ms. Giordano’s home provides some limited insight into his unusual life. In 2000, he married Debrah Lee Charatan, a New York real estate broker, but they only lived together as husband and wife for a few initial months. Durst did share his fortune with Charatan, giving her about $20 million from a $65 million settlement for his legal claims on the family trust. He spent time occasionally with Ms. Giordano and her family. Illustrative of the husband - wife relationship, Ms. Giordano said about three years ago Charatan sent her Durst’s file boxes for safekeeping. In “The Jinx”, Durst claimed the marriage to Charatan was purely one of convenience, as part of his preparations to become a fugitive.


Kathleen Durst vanished in 1982. Their marriage had become a mix of arguments and violence. Durst acknowledged in “The Jinx” that he had repeatedly lied to the police about his actions the night she went missing. After Durst learned in fall 2000 that the authorities had reopened the Kathleen Durst case, he left New York and attempted to go underground, renting inexpensive apartments in Galveston, Tex., and in New Orleans, and posing as a mute woman.


On Dec. 24, 2000, the police found Ms. Berman dead, shot in the back of the head. She was widely known as a close friend of Durst, having served as his liaison to the media after his wife disappeared. Responding to financial difficulties that Ms. Berman was having, or perhaps giving her hush money, in the last months of her life it was learned Durst sent her two $25,000 checks.


There seemed to be little progress in solving Ms. Berman’s murder, or Kathie Durst’s either for that matter, when in October 2001, Durst was arrested in Galveston over the death of his neighbor, Morris Black. Once Durst made bail, he fled Texas. He was captured 45 days later in Pennsylvania, and a jury in Galveston eventually found him not guilty of murdering Mr. Black, although he did serve about three years in Texas jails and prisons for jumping bail and tampering with evidence by dismembering Black’s body after he was dead. About a year ago, the district attorney in Los Angeles reopened the Berman case, partly because of information developed by the filmmakers.


Fearing that Durst was about to flee the country after he checked into the Marriott in New Orleans under an alias, Everette Ward, the authorities arrested him a week ago when he was found wandering around the hotel lobby. In his room, they found a Texas identification card for Mr. Ward, a loaded 38-caliber Smith & Wesson revolver with one round discharged, a small amount of marijuana and $46,631 in cash, mostly in $100 bills packed in small envelopes. He is awaiting a bond hearing in New Orleans scheduled for Monday. Durst's attorney Richard DeGeurin says the chances of Durst getting out on bail are 'slim and none, and slim just left town'.


Ms. Giordano cannot square the villain described by law enforcement with the man she knew. Mr. Durst had told her before his arrest that he was planning to come to New York after the documentary ended. “He wasn’t going to Cuba,” Ms. Giordano said. “He had a whole new plan. The plan was, I’ll see you in New York.”


- The search for missing persons cold cases possibly related to Durst has been expanded to New Hampshire. In addition, the FBI has asked law enforcement authorities across the country where Durst is known to have lived to check if there might be a connection to missing persons in those areas.


- Durst's defense attorney Richard DeGeurin said on the CBS program 48 Hours, on Saturday night, that he's outraged with the fact after the arrest in New Orleans, an LA County prosecutor was allowed to conduct a recorded interview with Durst for 3 hours without legal representation. Apparently Durst agreed to the interview. The LA district attorney's office had no comment. It remains to be seen how this will affect, if at all, the proceedings.

 

[Ken H]

Mistake.

 

[Ken H]

Excerpted from NBC News, The LA Times, Associated Press, HLN



Multimillionaire murder suspect Robert Durst was ordered held without bail Monday after a hearing in which his lawyers argued that prosecutors did not have enough evidence to hold him on a murder charge out of California or a drug and gun case in Louisiana. They also charged that police conducted an illegal search and grilled him even though he had a lawyer.


In addition to other known evidence it was learned that in Durst's hotel room, under the alias of Everett Ward, he had a map folded to show New Orleans, Florida, and Cuba. The previously referenced UPS tracking number was for a sealed package received at the hotel, found in the room, that contained shoes, personal items, and $117,000 in cash.


As the frail-looking 71 year old Durst listened, prosecutors portrayed him as an extreme flight risk who talked about jumping bail in one episode of "The Jinx," the HBO documentary series about his bizarre history — including the disappearance of his first wife, the murder of his confidant, and the dismemberment of an elderly neighbor. With Durst's head shaved, his scar from neurosurgery last year was noticeable.

The proceedings also addressed defense attorneys request for a preliminary hearing to prove that Durst was illegally arrested on murder charges as well as drug and weapons charges. In their filing, Richard DeGuerin and the defense team called the March 14 arrest warrant "invalid" and said it was filed "to coincide with the final episode of the HBO documdrama." They also requested his release. New Orleans weapons charge #1 alleges that Durst had a .38-caliber revolver - previous felony convictions make that illegal. Charge #2 alleges he had the weapon and illegal drugs - more than 5 ounces of marijuana. Prosecutors have not said whether they will bring those charges before a grand jury. Durst's attorneys said none of his previous convictions was serious enough to merit the felon in possession charge. The preliminary hearing was set for April 2.


Although Durst lost his bid for bail, his defense lawyer, Richard DeGuerin, claimed victory, saying he had learned new details of the prosecution's case and secured a date for a preliminary hearing. "I didn't have any hope at all the judge was going to set a bail bond," he said outside the courthouse. "All in all, I think this has been a very good day for us."


Noted Louisiana defense attorney Craig Mordock believes there is a 'very strong chance' the April 2 hearing will not take place. Louisiana law gives prosecutors a '60 day screening period' after initial charges are filed to change them, and Mordock said the Orleans County DA will likely convene a grand jury and indict Durst, invalidating the hearing.


At one point, Jeanine Piero, the ex-Westchester County, NY district attorney and currently Fox News Channel host of 'Justice with Judge Jeanine', was asked to leave the courtroom after defense council Richard DeGurin said he planned on calling her as a defense witness. Christopher Bowman, assistant district attorney for Orleans Parish, interrupted the hearing to say Pirro cannot be called as a witness and was there as a journalist. "Frankly, I don't buy that, judge," DeGuerin said, "She's here because she's been participating in the dogging of Mr. Durst for years". Pirro walked back into court to talk to her lawyer and was forced to leave by the bailiff. Bowman argued that during Durst's Texas trial, "They made Pirro into the bogeyman" and he cited "The Jinx" HBO documentary on Durst; "It's happening again". Bowman said Pirro cannot be excluded as a former district attorney without a hearing. Her lawyer said it's a free speech issue. DeGuerin said "They can't have it both ways--either she's a lawyer or a journalist" adding he was told Pirro is no longer licensed to practice law in New York. Magistrate Harry Cantrell ruled that Pirro would not testify. Pirro returned to the courtroom with a small smile.

 

[Ken H]

In a separate development, police in Middlebury, Vermont today said "they are aware of the connection" between Durst and 18 year old Lynne Schulze, who was a college student at Middlebury College when she disappeared in 1971. Durst owned and operated the 'All Good Things' health food store in Middlebury at the same time that Schulze went missing.


Police issued an official statement that said they've known of the connection for several years and have been working with outside agencies to follow the lead. The case was reopened in 1992 and although technically labeled 'cold', it has been continuously generating new leads that have been followed up on.

 

[Ken H]

From The Boston Globe


Vt. student shopped at Robert Durst’s store before vanishing

Lynne Schulze (right) went missing around the time Robert Durst owned a health food store called “All Good Things.”



By Peter Schworm and Evan Allen / Globe Staff March 24, 2015



MIDDLEBURY, Vt. — It was December 1971, and Lynne Schulze was in her dorm room, looking for her favorite pen before a final exam. But the Middlebury College freshman never showed up for the 1 p.m. test. At 2:15 p.m., she was spotted across the street from a local health food store, one she had visited earlier in the day. She was never seen again.


More than four decades later, police in this small college town are now focusing their investigation into Schulze’s disappearance on the man who owned that modest store — multimillionaire murder suspect Robert Durst.


A day after the stunning revelation that the eccentric, notorious figure had been a subject of the Vermont cold-case investigation since 2012, Middlebury police Tuesday provided new details about Durst’s apparent proximity to the 18-year-old on the day she vanished. Durst’s alleged involvement in other “nefarious activities,” authorities here said, only deepened their suspicions.


“This is a person who is very interesting to us,” said Thomas Hanley, the Middlebury police chief. “We certainly would like to talk to him.” Police in Middlebury are the latest authorities to focus attention on Durst, the troubled heir to a New York real estate empire who was arrested this month and charged with the 2000 killing of Susan Berman, a longtime friend.


In a bizarre twist, Durst was arrested in New Orleans the day before the final episode of an HBO series on his life aired, bringing new attention to his alleged connections with the Berman case and two others — the 2001 death of a 71-year-old neighbor and the 1982 disappearance of his wife. During the show, Durst was recorded off camera saying “What the hell did I do? Killed them all, of course.”


Following Durst’s arrest, FBI officials have advised local investigators in areas where Durst, 71, has lived to reexamine cold cases for possible connections, a spokesman said. But in Vermont, police had been eyeing Durst since 2012, when they received a tip that he had owned a health food shop in town at the time of Schulze’s disappearance. After years of false leads, it was a promising development, authorities said Tuesday.


Durst’s store was named “All Good Things,” which became the title of a 2010 movie based on Durst’s story.


Middlebury police did not describe him as a suspect and said they have no evidence that Durst and Schulze “had any personal contact” but are investigating a potential connection. “We know Lynne stopped at the store the last day she was seen,” Detective Kris Bowdish said at an afternoon news conference where authorities gave a timeline of Schulze’s movements the day she disappeared.


Around 12:30 p.m., Schulze was seen at the bus stop beside Durst’s store, eating prunes she had bought there, investigators said. Schulze told a student she was waiting for a bus to New York, but returned to campus when she learned it had already left.


Around 2:15, Schulze was again spotted near the store. “This is the last time she is ever seen,” Bowdish said.


Police said they do not believe Durst was ever interviewed at the time. He lived in Middlebury less than two years, they said.


All of Schulze’s belongings, including her wallet and identification, were found in her dorm room. Relatives of Schulze could not be reached for comment Tuesday. Police said the family had asked for privacy, but were “very interested in the lead” after so many years. “They would very much like some resolution and closure,” Bowdish said of Schulze’s siblings. Her parents have died.


Hanley, the police chief, said investigators reopened the case in 1992 and “began from square one.” Several detectives have since headed up the investigation, but have never made substantial progress. Despite the passage of time, authorities say they are hopeful someone will come forward with information about that day or a possible link between the two. “We don’t let open cases like this, where someone has died, go away,” Hanley said.


Durst has long denied any involvement in Berman’s shooting or his wife’s disappearance. He admitted to killing his neighbor in 2003, but was acquitted after claiming self-defense. He is now being held without bail as a potential flight risk. He has been held in a mental health unit, and is considered a suicide risk. His lawyer, who could not be reached for comment Tuesday, has maintained his client is innocent.


Friends of Schulze, who grew up in Simsbury, Conn, said that although details remain scarce, they remain hopeful her disappearance will be solved. “We are hoping and praying for resolution about what happened to our dear one 44 years ago,” said Susan Randall, a high school friend.


Coming at the end of the semester, Schulze’s disappearance was not reported for several days, and her parents asked police to keep it private until late January as they awaited her return. There were many reported sightings of Schulze, police said, but none were found credible. In Middlebury, many people found the sudden spotlight on the town unsettling as they revisited the young woman’s sudden disappearance. “Nobody knew anything. Even in the papers, nobody knew,” said Reg Spooner, 77, who grew up here. In those days, Spooner said, Middlebury was much smaller. A disappearance — and an apparent murder — was unheard of.


Near the site of the former health food store, Jerry Huestis, 50, said Durst’s potential connection gave him an “eerie feeling.’’ “It’s bad enough seeing what the guy looked like, but knowing he was here?”


https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/03/24/years-after-middlebury-college-student-disappearance-durst-emerges-suspect/UUAO0CGzfIaUIUTdeAuBVK/story.html

 

[Ken H]

From The New York Times


Robert Durst’s Wife Steps Back After Years of Defending Him




By CHARLES V. BAGLI
MARCH 31, 2015

Debrah Lee Charatan, Robert Durst's wife, leaving court in White Plains in February 2006.
Alan Zale for The New York Times




Six weeks after learning that investigators had focused on his role in the years-old disappearance of his wife, Robert A. Durst married Debrah Lee Charatan, a driven New York real estate executive who has been a bulwark in his life for nearly three decades.


Eight days later, on Dec. 19, 2000, Mr. Durst, the eccentric and estranged son of one of New York’s most prominent real estate families, was on a plane to California, where Los Angeles authorities now believe he executed a close friend and confidante, Susan Berman, who had served as his shield against demanding reporters.


Ms. Charatan was his first phone call the following year, after he was arrested in Galveston, Tex., for the murder and dismemberment of a neighbor. She served as his de facto banker with access to his financial accounts and visited him in prison in Texas.


But if Ms. Charatan relied on Mr. Durst during her own divorce and custody battle and supported him when he was accused of a gruesome killing, their relationship has taken a sharp turn in recent years. Whether she will stand by him again amid another murder charge remains an intriguing question.

Ms. Charatan and Steven I. Holm in Central Park in 2010.


Nick Hunt/Patrick McMullan


She used $20 million — her share of Mr. Durst’s $65 million settlement of his claims against a family trust — to start a new real estate company with her son. Today, she lives not with Mr. Durst, but with one of his many lawyers, Steven I. Holm.


She continues to invest Mr. Durst’s money in real estate, but she has put distance between herself and Mr. Durst — no more trips with him to Amsterdam, Japan or a tennis camp in Florida.


After Mr. Durst adopted an alias and drove to New Orleans several weeks ago in what the authorities believe was a nascent plan to flee the country, perhaps to Cuba, his first phone call was to another woman in New York. That woman sent him a piece of luggage containing, the authorities said, shoes and $117,000 in cash. By then, Mr. Durst was in police custody.


Still, Ms. Charatan remains, at least on paper, married to Mr. Durst.


Mr. Durst, who is 71 and is worth an estimated $100 million, faces gun possession and drug charges in New Orleans and is being held in a psychiatric correctional center outside the city because of concerns about his mental health.


He was arrested in a New Orleans hotel room on March 14 and is wanted in Los Angeles, where he could face the death penalty in the killing of Ms. Berman.


Ms. Charatan, like Mr. Durst’s lawyer, had advised him against participating in an HBO documentary, “The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst,” which concluded with what seemed to be Mr. Durst’s whispered confession, caught on a recording. “What the hell did I do?” he said. “Killed them all, of course.”


In January, before the series was broadcast, Mr. Durst said in an interview, “My wife, Debrah Charatan, is extremely formidable and always has a strong opinion about what I do.”


Investigators in Los Angeles want to talk to Ms. Charatan about Mr. Durst’s whereabouts and actions before and after they were married. They believe that Ms. Charatan, like Ms. Berman in Los Angeles, knew some of Mr. Durst’s secrets. But Ms. Charatan is protected by law from being compelled to testify against her husband.


Ms. Charatan could waive the spousal privilege to discuss what she learned about Mr. Durst. But he could legally block her from disclosing any confidential communications, Dan Bookin, a criminal defense lawyer in San Francisco, said.


The Los Angeles district attorney declined to comment about Ms. Charatan.


Ms. Charatan, 58, who is described as a keen-eyed investor with very sharp elbows by those who know her, has long refused to talk about Mr. Durst, and she declined to be interviewed for this article. She has her admirers among developers like Larry Silverstein and the parking magnate Jerry Gottesman.


“I always found dealing with Debbie to be very straightforward,” said Robert A. Knakal, the chairman of real estate investment sales at Cushman & Wakefield in New York. “She seems to be doing very well as an investor now.”


But there are other developers, including Leonard Stern and Steven C. Witkoff, whom she has offended. There is also a legion of female real estate brokers who say they were cheated out of commissions when they worked for her. At one time in the late 1980s and early 1990s, there were hundreds of thousands of dollars in court judgments against Ms. Charatan. Most of those brokers, however, were left empty-handed after her company filed for bankruptcy.


Mr. Durst and Ms. Charatan were introduced by a mutual friend in 1988 at a real estate dinner. There was an immediate attraction. He was a member of a real estate dynasty who admired that she had built her own company in a male-dominated industry after emerging from a working-class background in Howard Beach, Queens.


“I knew if I couldn’t be a star,” she said in the 1980s, “I wouldn’t be happy.”


During that time, a Manhattan Inc. magazine article, “Money Dearest,” chronicled her rise and the less appealing side of her relentless drive to be rich.


The couple shared childhoods marked by tragedy and being alienated from their families. Mr. Durst’s mother committed suicide in 1950, jumping from the roof of their home in Scarsdale, a wealthy suburb in Westchester County. In 1982, his first wife, Kathleen Durst, vanished. He said he was as baffled as her family and friends, who have always suspected Mr. Durst had something to do with it.


Ms. Charatan’s parents survived the Nazis in Poland during World War II. Her father, a kosher butcher, lost his foot to a land mine. Her mother was an orphan hidden by a Christian family. Ms. Charatan’s personality was infused with their survivalist mentality, friends and relatives said.


But if Ms. Charatan strove to be wealthy and accepted among the elite, Mr. Durst enjoyed watching people’s reactions as he flouted convention by burping or smoking marijuana at social functions.


Ms. Charatan was going through a difficult divorce and custody battle when the two met. Mr. Durst helped her financially, providing a stack of car vouchers from the family business and using family funds to pay some of her legal bills, according to Durst family members and people who worked for Ms. Charatan.


She eventually got back on her feet, but lost custody of her son, Bennat Charatan Berger, then 5, to whom she did not speak for the next 15 years.


Mr. Durst broke with his family late in 1994, after his father, Seymour, picked his younger brother Douglas to take the reins of the Durst Organization.


A brokenhearted Seymour Durst tried to make contact with Robert Durst through Ms. Charatan. But on the day in 1995 she arrived at his townhouse on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, he had a stroke. A short time later, he died. Robert did not attend the funeral.


After the break with his family, Mr. Durst moved restlessly between homes in California, Connecticut, New York and Texas. His one constant: Ms. Charatan, though the only time the couple ever lived together was a short stint before they were married.


Mr. Durst, by his own account, panicked in late October 2000, after learning that investigators had reopened the investigation into his first wife’s disappearance. In rapid order, he proposed to Ms. Charatan and gave her power of attorney over his bank accounts and business affairs.


“I wanted Debbie to be able to receive my inheritance, and I intended to kill myself,” he said in a 2005 deposition related to his suit against his family. If he died, Mr. Durst did not want his share of the family fortune going back into the family coffers. “It was our understanding that unless I was married to him, I couldn’t benefit from any of the trusts,” Ms. Charatan said in her own deposition.


She picked a rabbi out of the phone book and the couple wed in an office building in New York City, across from one of his brother Douglas’s great triumphs, a 50-story skyscraper at 4 Times Square. Mr. Durst, wanting to disappear, arranged to rent a $300-a-month apartment in a rooming house in Galveston, posing as a mute woman. Less than a week after the wedding, Mr. Durst flew from New York to California.


In a videotape of a 2005 deposition that was broadcast in “The Jinx,” Mr. Durst said that Ms. Berman had called him before her death, saying: “The Los Angeles police contacted me. They wanted to talk about Kathie Durst’s disappearance.”


Ms. Berman was killed early in the morning on Dec. 23, 2000, shot in the back of the head. Mr. Durst arrived back in New York on Dec. 24. Mr. Durst and Ms. Charatan spent Christmas in the Hamptons.


Mr. Durst was arrested in Galveston in October 2001 for the murder and dismemberment of his neighbor, Morris Black. Ms. Charatan wired him $300,000 for bail. He went on the run. She then tried to withdraw more than $1.8 million from his accounts but was thwarted by the police.


After Mr. Durst was captured, Ms. Charatan flew frequently to Galveston, before he was acquitted of the murder charges after claiming self-defense.


During a recorded telephone call while Mr. Durst was in jail, Ms. Charatan, who seems to have a special appreciation of Mr. Durst’s psychic pain, is heard railing against his brother Douglas and a lawyer hired by the Durst family.


“He screwed you out of everything, your birthright, the entire Durst Organization,” she said. “He took over the family business,” Mr. Durst responded, sounding put upon. “No doubt about it.” “He took it from you,” she said. “He could have done it with you. But no, he took it from you.”


This time, as Mr. Durst is in another prison, Ms. Charatan is busy expanding her new investment office in Union Square in Manhattan. She has sold the Fifth Avenue co-op that Mr. Durst had helped her buy in 1997, as well as their house in Bridgehampton.


A friend of Ms. Charatan’s told CNN that she has not spoken to Mr. Durst since the first episode of the “The Jinx” was broadcast on Feb. 8.


http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/01/nyregion/robert-dursts-wife-steps-back-after-years-of-defending-him.html?_r=0



For me, one of the most interesting things to come out of this article is the part about an unidentified woman being the one Durst called when he arrived in New Orleans, and her sending him the package with $117,000 in cash and some shoes. I wonder who she is?


As for Ms. Charatan, it seems pretty straight forward - she is trying to distance herself from Durst. Or patiently waiting for the next opportunity to cash in.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

She eventually got back on her feet, but lost custody of her son, Bennat Charatan Berger, then 5, to whom she did not speak for the next 15 years.

She sounds like a real sweetheart.

 

[Ken H]

From The LA Times


Jeanine Pirro again at center of Robert Durst hearing in New Orleans


By Molly Hennessy-Fiske

April 1, 2015


Attorneys defending New York real estate heir Robert Durst plan to call as a witness and subpoena Fox News host, former judge and Westchester Dist. Atty. Jeanine Pirro on Thursday before a preliminary hearing in New Orleans.


Durst, 71, was arrested at a Canal Street hotel on March 14 in connection with the murder of Susan Berman, a Los Angeles author and Durst's friend, 15 years ago. In his hotel room, investigators found a .38 revolver and marijuana; Durst was charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and possession of a firearm with a controlled substance.


Durst waived extradition, but Orleans Parish prosecutors have pursued the state charges, which, if he is convicted as a first-time offender, carry maximum sentences of 10 and 20 years.


After Berman’s execution-style shooting, it was reported that Pirro’s office had been looking to question her about Durst’s involvement in the 1982 disappearance of his wife. After Kathleen Durst vanished, Berman had served as a spokeswoman for Durst, who later admitted that he lied to authorities about his actions the night he claims his wife left their Westchester County home and boarded a train to New York City.


Now, according to Wednesday’s filing, Durst’s attorneys want Pirro to testify to “confirm that, as part of her investigation, Ms. Pirro never requested an interview or otherwise contacted Susan Berman prior to Susan Berman’s death in December 2000.”


Pirro had vowed to convict Durst of the killing when she reopened the case, but never managed to charge him. When Durst was later charged with murdering a neighbor in Galveston, Texas, and stood trial in 2003, his defense attorneys -- including his current lead attorney, Dick DeGuerin -- persuaded a jury that Pirro had persecuted Durst, forcing him to hide out in the Gulf island community dressed as a woman using a fake name.


After killing his neighbor in self-defense, he dismembered and dumped the body in the bay because he feared he would be blamed by his nemesis and others, they argued.


When Pirro appeared at Durst’s last hearing at Orleans Criminal District Court on March 20, DeGuerin initially persuaded Magistrate Judge Harry Cantrell Jr. to remove her from the court as a potential witness for the defense, arguing she couldn’t be both a lawyer and a journalist. Pirro balked


Her attorney and Assistant Orleans Parish Dist. Atty. Christopher Bowman soon returned to protest that removing Pirro was a constitutional violation, among other things. The judge eventually relented and allowed Pirro to return to court, where she sat in the front row of the gallery, eying Durst and taking copious notes.


At Thursday’s preliminary hearing, the judge is expected to address a motion by Durst’s attorneys to throw out his arrest based on the timing of the issuance of the underlying search warrants and Louisiana state law, which they argue did not prohibit Durst from having a gun.


Now the judge will be asked to set a hearing, potentially ahead of the scheduled one, to decide whether Durst can call Pirro to testify about her investigation as Westchester district attorney into his wife’s disappearance.


Reached late Wednesday, Bowman said his office does not comment on open cases. Fox News did not respond to requests for comment.


Galveston Det. Cody Cazalas has appeared on Pirro’s show to discuss how he investigated Durst. He said Wednesday that he is hopeful Louisiana officials can make their case against the man worth an estimated $100 million.


“DeGuerin wants to get out of Louisiana because I think he already realizes it’s a strong case,” Cazalas told The Times. “I think the warrants are good. He can put a lot of smoke and mirrors up, but [Durst] is a convicted felon. “ Cazalas said DeGuerin is trotting out the same “poor Bob” defense he used in Galveston back in 2003, pitting a persecuted Durst against Pirro. But if Durst really feared for his safety in New Orleans, Cazalas said, why not hire bodyguards instead of buying guns? “He can hire a whole army, as much money as that man’s got,” Cazalas said.


In Galveston, Cazalas said, Durst “bought his way out of justice” with a high-profile defense team. But in Louisiana, the investigator said, “He’s got a tab to pay with justice.”


http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-jeanine-pirro-robert-durst-hearing-20150401-story.html


In other words, Durst will face the New Orleans charges first and extradition to LA is on indefinite hold until they are resolved. The indictment is expected late Wednesday. Legal experts are divided regarding how the court will rule on dismissing the charges, which should occur on Thursday.

 

[Ken H]

Excerpted From The New York Times


Robert Durst’s Lawyers Want to Call the Agents Who Arrested Him as Witnesses



By CHARLES V. BAGLI and MARC SANTORA
APRIL 2, 2015


NEW ORLEANS — In a bid to keep the millionaire Robert A. Durst from having to face felony weapons and drug charges in New Orleans, his lawyers on Thursday sought to call the agents who arrested him as witnesses, part of their effort to prove that evidence collected at the time of the arrest was obtained illegally and cannot be used against him.


The legal battle playing out in Louisiana is a prelude to what is expected to be a bitter and lengthy court fight in California, where Mr. Durst is accused of killing his longtime confidante, Susan Berman.


But before he is extradited, he could face a trial in Louisiana on the weapons and drug charges. The hearing on Thursday was to determine whether the prosecution had enough evidence to proceed with a trial, but it quickly turned into a tense procedural battle. The prosecution argued for a delay, citing the numerous defense motions filed in the last 48 hours. The judge, Harry Cantrell, denied the request.


Judge Cantrell later ordered that the hearing resume next Thursday, by which time the government will either have to produce the federal and state agents as witnesses or convince the judge that they should not be held in contempt.


The district attorney could choose to indict Mr. Durst on the gun charges, eliminating the need for the hearing.


If Mr. Durst is indicted, prosecutors in California will have more time to build their case against him. They also do not have to turn over evidence to the defense in their case until he is formally indicted on the murder charge.


At the same time, if Mr. Durst is convicted of the weapons and drugs charges, he could face years in prison, a possible life sentence for the 71-year-old who has health problems.


In contesting the legal validity of the evidence against Mr. Durst, his lawyers were essentially seeking to derail the case


Mr. Durst was arrested on March 14 at a New Orleans hotel, one day before HBO broadcast the final episode of a documentary about his life, “The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst,” in which he appeared to implicate himself in past crimes in which he has long been the prime suspect.


While a Los Angeles judge had signed an arrest warrant for Mr. Durst days earlier, a motion filed with the court argued that federal agents did not confirm that warrant before they stopped Mr. Durst and searched his hotel room.


“Those items were actually discovered by the F.B.I. in a warrantless search of Mr. Durst’s hotel room, preceded by a warrantless detention and arrest, long before the search warrant was issued,” according to a motion filed by the defense before the trial.


The motion cited a Supreme Court ruling that “an inventory search must not be a ruse of a general rummaging in order to discover incriminating evidence.”


According to the defense, “the F.B.I. agents rummaged through all of Mr. Durst’s luggage and clothing, opened every bag and pocket, and inspected, removed and photographed every item in his possession, down to his pens, glasses and medication.”

 

[Ken H]

Excerpted from The LA Times, Salon, The AP, ABC News


On Thursday, Durst sat pale in a yellow jumpsuit in an Orleans Criminal District Court as Louisiana prosecutors attempted to argue that his lawyers had filed too many documents too close to his preliminary hearing, giving prosecutors too short a time to get permission from US attorneys to testify.


Durst’s high profile Texas lawyer Dick DeGuerrin argued that “it doesn’t take any time to prepare to tell the truth”.


Assistant U.S. Attorney Duane Evans told Orleans Magistrate Judge Harry Cantrell Jr. that two federal agents and a state trooper assigned to a federal task force were instructed not to testify because more time was needed for a review of their subpoenas.

Prosecutor Mark Burton of the Orleans Parish District Attorney's Office first asked for a delay, saying the latest motions, amounting to more than 130 pages, were filed too late for him to adequately review them. DeGuerin objected to the delay, and Cantrell proceeded with the hearing.


But then FBI agents C. Williams and C. Bender and state Trooper Saunders Craine were called to testify. When they didn't show up, the defense had no witnesses to call, and Cantrell put proceedings off for a week.


Durst's attorneys also have asked the judge to subpoena Fox News Channel's Jeanine Pirro, a former New York prosecutor who investigated Durst in connection with the disappearance of his first wife in 1982, and all video surveillance for March 14 and 15 from the Marriott and Los Angeles Police Department.

Los Angeles police have a warrant accusing Durst of killing his friend and spokeswoman Susan Berman in 2000 to keep her from talking to Pirro's investigators.


After Berman’s execution-style shooting, it was reported that Pirro’s office had been looking to question her about Durst’s involvement in the 1982 disappearance of his wife. After Kathleen Durst vanished, Berman had served as a spokeswoman for Durst, who later admitted that he lied to authorities about his actions the night he claims his wife left their Westchester County home and boarded a train to New York City.


Now, according to the defense's filing, Durst’s attorneys want Pirro to testify to “confirm that, as part of her investigation, Ms. Pirro never requested an interview or otherwise contacted Susan Berman prior to Susan Berman’s death in December 2000.” DeGuerin said he thinks “she’s being untruthful” when Pirro says she planned to interview Berman before she was killed.


Pirro had vowed to convict Durst of the killing when she reopened the case, but never managed to charge him.

 

[Ken H]

From The LA Times


Robert Durst's attorneys ask judge to release him for extradition to California


By Molly Hennessy-Fiske

April 4, 2015


Attorneys for embattled real estate millionaire Robert Durst have asked a judge to find that there was no probable cause for authorities to pursue charges in Louisiana and that they should now release him for extradition to California.


In court paperwork filed Friday, Durst’s attorneys allege that Louisiana officials failed to establish probable cause to indict Durst at his preliminary hearing last week, presenting an arrest warrant but calling no witnesses in a “misguided attempt to conceal the facts from the court, the defendant, and the public.”


At the hearing, Asst. Orleans Parish Dist. Atty. Mark Burton repeatedly challenged Durst’s defense team to call witnesses themselves other than the three law enforcement officials who stopped and arrested their client. The trio -- two FBI agents and a Louisiana state trooper -- had been subpoenaed by the defense, but succeeded in delaying their appearance until next week.


When Durst, 71, was stopped by the FBI agents at a Canal Street hotel March 14 on a California warrant in connection with the 2000 slaying of Los Angeles author Susan Berman, they found a .38 revolver and marijuana in his room. The trooper charged him with possessing a firearm as a convicted felon and possessing a firearm with a controlled substance.


Durst waived extradition to California, but Louisiana prosecutors are bent on pursuing the state charges.


His lead attorney, Houston-based Dick DeGuerin, helped Durst persuade a jury to acquit him of murder charges in Galveston in 2003 after he was accused of killing and dismembering his neighbor.


DeGuerin has made no secret of his eagerness to get his client extradited so he can address the latest murder charge in Los Angeles.


In the latest filing, Durst’s attorneys noted that the Louisiana case has “dragged on for three weeks” and asked Orleans Criminal District Court Magistrate Harry Cantrell Jr. to “put an end to these tortured proceedings” and “release Mr. Durst for extradition to California.”


Durst is being held without bond in a jail medical unit at a state prison about 70 miles west of New Orleans, the Elayn Hunt Correctional Center in St. Gabriel, La.


He is due back before Cantrell for a continuation of his preliminary hearing on Thursday.


http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-robert-durst-attorneys-extradition-to-california-20150404-story.html

 

[Ken H]

From NOLA.com


Robert Durst's subpoenas for FBI agents pulled to federal court by US attorney


By Ken Daley

April 7, 2015


Robert Durst's attorneys will have to go to federal court if they hope to compel testimony from three government agents about the millionaire murder suspect's arrest last month in New Orleans.


Durst's legal team issued subpoenas last week demanding that the three agents involved in the real estate heir's arrest testify at his preliminary hearing in state court. Durst, 71, was booked with state gun charges after the agents said they found him in possession of a loaded .38-caliber revolver and more than 5 ounces of marijuana after escorting him to his room at the J.W. Marriott on Canal Street.


The arresting officers were FBI agents Crystal Bender and William C. Williams, along with Trooper Saunders Craine of the Louisiana State Police, who was working under federal auspices as a member of the FBI New Orleans Violent Crimes Task Force. Acting on the advice of U.S. Attorney Kenneth Polite's office, all three agents disregarded the subpoenas and did not appear to testify in state court last Thursday.


Durst's preliminary hearing was continued until Thursday because of their absence, as attorney Dick DeGuerin said they and former New York prosecutor Jeanine Pirro were the only witnesses he needed to testify. Pirro also did not appear, though there has been no confirmation she was ever properly served with a subpoena.


Orleans Parish assistant district attorney Christopher Bowman filed a response Tuesday asking Magistrate Judge Harry Cantrell to quash the Pirro subpoena, arguing any testimony she could offer was not "essential" at this stage of Durst's defense.


Similarly, assistant U.S. attorney Peter Mansfield's court filing pulled the federal agents' subpoenas from state court and put the decision to quash or enforce them in before U.S. District Judge Susie Morgan or U.S. Magistrate Judge Joseph C. Wilkinson Jr., should Durst's legal team choose to pursue the matter.


The motion also removes from the state Criminal District Court any authority for enforcement or contempt proceedings against the agents.


Mansfield's motion said the subpoenas should be removed from state court on behalf of the agents because they constituted "actions against them in their official capacities for the purpose of obtaining testimony, information and material maintained under color of their official duties."


Attempts to contact Durst co-counsel Billy Gibbens were unsuccessful.


http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2015/04/robert_dursts_subpoenas_for_fb.html

 

[Ken H]

From NOLA.com


Robert Durst indicted in New Orleans on Louisiana gun charges


By Ken Daley

April 8, 2015


Robert Durst, the millionaire murder suspect awaiting extradition to Los Angeles, was indicted on two Louisiana gun charges Wednesday (April 8) by an Orleans Parish grand jury. Sources said Durst was ordered held without bond by Criminal District Court Judge Arthur Hunter.


The indictment charges Durst with being a felon in possession of a gun and possession of a gun in the presence of a controlled dangerous substance. The charges revolve around a loaded .38-caliber revolver and more than 5 ounces of marijuana that FBI agents and a state trooper said they found in his Canal Street hotel room when Durst was arrested March 14. Conviction on the charges could bring sentences ranging from five to 20 years in prison.


The filing of formal charges moves Durst's case out of Judge Harry Cantrell's magistrate court into Criminal District Court and cancels a preliminary hearing that was to resume Thursday, to determine whether probable cause existed for Durst's arrest. The indictment also puts an indefinite hold on Durst's extradition to California, where Los Angeles police are waiting to book the 71-year-old real estate scion with first-degree murder in the 2000 shooting death of writer Susan Berman.


Durst's links to three suspected murders most recently were outlined in the the HBO documentary series "The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst." Through attorney Dick DeGuerin, Durst has denied responsibility for Berman's death.


DeGuerin is the Houston-based attorney who in 2003 helped Durst win acquittal by a Texas jury on a charge that he murdered his Galveston neighbor, Morris Black, in 2001. Durst admitted to shooting Black and dismembering his body, most of which later washed up inside trash bags in Galveston Bay. He was acquitted after asserting that he shot Black in self-defense. Black's head never was recovered.


Durst also has been suspected in the still-unsolved disappearance of his first wife, Kathleen Durst, who vanished from the couple's New York estate in 1982.


http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2015/04/robert_durst_indicted_in_state.html