Producer pleads guilty in Letterman case

March 10, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

By JENNIFER PELTZ

Associated Press

NEW YORK

A television producer admitted Tuesday to trying to shake down David Letterman in a case that bared the late-night icon’s affairs with staffers, avoiding a long prison sentence by pleading guilty in exchange for six months in jail and community service.

Robert “Joe” Halderman, 52, entered the plea in a Manhattan court to attempted grand larceny after being accused of demanding $2 million to keep quiet about the late-night comic’s workplace love life.

Halderman, a producer for CBS’ “48 Hours Mystery,” had mined information from reading his then- girlfriend’s diary entries about her relationship with Letterman, her boss, authorities said.

The Manhattan district attorney’s office said the debt-strapped Halderman threatened to ruin Letterman’s reputation, disguising his demands as a deal for a thinly veiled screenplay about the comedian.

“In September of 2009, I attempted to extort $2 million from David Letterman by threatening to disclose personal and private information about him, whether true or false,” Halderman said in court, reading a prepared statement, at first so quickly that Manhattan state Supreme Court Justice Charles Solomon asked him to slow down.

Halderman acknowledged delivering the threat to Letterman’s driver, in the form of a screenplay outline, or “treatment.”

“This so-called treatment was just a thinly veiled threat to ruin Mr. Letterman if he did not pay me a lot of money,” Halderman said, dressed in a gray suit. He subsequently met with Letterman’s lawyer, who eventually gave him a phony $2 million check.

“I knew throughout this time that I was not engaged in a legitimate business transaction with Mr. Letterman and that what I was doing was against New York law,” Halderman said, adding that he realized he had violated the privacy of Letterman and his family.

“I feel great remorse for what I have done,” Halderman said.