So just who had the unbelievably huge Mammoth balls to extort late night legend David Letterman? You're looking at him, not his balls thankfully. Robert "Joe" Halderman, pictured at the right sitting in his unholy beach chair of evil, is the man the Manhattan District Attorney's Office brought extortion charges against for trying to score more than $2 million from Letterman as part of a blackmail plot.
Letterman admitted on the air that he had a sexual encounter or encounters with members of his staff, and that Halderman used the info he had on those encounters as leverage to extort money from him. I've got three to one odds that the "Fire David Letterman" club awards Halderman their "Humanitarian of the Year Award."
According to New York City's Department of Correction records, Halderman received a felony count of attempted grand larceny. He entered a not-guilty plea at his arraignment.
Prosecutors claim he tried to blackmail Letterman by threatening to write a screenplay treatment on his tryst with one of his staff members, specifically Stephanie Birkitt, better known as Vicki the prize girl who always calls Letterman "Mr. Carny" during the "Know Your Current Events" segments. What she called him when they were together is nobody's business.
Birkitt was dating Halderman at the time of the extortion scheme. Letterman and Birkitt met just after Letterman's divorce 15 years ago. She wasn't part of the scheme, and representatives of the former staff member told Radar Online that she was "mortified" that Halderman would attempt such a thing.
And here's the most ironic part: Halderman is a producer for CBS' weekly crime magazine 48 Hours. Talk about taking your work home with you!
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
10-03-2009 @ 1:21PM
fanny said...
What a creep he should go to jail
Reply
10-03-2009 @ 1:25PM
Dave said...
Talk about desperate!
$6800/month in spousal and child support is just over $81K a year. On a $214K salary (about $120K after taxes), this guy is left with $40K to live on… or ½ of what he pays in support. Factor in his wife moved across the country and I can understand why he snapped. I think there are many injustices which happened in this case starting with the ex-wife and the court system. Don’t get me wrong… Halderman needs to stand for his crimes… but we need to be aware of the tragedy behind the scenes caused by a bitter divorce and a court system which can’t do math.
Reply
10-04-2009 @ 8:42AM
POLARIS said...
Dave is right, the Family court system with its alimony and child support was designed to put men in to poverty. One of the largest transfer of wealth in our nations history has happened because of this Court System and our government's policy of rapping men like this man for a profit.
10-05-2009 @ 12:33PM
ikele76 said...
Its his ex wife who should be in jail $6800 a month for child support is extortion and CBS needs find out why they were paying this guy over $200 K a year He can not be the sharpest knife in the drawer if he thought he could get away with this Throw him in the can
Reply
10-03-2009 @ 5:35PM
in10 said...
I know this isn't a news site, more just random people at home in their underwear blogging about TV, but even still, if you're just going to skim articles and summarize them here in your own words... get the facts right.
You said:
"Letterman and Birkitt met just after Letterman's divorce 15 years ago."
Nope. Letterman got divorced in 1977. What you probably meant to say was that Birkitt met Halderman 15 years ago after HIS divorce (not Letterman's).
Just thought you'd like to know.
Reply
10-03-2009 @ 10:12PM
Entertainment2u-Twitter said...
What a creep!
Not that Dave came out looking all that great either.
Still time to vote in the David Letterman poll here:
http://bit.ly/19va73
Thanks for voting.
Reply
10-04-2009 @ 11:16AM
Jimmy said...
> "Letterman and Birkitt met just after Letterman's divorce 15 years ago."
This is wrong. Letterman's first marriage ended in 1977, and his relationship with Merril Markoe ended in 1988.
The most disturbing part of this story is that Stephanie was dating Halderman. What a douchebag.
Reply