Los Angeles - A veteran television producer was charged Friday with grand larceny for allegedly trying to extort 2 million dollars from David Letterman in exchange for keeping quiet about the talk show host's sexual relationship with his former assistant. The charges came a day after Letterman revealed the dramatic imbroglio on his late night talk show.
Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau named the suspect as Robert Joe Halderman, 51, a veteran CBS producer at the prestigious news magazine 48 Hours, who also worked on the Winter Olympics and produced numerous documentaries.
According to the arrest warrant released by a local New York television station, Letterman was allegedly involved with Stephanie Birkitt, his former assistant , who was the suspect's girlfriend and was living with him until recently.
Morgenthau said that Halderman was arrested Thursday and could face up to 15 years in jail.
Letterman told the studio audience that he had been approached by the blackmailer three weeks ago and had immediately contacted law enforcement officials. He then confessed to having sex with women on his staff in a remarkable few minutes of television.
"This morning, I did something I have never done in my life," Letterman told his audience. "I had to go downtown and testify before a grand jury."
Letterman kept wisecracking throughout his confession as he revealed that he had received a package from an individual about three weeks ago threatening to make the affairs public if a payment of 2 million dollars was not received.
The audience laughed as Letterman described how he'd called his attorney and set up a meeting with the blackmailer in which the plotter told him he wanted to write a screenplay about him that included sordid details of the talk show host's life.
At a third meeting, Letterman, with the assistance of the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, handed the blackmailer a phony 2 million dollar check. It was then that the extortionist revealed he also planned to write a book about Letterman's life, also revealing details of his past sexual infidelities.
Letterman said that in his testimony to the grand jury he acknowledged the sexual relationships with staff members.
"My response to that is, yes I have. Would it be embarrassing if it were made public? Perhaps it would," said Letterman, adding as a jokey aside:"Especially for the women."
"I feel like I need to protect these people - I need to certainly protect my family."
Letterman, 62, did not reveal when the relationships took place. He married his long-time girlfriend last March and they have a 6-year-old child together.
The confession was treated by critics as an extraordinary moment in television, and a textbook example of how to deal with a scandal or crisis.
"As it stands right now, what Letterman did last night was a striking, unique, and - for all the laughter it provoked - dramatic example of how a celebrity deals with both a threat and a scandal," said Ken Tucker, the TV columnist at Entertainment Weekly.
Howard Kurtz, a media critic for The Washington Post, said Letterman handled the situation "reasonably well" but cautioned that late-night comedians have a "delicate" relationship with their audience, especially because they often point out the infidelities of others.
"Somebody's going to put together a tape with all the jokes Letterman has done about womanizing public figures," Kurtz told ABC's Good Morning America. "So if he becomes a punchline himself, I don't think he will lose his job over this, but clearly it undermines his job as a performer."
