Tomorrow morning, Robert “Joe†Halderman will walk into a Manhattan courtroom to face the music on charges that he attempted to extort $2 million from his ex-girlfriend Stephanie Birkitt’s former (?) “hiking†companion, one David Letterman. It has been a little over a month since the bizarre details of this case first came to light, a period of time in which much has been made of Halderman’s alleged financial problems. Because of these hardships, many had assumed that Halderman would roll into court tomorrow and look to cut a plea deal with prosecutors so he could go move on with his life. However, according to an article in today’s New York Observer, it appears as if Halderman is steeling himself for a protracted legal fight: Over the last month and change, he has been hard at work raising over $100,000 for his defense fund.
While Felix Gillette’s article does not make it clear exactly where this $100,000 came from, he does mention that Halderman “is planning to meet with friends and advisers in the coming weeks to discuss other fund-raising possibilities.†Other fund-raising possibilities, eh? We sure hope that this means that Halderman will try to recruit some of Letterman’s richer enemies (Jay Leno, Sarah Palin, Rupert from the Hello Deli) to attend a fancy surf and turf fund-raising dinner somewhere in midtown soon. And although he sure didn’t seem like it during his first few appearances on daytime television, Halderman BFF Dr. Bob Arnot assures everyone that Gerald Shargel, Halderman’s lawyer, “is a real litigator and Joe is paying the full boat to go to trial.†We can hardly wait. Buckle up, folks, it’s going to be a bumpy ride!