Letterman Extortion Raises Questions for CBS

David Letterman, who built his career skewering philandering politicians and show business “weasels” and “boneheads,” finds himself in the middle of his own celebrity scandal, after he admitted having multiple affairs with employees of his production company, Worldwide Pants.

For the intensely private Mr. Letterman, the revelations, which resulted from a bizarre extortion attempt, are sure to be extremely embarrassing, especially as he tries to extend his lead in the late-night contest. ”I have had sex with women who work for me on this show,” he told his audience on Thursday night, calling himself “creepy.” He added that he hoped “to protect my job.”

More seriously, they raised questions for both his company and CBS about whether his actions constituted sexual harassment or at least abuse of a power relationship over employees.

A central figure in the case — one of the women who did have a sexual relationship with Mr. Letterman, according to representatives of the show — is Mr. Letterman's longtime personal assistant, Stephanie Birkitt, who also often appeared on the air. The sexual relationships had ended before Mr. Letterman was married in March, a Worldwide Pants executive said.

For CBS, the episode is doubly embarrassing. The network has been put in a precarious position of trying to steer clear of fallout from some highly questionable activities engaged in by its biggest star, who is experiencing his biggest surge in popularity (and ratings) in years.

At the same time, the man accused in the case, Robert Joel Halderman, known as Joe, who until last month shared a residence in Connecticut with Ms. Birkitt, is a longtime and well-respected producer for the CBS News program “48 Hours Mystery.”

Mr. Halderman, 51, pleaded not guilty to one count of attempted larceny, after he reportedly threatened to expose Mr. Letterman. According to prosecutors, Mr. Halderman gave Mr. Letterman, 62, a one-page screenplay treatment depicting the talk-show host as a great success whose “world is about to collapse around him” with revelations of his trysts. Mr. Halderman also handed over photographs, correspondence and a page of the personal diary of Ms. Birkitt.

Even by the frenzied standards of today's tabloid media, the scandal has moved remarkably quickly. On Thursday, Mr. Halderman deposited Mr. Letterman's check for $2 million (so he thought — it was a fake), then went to work at CBS News on the far West Side of Manhattan, where he sat in a story meeting before being met by arresting officers outside.

CBS executives, including Leslie Moonves, the chairman of CBS Corporation, knew nothing about the attempted plot and were informed of the matter only several hours before the taping of his Thursday show. Inside CBS's headquarters, where employees can usually watch the Letterman show live on closed circuit, the extortion segment was not transmitted.

In private, CBS executives have told the Worldwide Pants executives that they continue to be supportive of Mr. Letterman. But they have included a note of caution in their supportive position, saying that would change only if information of a more damning nature were to emerge.

According to one person inside the company, CBS executives did quietly seek and receive assurances that none of the women Mr. Letterman was talking about were under age and that no woman who was involved with him had felt threatened about her job.

Many who commented on the case requested anonymity either because of the continuing legal action or because of the private nature of Mr. Letterman's admissions.

Mr. Halderman and Ms. Birkitt did not respond to telephone messages left at their residences.

According to the indictment, Mr. Halderman waited outside Mr. Letterman's Manhattan home before sunrise on Sept. 9, then gave Mr. Letterman's limousine driver a one-page draft of a proposed screenplay about the talk show host's love life.

Mr. Letterman appeared resolved from the beginning of the episode to go to the authorities. “He was very worried — frightened, scared — and there was a resolve from the beginning to do the right thing here,” said a person with knowledge of the matter.

The indictment said that after initially demanding a response from Mr. Letterman by 8 a.m. that day, Mr. Halderman met the host's personal lawyer, Jim Jackoway, at the Jumeirah Essex House hotel on Sept. 15, where a $2 million demand was conveyed. At another meeting at the same hotel a week later, Mr. Halderman cataloged Mr. Letterman's trysts and repeated his demands — but this time Mr. Jackoway wore a wire and recorded the conversation.

The two men returned to Jumeirah Essex House one more time, on Wednesday, ostensibly to exchange the $2 million check. Arranged with police help, the check was intended to bounce, and Mr. Halderman was arrested the next day.

The Manhattan district attorney, Robert M. Morgenthau, said the fake check was a tactic to strengthen the evidence that blackmail had occurred. Yesterday afternoon, Mr. Halderman posted bail of $200,000 and left without talking to reporters. Two people with knowledge of the matter said Ms. Birkitt, 34, is not under scrutiny.

While colleagues at CBS News described Mr. Halderman as hard-working and well respected, his personal life has been plagued by problems. A bitter divorce in 2004 left him with a $6,800 monthly alimony payment, according to court filings.

According to documents filed in Stamford Superior Court in 2007, he made an annual salary of $214,000, but that salary, along with assets and debts, came up in a dispute over the amount of alimony he was paying to his ex-wife, Patty Montet, who lives with their two children.

Mr. Halderman's lawyer, Gerald L. Shargel, said his client denied wrongdoing.

“He pled not guilty, and he stands by that plea,” Mr. Shargel said after the arraignment in a telephone interview. “My position is that, even upon a superficial glance, there is another side of this story and I'm working on it.”

He said that the prosecutor's remarks in court about Mr. Halderman's debts showed that “they're obviously searching for a motive.”

He added, “If that were a motive, you'd have to supply new jails.”

Both Mr. Letterman and CBS tried to get control of the story Friday, with representatives of Mr. Letterman's company making a point — which they said he should have raised during his confession of the plot's details on Thursday's show — that his affairs with his employees had all taken place before he married his longtime girlfriend, Regina Lasko.

CBS executives declined to comment on the record and released an official statement that the network was cooperating with the investigation. But representatives of Worldwide Pants noted that CBS does not employ Mr. Letterman, and CBS representatives affirmed that point.

That distinction seemed to be made to underscore that Mr. Letterman was not subject to any of the CBS policies regarding harassment on the job. Worldwide Pants does have a policy. A spokesman issued a statement that read: “Dave is not in violation of our policy and no one has ever raised a complaint against him.” The spokesman said the policy “does not prohibit relationships within the company — only that they cannot be tied to an employee's performance.”

Mr. Letterman himself seemed to acknowledge how messy his conduct had been. On Thursday's show he told his audience that the extortion letter stated, “I know that you do some terrible, terrible things.”

Mr. Letterman said to laughter from the audience, “Sure enough, contained in the package was stuff to prove that I do terrible things.” He also said his affairs with women in the office were “creepy.”

Debra S. Katz, a civil rights lawyer who specializes in sexual harassment cases, said it would be “reckless” for CBS not to conduct an internal investigation.

“CBS is definitely going to have to speak with him and find out who he had relationships with,” she said. “They're going to have to reach back and see if these women think that the relationships were welcome.”

Several longtime associates of Mr. Letterman said he has a long history of pursuing relationships with employees, dating to his first days on television on NBC in the early 1980s. At that time he was known to frequently date interns and other young women connected to his show, one associate said.

His first longtime relationship was with Merrill Markoe, who was his head writer on his NBC show, “Late Night With David Letterman,” and before they became a couple, Mr. Letterman and Ms. Lasko worked together on his show. Some veterans of the show said it was well-known inside the production that he had also had a close relationship at one time with another previous assistant.

Beyond any potential legal trouble, there is the open question about how fans will receive Mr. Letterman, who has long used his stance as a sarcastic comic commentator to ridicule the behavior of politicians and celebrities. “Today, The L.A. Times accused Arnold Schwarzenegger of groping six women,” he once said in a monologue. “I'm telling you, this guy is presidential material.”

The audience seemed to respond Thursday night: “The Late Show” ratings increased about 20 percent over his average. Mr. Letterman's rivals began responding with jokes on Friday night, including references to his famous Top 10 lists. Jay Leno told his audience, “This guy who was trying to blackmail Letterman was a producer from the show `48 Hours.' It could've been worse, at least it wasn't a producer from `To Catch a Predator.' ”

Robert Thompson, a professor of television and popular culture at Syracuse University, said that barring any sexual harassment complaints from Mr. Letterman's unknown number of former sexual partners, “The Late Show” could skate by.

“His core viewers are not the kind that are going to say, `He did what? I'm never going to watch again.' He was not the host of a Disney Channel talk show,” he said.

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