Robert Durst: Did a TV Show Create an Arrest Warrant?
A lot has been said about 71-year-old Robert Durst since his statements while miked during filming of the show “The Jinx”, but what can he really be charged for?
Recently, Durst’s lawyers filed paperwork alleging that Louisiana officials failed to establish any probable cause to indict their client. At Durst’s preliminary hearing last month, his lawyers’ paperwork shows that officials presented an arrest warrant by called no witnesses, accusing the state officials of a “misguided attempt to conceal the facts from the court, the defendant, and the public.”
But Louisiana prosecutors are determined to pursue state charges against Durst, even after he waived his right to fight extradition to California-a place his attorneys are eager to get Durst to, in order to fight the murder charges there. In fact, Dick DeGuerin, Durst’s Houston-based lead attorney, has pled with Orleans Criminal District Court Magistrate Harry Cantrell Jr. to end the proceedings that he feels have “dragged on for three weeks” in order to release Durst to face the charges in California.
The case for Louisiana prosecutors seemed to be based on the evidence found by FBI agents when they stopped Durst on March 14 at a Canal Street hotel, based on the warrant from California regarding the murder of Susan Berman, a Los Angeles author. Allegedly, the agents found a loaded revolver, false identification, over $40,000 and 5 ounces of marijuana.
Durst was charged with possessing a firearm as a convicted felon, and possessing a firearm with a controlled substance. Durst’s defense had subpoenaed the two FBI agents and a Louisiana state trooper who made the arrest, but succeeded in delaying their appearance until this week. Louisiana prosecutors are challenging Durst’s lawyers to call other witnesses than these three officials, but none have been produced.
At this time, Durst awaits the results of the Louisiana case at the Elayn Hunt Correctional Center, a state prison in St. Gabriel, Louisiana. He is being held without bond in a jail medical unit.
All of this started from a few garbled comments made in a bathroom off set on a “reality” television show. As Durst’s attorney DeGuerin said last month, it seems that the warrant in California, issued in Los Angeles, was “based on a television show, and not on actual facts.” And in court, the prosecutors will have to provide facts if they want a conviction.
