(Durst, seated right from defense attorney Dick DeGuerin, at a recent hearing. Pool photo.)
Prosecutors in L.A. preparing to try New York real estate millionaire Robert Durst for murder -- say Durst has effectively waived his right to claim attorney-client-privilege over some alleged admissions that could be used against him.
Durst, who's accused of murdering writer Susan Berman in Benedict Canyon nearly 17 years ago, talked openly with two friends, who were at one time Durst's attorneys, about his criminal troubles, and allegedly admitted he was in Los Angeles at the time Berman was shot to death.
The L.A. County District Attorney's Office says Durst also allowed a film maker and friends to access privileged records, and therefore, waived his right to invoke attorney-client-privilege with those too.
"To say that Defendant has put his attorneys at a disadvantage would be an understatement," prosecutors wrote in the motion.
"In response to this untenable situation, Defendant's trial counsel attempted to make lemonade out of lemons," prosecutors said, a reference to the cross examination of one of the Durst friends during a pretrial hearing.
Over the last few months prosecutors have been questioning a number of witnesses ahead of the murder trial in a series of special hearings called, "conditional examinations."
Some of those witnesses are elderly and some have expressed concern they could be harmed before they would be able to testify at a trial.
Police say they believe Durst murdered Berman because he was afraid she would tell New York detectives much more about the disappearance and presumed murder of Durst's first wife, Kathleen, who vanished in 1982.
(Section of the L.A. County District Attorney's Office filing below)