Witness says Spector is paying her sister

Defense attorney Roger Rosen had pointedly asked Melissa Grosvenor if she had told her sister not to testify in the case. Moments later, under questioning by prosecutor Patrick Dixon, Grosvenor shot back: "My sister is a drug addict. I put her in rehab

Spector's attorneys and prosecutors did not ask her to elaborate.

Spector, 67, a producer for bands including the Beatles, Ike and Tina Turner and the Righteous Brothers, is charged with killing 40-year-old actress Lana Clarkson in his Alhambra mansion on Feb. 3, 2003. He has pleaded not guilty and is free on $1-million bail.

Four women have testified that Spector pointed guns at them when they rejected his advances. The prosecution contends Spector routinely brandished guns when drunk and that the encounter with Clarkson fit the pattern. But they argue it went further when Spector shot her.

The defense has dismissed the argument as concocted in hindsight. Spector never fired a gun at the women, and Clarkson, whom he had just met at the House of Blues, shot herself in an "accidental suicide," the defense said.

Grosvenor said Spector pointed a handgun at her when she tried to leave his home, then in Pasadena, in 1992 or early 1993. She said she fell asleep in a chair and left the next morning.

Under cross-examination, Spector's attorneys grilled Grosvenor on Wednesday about a 1989 embezzlement conviction. She said she had stolen from a bank where she worked.

Rosen asked Grosvenor on Thursday if she had told her sister not to testify in the Spector case, saying her sister could go to jail for not testifying. Grosvenor said she told her sister not to lie under oath, which could land her in jail, setting off a series of questions leading to her statement that she believed Spector had paid her sister.

Jean Rosenbluth, a USC law professor who has been watching the trial, said Grosvenor's declaration about her sister, if true, could hurt the defense if it plans to call the sister as a witness to impeach Grosvenor.

Rosen said the defense will call one or two of Grosvenor's sisters. They will show, he said, that Grosvenor was "untruthful."