Henry C. Lee, the renowned forensic scientist who has come under fire for allegedly concealing evidence in the murder trial of record producer Phil Spector, told the Hartford Courant he was being “set up” to discredit any testimony he might give. “I did not conceal any evidence,” Lee said. In his first face-to-face interview since the controversy flared up several months ago, said he collected only two pieces of evidence from the foyer area of Spector’s mansion in Los Angeles, where Lana Clarkson was found shot to death Feb. 3, 2003.
Lee was hired by Spector’s original defense lawyer, Robert Shapiro, just hours after Spector’s arrest. He was part of a small team of defense attorneys and forensic experts who searched the mansion after police completed an investigation of the home. Prosecutors assert Lee took a piece of victim Lana Clarkson’s acrylic fingernails. The prosecution contends that a drunken Spector, 67, shot Clarkson to death as she was attempting to leave his mansion. “Now they cannot find the fingernail,” Lee said. “Of course, the easiest thing is to blame somebody. So I become the fall guy. I took the fingernail. I did not take the fingernail. If there was a fingernail, they should have found it in 38-hour search.”Lee, 68, was interviewed at the Connecticut State Police Forensic Science Laboratory, where he is chief criminalist emeritus.