“The song Newman wrote and recorded for his 1972 album, Sail Away, was accompanied by a montage of winter scenes from the town of Hamar, where the speedskating and figure skating events are being held,” the story said.
It added: “Sharing that moment with the world was Joe Halderman, a CBS News producer who was born in Dayton in 1957. He produced the segment linking Dayton and Hamar.”
Halderman was quoted saying, “It was actually (host) Pat O’Brien who had the idea to do the piece. This is really a sweet, nice song, and Pat thought Hamar looks a bit like Dayton.”
Halderman’s family moved from Dayton to Columbus before he started school, he told the newspaper.
“My mother was a singer and entertainer and a television personality in the ‘50s and ‘60s,” he said. “She had a show called Jeannie Kaye’s Kindergarden on WBNS-TV in Columbus in the ‘60s.”
Later, the family moved to Arizona, where Halderman grew up. He became a CBS News producer based in London.
“It was fun to produce the Dayton piece,” he said. “It was kinda like going home. Dayton deserves a nice song.”
The Associated Press, in a story Friday, said Halderman was described by prosecutors as desperate and deep in debt. He was charged Friday Oct. 2 with trying to blackmail Letterman for $2 million in a plot that forced the late night comic to acknowledge having sex with some of the women who have worked for him.
Robert J. “Joe” Halderman, a producer for the true-crime show “48 Hours Mystery,” pleaded not guilty in a Manhattan court as he was arraigned on one count of attempted first-degree grand larceny, punishable by five to 15 years in prison. He was released after posting $200,000 bail.
Halderman’s connection to Letterman was not immediately clear, but public records show that until August, he lived in Norwalk, Conn., with Stephanie Birkitt, a 34-year-old woman who works on the “Late Show” staff and used to work at “48 Hours.”
Birkitt was an assistant to Letterman on the “Late Show” and frequently appeared on camera with the host in comedy bits. Last month, Birkitt moved to Manhattan’s upper West Side. There was no answer Friday at a phone listed in her name.
It was unclear how many women were involved in relationships with Letterman, 62, who married longtime girlfriend Regina Lasko in March. The couple began dating in 1986 and have a son, Harry, born in November 2003.
His lawyer, Gerald Shargel, said Halderman worked at CBS for 27 years and had no prior criminal record. He described him as an involved father who coached soccer, baseball and football and has two children, ages 11 and 18.
“This story is far more complicated than what you heard this afternoon,” Shargel said outside court, but he would not elaborate.
Halderman earned about $214,000 in 2007. He was ordered in 2007 to pay his ex-wife $6,800 per month in child and spousal support until May 2011, when the payments will be reduced to $5,966 until May 2014, according to papers filed in Stamford Superior Court.
He had asked for a reduction to $2,039 per month because his ex-wife, Patty Montet, was sharing a house in New Canaan with a man. But Montet argued — and the judge agreed — that her living arrangement was for convenience and not romantic. Montet also claimed Halderman was getting $1,500 a month from Birkitt.
“Mr. Halderman claims he is struggling financially, but it is difficult to see what, other than mismanagement and extravagant spending, is the reason for this,” Montet’s attorneys said in the court file. “His is a world of golf trips, vacations, increasing 401k assets, comprehensive benefits, security in employment, earnings as an award-winning producer for CBS, and home ownership.”
Halderman allegedly left an envelope in Letterman’s car early Sept. 9. According to authorities, he wrote that he needed “to make a large chunk of money” and said that Letterman’s world would “collapse around him” if damaging information about him were made public.
Letterman acknowledged that the letter contained proof that the late-night host had sexual relationships with members of his staff.
Three meetings between Letterman’s lawyer and Halderman subsequently took place in Manhattan’s Essex House hotel, the last two with the lawyer recording the conversations and prosecutors listening in, District Attorney Robert Morgenthau said.
At the last meeting, on Wednesday, the lawyer gave Halderman a phony check for $2 million, Morgenthau said.
Halderman deposited the check Thursday in a Connecticut bank and was arrested later that day outside CBS News’ Manhattan office, he said.
Halderman has been described by colleagues as a talented and occasionally volatile producer. His boss, Susan Zirinsky, called “48 Hours” staff members into a meeting on Friday to discuss the case, calling it a personal tragedy.
The AP reported that Marcy McGinnis, who was Halderman’s boss when she was CBS’ London bureau chief, said she had him work on many important stories, like Princess Diana’s death and the war in Bosnia. She said she was shocked by the alleged extortion.
“The idea of it is so unbelievable. This is a very smart guy. There must have been some sort of mental breakdown. I’m no expert, but it just seems like it was 100 percent out of character.”
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