A top CBS News producer yesterday admitted trying to extort $2 million from David Letterman — but finagled a sweetheart deal after promising to keep his mouth shut about the “Late Show” star’s office shenanigans.
Robert Joseph Halderman will be sentenced to six months on Rikers Island — but likely serve just four — in exchange for copping the plea in Manhattan Supreme Court.
The disgraced “48 Hours” producer also must perform 1,000 hours of community service and spend 4½ years on probation.
As part of the pact, Halderman agreed to keep his big mouth shut about the married Letterman’s steamy flings with female staffers, among them Halderman’s then-girlfriend, Stephanie Birkitt, a longtime assistant to the funnyman.
READ HALDERMAN’S FULL STATEMENT
The notoriously self-conscious and privacy-craving Letterman, 61, will not have to testify at a trial.
Halderman, 51, had faced up to 15 years in prison if convicted.
He admitted to trying to shake down the skirt-chasing talk-show host and receiving a $2 million check — although bogus — from Letterman’s lawyer in exchange for a purported screenplay treatment of the star’s dalliances in September.
“In September of 2009, I attempted to extort $2 million from David Letterman by threatening to disclose personal and private information about him, whether true or false,” a grim Halderman said in court as he pleaded guilty to attempted second-degree larceny.
“On the morning of Sept. 9, 2009, I gave a sealed envelope to Mr. Letterman’s driver as he waited outside of Mr. Letterman’s Manhattan home. I asked the driver to give the envelope, marked ‘Privileged and Confidential,’ to Mr. Letterman. The envelope contained a number of documents, including a document I created entitled ‘Treatment for a Screenplay.’
“This so-called treatment was just a thinly veiled threat to ruin Mr. Letterman if he did not pay me a lot of money,” he said.
“Later that month, on three different occasions, I met with Mr. Letterman’s lawyer, Jim Jackoway, to work out the details of the extortion. On October 1st, 2009, I deposited a check for $2 million that Mr. Jackoway gave me.
“I knew throughout this time that I was not engaged in a legitimate business transaction with Mr. Letterman and that what I was doing was against New York law.
“I understand that my attempt to extort $2 million from Mr. Letterman violated his and his family’s privacy. I promise to respect their privacy in the future,” Halderman said.
“I feel great remorse for what I have done. I sincerely apologize to Mr. Letterman and his family; to Stephanie Birkitt and her family and everyone else that I have hurt or disappointed.”
Halderman is scheduled to be sentenced and jailed May 4.
Letterman, who agreed to the plea deal, yesterday spoke about it on his show.
“I need to talk to you about a segment of my life here that began six months ago. I found myself in some legal trouble, and pretty quickly, it was turned over to the district attorney’s office here in Manhattan,” said Letterman, who married another former staffer, Regina Lasko, last spring.
“I’d never been involved in anything like this in my life, and I was concerned and full of anxiety and nervous and worried. And the people in the district attorney’s office said, ‘This will be handled professionally. This will be handled skillfully and appropriately.’
“Well, the matter was resolved today, and . . . it was handled professionally, skillfully and appropriately.”
Halderman was enraged last summer after learning that Birkitt — who he knew at one point had been involved with Letterman — was still sleeping with her boss. He allegedly even spotted them necking outside the house he shared with Birkitt in Norwalk, Conn.
The veteran war correspondent — already deeply stressed by his ex-wife having moved with their kids to Colorado, as well as by steep child-support payments — then launched his blackmail bid.
Halderman was busted in early October after Letterman alerted authorities, who set up a sting on the journalist.