Durst's Lawyers: FBI Illegally Searched New Orleans Hotel Room

A hearing scheduled in a weapons case against the millionaire was delayed Thursday after FBI agents failed to show up.

A Louisiana judge has delayed a weapons charge hearing in the case of millionaire murder suspect Robert Durst after FBI agents failed to show up.

Magistrate Judge Harry Cantrell reluctantly agreed to the delay and set another hearing for next Thursday.

An assistant U.S. attorney told Cantrell that two federal agents and a state trooper assigned to a federal task force were instructed not to testify because more time was needed for a review of their subpoenas.

Durst was arrested in March at a New Orleans hotel. A judge had turned down a request from prosecutors earlier in the day to delay the hearing.

In a motion filed Tuesday, Durst's attorneys argue that FBI agents "rummaged" through the 71-year-old man's hotel room without a warrant before he was arrested.

Orleans Parish district attorney's investigator Jim O'Hern testified at Durst's bail hearing that he helped Los Angeles detectives get the warrant on which Durst was arrested early March 15, a Sunday. An FBI agent had inventoried Durst's belongings in his hotel room the afternoon of March 14 and a judge signed the warrant about 2 a.m. the next day, he said.

The affidavit used to get the warrant states Los Angeles police and New Orleans prosecutors got a warrant, then searched the room and found the gun and drugs, according to the Tuesday motion. Items recovered from his hotel room included a revolver and about 5 ounces of marijuana, according to court records.

A sworn statement supporting the warrant "contains a material misrepresentation designed to cover up the FBI's unlawful, warrantless search of Mr. Durst's hotel room," according to a copy of the motion provided to The Associated Press by Durst's lawyers.

Durst's attorneys also have asked the judge to subpoena Fox News Channel's Jeanine Pirro, a former New York prosecutor who investigated Durst in connection with the disappearance of his first wife in 1982, and all video surveillance for March 14 and 15 from the Marriott and Los Angeles Police Department.

Los Angeles police, who have a warrant accusing Durst of killing his friend and spokeswoman Susan Berman in 2000 to keep her from talking to Pirro's investigators, and the FBI did not immediately respond to requests for comment Wednesday. Louisiana State Police referred requests for comment to the Orleans Parish District Attorney's Office. That office does not comment on open cases or investigations, spokesman Chris Bowman said.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
Contact Us