JUDGE LUST
Tale of Pirro fling with prober told in Durst case
ROBERT DURST’S Los Angeles murder case took an unexpected turn Wednesday, veering into the love life of former Westchester County District Attorney Jeanine Pirro.
Writer Lisa DePaulo was called to the witness stand during a special pretrial hearing and put on the spot about Pirro’s rumored romance with Cody Cazalas, the Texas homicide detective who investigated Durst for the 2001 death and dismemberment of neighbor Morris Black.
“Did you become aware Detective Cazalas and Jeanine Pirro had a romantic relationship?” Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney John Lewin asked.
“Yes,” DePaulo replied.
“Did you inquire when that relationship started?” Lewin pressed.
“She was vague,” DePaulo replied, referring to Pirro, who split with her husband in 2007.
DePaulo said she knew the two were lovers because she spent many nights at Pirro’s house while working on the exprosecutor’s 2015 Durst book “He Killed Them All.” She watched them retire to the same bedroom, she testified.
Under cross-examination by Durst’s defense lawyer David Chesnoff, DePaulo was grilled again.
“Did Ms. Pirro have a picture of (Cazalas) in her house?” Chesnoff asked. “Was it out on display?”
Yes, Pirro had a photo, she replied, but it was mostly kept “in a drawer.”
“When she heard Cody was coming, she’d take the picture, and she’d put it out?” Chesnoff asked. “Yes,” DePaulo answered. It wasn’t immediately clear why the alleged romance became a hot topic at the hearing.
Durst was arrested for Black’s murder in 2001 but beat the charges, claiming self-defense.
Pirro and Cazalas ended up working side-by-side during the high-profile Texas case as New York officials reinvestigated the 1982 disappearance of Durst’s first wife, Kathleen Durst, and its possible connection to the 2000 murder of Durst’s friend Susan Berman in Los Angeles.
Durst, 75, is now fighting charges he murdered Berman with an execution-style bullet to the back of her head. He has pleaded not guilty.
According to prosecutors, Durst murdered Berman to ensure her silence about Kathleen’s fate. They claim Berman covered for Durst for years and even posed as his missing wife to call in sick to work the morning after Kathleen was last seen alive.
DePaulo testified Wednesday in a “conditional” exam that was videotaped for possible admission at trial if she becomes unavailable.
The judge has allowed several similar interviews to preserve testimony because the alleged motive in the case stretches back decades and involves many witnesses who are now elderly or infirm.
Pirro, 66, is now the host of the Fox News show “Justice with Judge Jeanine.”
She declined to comment through a Fox News spokeswoman.