Careful – that’s a ‘Durst’ edition
The Post was front and center at a pretrial hearing in Robert Durst’s murder trial on Tuesday, as the former NYPD detective who investigated the disappearance of the real-estate tycoon’s wife was grilled about the paper’s headlines.
“It’s bulls--t. I couldn’t think of a better synonym,” Mike Struk snarled in an LA courtroom as a defense attorney showed a September article with the headline, “Lawsuit claims NYPD covered up Durst’s role in wife’s death.”
The suit accused Struk and the NYPD of colluding to hide the role Durst played in first wife Kathleen’s 1982 disappearance.
But Struk, 74, approved of the next Post headline: “Excop who led Durst investigation: ‘ The Jinx’ made me look like an idiot.”
It referred to the HBO documentary “The Jinx,” at the end of which Durst is caught muttering that he “killed them all.”
The headline was based on an e-mail Struk sent to the series’ producer, saying the filmmakers made it look as if he bungled the investigation.
“You gave two lengthy interviews to the producers voluntarily. Do you think they treated you fairly in the editing process of those interviews?” defense attorney Dick DeGuerin asked.
Struk said he thought “part of it was inappropriate.”
Attorneys for Durst also think the billionaire was unfairly portrayed in the 2015 docu-series, which spurred his arrest in the murder of his friend Susan Berman.
Prosecutors believe that Durst shot Berman because she was about to come clean about how she helped him cover up Kathleen’s death. Durst has never been called a suspect in Kathleen’s disappearance. She has not been found, and loved ones have claimed Struk didn’t try hard enough. The retired cop disagreed. “Absolutely — from my professional and personal perspective, I thought we did what we could with what we were presented,” Struk said. “I held this case as important. I took it home with me.”
Struk — and all witnesses over 65 — are giving early testimony due to concerns they could die before the actual trial at least a year from now.