Joe Halderman Lived with Letterman’s Former Assistant, Stephanie Birkitt

By Amanda Pendolino on October 2nd, 2009

Last night, David Letterman revealed that he was a victim of an extortion plot over his admitted sexual affairs with coworkers, including his former assistant Stephanie Birkitt. Now, the alleged extortionist has been revealed: it’s 51 year-old Robert “Joe” Halderman from Connecticut, a producer for the CBS news show 48 Hours.

According to New York Magazine, Joe was arrested last night outside of CBS Headquarters yesterday for attempted grand larceny in the first degree. The story gets even juicier: Until recently, Joe was actually living with Stephanie, who used to appear on Dave’s show all the time. Joe put an envelope in Dave’s car that contained parts of Stephanie’s diary and personal correspondence, and according to CNN, Joe wrote that Dave’s “world was about to collapse around him” if he didn’t pay $2 million.

Stephanie was unaware of all of this, and is reportedly “mortified” by the news coming out today. Dave’s and Stephanie’s sexual relationship took place before the birth of Dave’s son in 2003, but they were sleeping together while Dave was living with girlfriend Regina Lasko, whom he married earlier this year.

Dave admitted to multiple affairs on his show last night, but it’s unclear if Joe has evidence of these as well. Dave was probably just covering his ass.