Letterman lawyers: End Santa Fe claim [copies of files attached]

Late last week, a Santa Fe District Court judge signed a temporary restraining order against talk-show host David Letterman alleging he has tormented a city resident for more than 10 years by using code words on his television program .

Now lawyers for Letterman are asking District Judge Daniel Sanchez to quash the “unusual” order on the grounds the complaint by Colleen Nestler is “without merit,” according to a motion filed Tuesday.

“Celebrities deserve protection of their reputation and legal rights when the occasional fan becomes dangerous or deluded,” Albuquerque attorney Pat Rogers wrote in the motion.

Attempts to reach Nestler — whose address in the 300 block of Staab Street is less than a block from the District Courthouse — both by phone and in person Tuesday were unsuccessful.

“The claims made are obviously absurd and frivolous,” said Jim Jackoway, Letterman’s attorney in Los Angeles. “This constitutes an unfortunate abuse of the judicial process.”

In the application for the restraining order, which was filed Thursday, Nestler alleges that between May 1994 and now, Letterman forced her to go bankrupt and caused her “mental cruelty” and “sleep deprivation.”

Nestler — who lived in Nevada, New Jersey, New York City, Maine and Santa Fe during that period — requested that Letterman, who tapes his show in New York, stay at least 3 yards from her and that he not “think of me, and release me from his mental harassment and hammering,” according to the application.

Nestler’s application was accompanied by a typed, six-page , double-spaced letter in which she said Letterman used code words, gestures and “eye expressions” to convey his desire to marry her and train her as his co-host . Her story also involves Regis Philbin, Kathie Lee Gifford and Kelsey Grammer, whom Nestler says either supported or attempted to thwart her “relationship” with Letterman, according to the letter.

Nestler wrote that she began sending Letterman “thoughts of love” after the Late Show With David Letterman began on CBS in 1993.

“Dave responded to my thoughts of love, and, on his show, in code words & obvious indications through jestures (sic) and eye expressions, he asked me to come east,” she wrote.

Then, three days before Thanksgiving in 1993, Letterman asked Nestler to be his wife during a televised “teaser” for his show when he said, “Marry me Oprah,” Nestler wrote in the letter.

“Oprah had become my first of many code names,” she wrote. “... (A)s time passed, the code-vocabulary increased & changed, but in the beginning things like ‘C’ on baseball caps referred to me, and specific messages through songs sung by his guests, were the beginnings of what became an elaborate means of communication between he and myself.”

Nestler, who apparently lived in Maine as late as this year, doesn’t provide a reason for why she sought the restraining order recently.

Judge Sanchez signed the temporary restraining order Thursday afternoon and set the case to be heard Jan. 12, according to court documents. In a phone interview Tuesday, Sanchez said he couldn’t comment on the order.

When asked if he might have made a mistake, Sanchez said no. He also said he had read Nestler’s application.

In his motion asking Sanchez to quash the order, Rogers said the District Court lacks jurisdiction over Letterman, Nestler never served Letterman with the necessary restraining-order papers, and she didn’t meet procedural requirements for issuing a temporary restraining order.

Rogers said Tuesday that he was surprised Sanchez signed the temporary order against Letterman. “It’s unusual,” he said, “but judges have a lot of discretion, and I hope he’ll reconsider.”

Rogers said he’s hoping Sanchez will agree to address the motion to quash the order sooner than Jan. 12.

Rogers also said he spoke with Nestler on Monday, and she told him she knew the allegations in the restraining-order application were “unbelievable.” She said she wanted to discuss the merits of the case with him, but Rogers said he told her he was uncomfortable doing so and encouraged her to obtain a lawyer. He said in the end, Nestler politely declined to agree with the motion he had filed.

Jackoway, Letterman’s longtime lawyer, said he had never heard of Nestler before. However, this is not the first time Letterman has been the subject of female fixation .

Margaret Mary Ray was arrested repeatedly in the 1980s and ‘90s for, among other things, driving Letterman’s Porsche in New York City and sleeping on the tennis court at his home in Connecticut, according to a New York Times story on Ray’s struggle with mental illness. Ray was struck and killed by a train in Colorado in October 1998 in an apparent suicide, the story said. Last March, a scheme to kidnap Letterman’s son in Choteau, Mont., was uncovered by police. Contact Jason Auslander at 995-3877 or jauslander@sfnewmexican .com.