Smallville Screenwriter Got Wife Sent to Prison – But Was He a Wife-Beating Scoundrel and a Criminal?

Philip David Levens, 50, was one of the top writers for the hit TV show Smallville which, as readers know, starred former Nxivm members Kristin Kreuk and the recently convicted Allison Mack.

In doing research on various associates of the show, I came across a criminal case involving Levens and his ex-wife Kassandra. The trial was in 2013.

At first blush, it appears Kassandra was the villain. She was convicted of solicitation to cause her husband Philip bodily harm and she spent 13 months in jail.

Scratching below the surface, evidence suggests Kassandra may have been set up and is in fact innocent.

I reviewed transcripts of the case, police interrogation of Kassandra, police reports and other records and found that Philip Levens, who appears from photos to be about 6’2” and 220 pounds of rock solid muscle, may have repeatedly beat the living hell out of Kassandra prior to her arrest.

Kassandra Levens was a well known French model prior to marrying Philip. She is 5’10” and weighs 130 pounds, according to police reports.

I spoke with several people connected with the trial, including Kassandra’a attorney and others who knew the couple. Sources, plus evidence admitted in trial, and evidence apparently withheld from the jury, suggest Philip may have set up his wife by orchestrating a bogus crime.

According to records, Philip allegedly beat Kassandra – oftentimes brutally hard.  Sometimes police were called, but he was never arrested. In once incident, Philip fled the scene this avoiding an arrest that would have rocked his career. Time and again, Kassandra seemed to have failed to press charges.

On one occasion, according to police records obtained by Frank Report, Philip allegedly punched and beat Kassandra about the eyes and head. Subsequent surgery required one of her eyes to be removed then placed back inside the socket.  Philip said Kassandra ‘s eye hit a doorknob.

Philip Levens said he is the victim of his wife’s brutal and abusive nature. He wrote extensively for the hit TV show Smallviille and other films.Screen shots of police reports on Philip’s alleged beating of Kassandra

 

A social worker’s report reports suggests Philip engaged in overt acts of aggression and child abuse. The couple has two children. Philip has sole custody of both.

But Kassandra Was Convicted, Not Philip

Kassandra Levens’ criminal trial seems to have turned on the testimony of an informant Philip allegedly hired to set her up.

The informant seems to have pretended to be Kassandra’s ‘knight in shining armor’ to rescue her from the incessant beatings of her husband, but was actually paid by him.

Philip and the informant worked with Los Angeles homicide detective Barry Tellis.

The upshot was that the informant, a man with a long criminal history, named Gary Mazel, gave testimony at trial that Kassandra solicited him to murder Philip. Before and after his testimony, he made contradictory statements and efforts to recant.

Reportedly, after Philip would not pay him his full fee for the perjurious entrapment and setup of Kassandra, and after Kassandra’s arrest [but prior to trial] Mazel actually threatened to kill Philip because he said he was a wife beater and child abuser.

Mazel called Philip, according to transcripts, ‘A fucking wife beating, child molester, mother fucker.”

Mazel was arrested for this threat, but was offered a plea deal: The felony charge was dropped and Mazel was permitted to serve 120 days in a drug rehab in return for his [perjurious?] testimony that Kassandra hired him to murder Philip, according to sources familiar with the case.

Among evidence in police possession, but not used in trial or shared with the defense until after the case was concluded, was a recording of Mazel talking to Philip about setting up Kassandra before she could tell authorities about Philip’s child abuse.

Mazel was also recorded calling Kassandra’s attorney where he offered to testify for Kassandra and reveal the entire plot to set her up.  In that phone call, he declares Kassandra was innocent.

After Mazel was arrested for threatening Philip and facing several years in prison, he agreed to switch his story to one where Kassandra solicitated him to commit bodily harm on Philip. Mazel, since it was an entrapment scheme, was not charged for the crime.

At her trial, the judge refused to allow Kassandra’s attorney to present evidence of years of alleged domestic abuse.  The reason the evidence – that the alleged victim, Philip, brutality beat the defendant [his wife] – was not admissible is that a “battered wife syndrome” defense is inadmissible in cases of solicitation – which presumes a premeditated attempt at harming a spouse or domestic partner.

Nevertheless, there was evidence revealed at trial, including an admission from Philip himself on the witness stand, that he, at least occasionally, beat his wife.

Did Philip Get Help From His Friends?

Philip – a top screenwriter in Hollywood, a man evidently with wealth and, it seems, police and DA connections – may have successfully convoluted justice.

Perhaps an innocent women, the true victim, not only went to jail, but lost her children.

What got me interested in this case was that Philip’s personal lawyer and close friend is Marci Levine. Her brother, Darren Levine, was head deputy District Attorney of target crimes that evidently oversaw the criminal prosecution of Kassandra.

It seems a little strange that a brother and sister duo – one the personal attorney of the alleged victim and the other the people’s attorney – should work together to convict Kassandra.

There is more. The case hinged on a pre-planned, organized effort to get Mazel to get Kassandra to ask him to hurt Philip.

Kassandra never admits this, but claims the opposite. She claimed Mazel solicited her and she never sanctioned any action to physically harm Philip.

Philip and Mazel and Los Angeles Homicide Detective Barry Tellis seemed to have planned this in advance. It was during a period, it appears, where Kassandra was allegedly getting the living daylights beat out of her by Philip and fled from the home with her children to a domestic abuse shelter.

Kassandra was reportedly threatening to expose Philip for child abuse.

What is just as troubling as the deputy DA overseeing the case being the brother of Philip’s personal attorney and close friend [she was invited to his most recent wedding], is that the detective for the Los Angeles police department, who set up the case, is evidently also a close friend of Philip’s.

Detective Barry Tellis, was also invited and appears to have accepted the invitation to Philip’s wedding to actress Carolyn Stotesbery on July 27 of this year.

How often does a detective that worked on a sting that put a wife in jail later attend the husband’s next wedding?

Is Philip Dangerous?

Neighbors and friends of Philip said he kept a large collection of guns at his house. One former neighbor, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he said he feared Philip’s violence and his law enforcement connections – said he saw Philip beat Kassandra.

His wife said she also witnessed beatings, saying she saw Kassandra run out of the house with a black eye and cry for help. She witnessed Philip screaming at the top of his lungs threatening her.

“He had a violent, uncontrollable temper,” she said.

Police, she said, were sometimes called. But he was somehow never arrested.

A judge in 2012 reportedly ordered Philip to get rid of his gun collection as part of a restraining order, after Kassandra accused him of physical abuse.

Philip Might Be a Victim

In  the #MeToo era – a man – one of Hollywood’s elite – who got away with repeated violence to his wife could not easily slip below the radar.  Kassandra may be in fact guilty.

Philip Levens’ IMBD shows him to be a successful and enduring screenwriter in Hollywood. Kassandra is merely a convicted felon who lost custody of her children after her arrest and incarceration.

Philip has custody of the children. Kassandra does not have visitation.

Certainly the courts do not err. Of could they?

If Kassandra is indeed guilty, then taking another look at this already public case will not be harmful – for Philip was tarnished by some of the allegations.  Surely he will appreciate setting the record straight once and for all – if he is innocent.

 He will be accorded ample opportunity to speak on the record.

If by chance Philip actually managed, with the help of powerful friends – the DA and a police detective  – to frame his wife – and get custody of their children –  it might be helpful if the public got the opportunity to know that their criminal justice system failed.

This will also benefit Kassandra, if she is innocent. For now she is known as a convicted felon with the black stain of being convicted for trying to solicit a man to do bodily harm to her husband.

Kassandra Is Out of Prison

The trial transcripts suggest the jury sympathized with Kassandra and acquitted her on the more serious charge of solicitation to commit murder, that would have sent her to prison for 12 years.

They convicted her of solicitation to do Philip bodily harm, which carried a penalty of two years.

Since Kassandra had been held without bail for 13 months in jail prior to the trial, their verdict on the lesser charge freed her from jail with time served. [Every one day in jail counts as two days in prison. Kassandra, though convicted, was freed from jail following the jury’s verdict.]

That is not to say the jury thought Kassandra was innocent. But, they were not permitted to hear the full story of Philip’s alleged relentless beatings.  Nor did they hear tapes of Mazel speaking with Philip allegedly setting up the framing of Kassandra.

The fact that Mazel was paid by Philip – not Kassandra – that Mazel was specifically working for Philip when he allegedly said he was hired by Kassandra to harm Philip was never developed in evidence at trial.

 

Reportedly Philip has been married four times. His fourth wife, Carolyn Stotesbery is an actress, model and writer. They married yesterday.

Stay tuned.