Alleged Spitzer Caller Apologizes To Hemmerdinger

It's official: Roger Stone, the former state Senate Republican strategist accused of making a threatening phone call to Governor Spitzer's 83-year-old father, no longer believes he was set up by his Manhattan landlord, Dale Hemmerdinger, a Democratic fund raiser nominated by the governor to be the chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

Yesterday, Mr. Stone dropped off a two-page apology in the mailbox of Mr. Hemmerdinger, a real estate executive who lives several floors above him in an apartment building on Central Park South.

In his letter, Mr. Stone said, "It was inappropriate for me to suggest that just because you are a major Democratic fund raiser, major Spitzer fund raiser, and the Governor's appointee to the MTA, that you would wrongly enter my apartment or have someone do so on your behalf, even though management has access and keys to every apartment."

He wrote: "I regret any inconvenience or distress my initial comments may have caused."

Two weeks ago, lawyers for the elder Mr. Spitzer accused Mr. Stone, a longtime national Republican consultant with a colorful history of punishing his opponents, of leaving a taunting message on his answering machine.

The caller, whose message was recorded by the lawyers and released to the press, apparently was traced back to Mr. Stone's apartment. The person said Mr. Spitzer's father would be "arrested and brought to Albany" if he refused to cooperate with a Senate investigative committee and described the governor as a "phony, psycho, piece of s—."

Mr. Stone, who was subsequently fired from his job as a paid consultant for Senate Republicans, a post he held for two months, denied making the call and initially pinned the blame on Mr. Hemmerdinger, whom he accused of getting into his apartment and using his phone.