LOS ANGELES — A judge threatened to hold a former defense attorney for Phil Spector in contempt of court Wednesday after she refused to testify at the legendary music producer's murder trial.

Sara Caplan, the lawyer at the center of allegations that renowned criminalist Dr. Henry Lee hid or destroyed evidence from the scene of an actress's death, told the judge through her attorney that taking the stand against Spector violated attorney-client privilege as well as a legal code of ethics handed "down through the centuries."

"Don't place a defense attorney in the position of having to testify against her former client," the lawyer, Michael Nasatir, urged.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Larry Fidler reiterated his previous ruling that the account of Lee's conduct sought by prosecutors did not amount to privileged material. Fidler said he was prepared to find Caplan in contempt, setting up the possibility she could be jailed until she agreed to take the stand.

Fidler said he had never held an attorney in contempt in his 25 years on the bench and was wary of doing so. He said he would consider how to proceed before testimony resumes Monday morning and ordered Caplan to return to court then.

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"I take this very seriously and I think she is making a terrible mistake," Fidler said.

Prosecutors had planned to call Caplan and a former defense investigator as witnesses to testify Wednesday afternoon. During a hearing last month, both said they saw Lee collect a piece of evidence from Spector's mansion during a search by the defense team. No such evidence was ever turned over to prosecutors.

Lee denied the allegations, but based largely on Caplan's testimony at the hearing, Fidler concluded that the famed forensic scientist had removed a small white object from the home. Prosecutors claim the item was a piece of an acrylic fingernail belonging to the dead actress, Lana Clarkson. Fidler ruled that prosecutors could present evidence to jurors that Lee had concealed the evidence.

Both Caplan's attorney and a member of Spector's current legal team, Roger Rosen, told the judge Wednesday that Spector had ordered Caplan not to testify in the case. Rosen said that, although Caplan ceased being part of Spector's defense team when he fired her colleague, Robert Shapiro, in 2003, her duty to him as a lawyer remained.

"The privilege lives and lives beyond the relationship," Rosen said.

Dr. Henry Lee recovered a small piece of white evidence at the scene of Lana Clarkson's shooting, according to lawyer Sara Caplan.

In the May hearing, Caplan said that, after the sheriff's department crime scene unit had left Spector's mansion, Lee picked up an object the size of a fingernail and placed it in a clear vial.

Fidler cited case law holding that attorney-client privilege did not exist in instances where a lawyer witnessed evidence being destroyed or tampered with outside the presence of prosecutors.

"An attorney is different than no other individual when it comes to following the law," he said.

Caplan's attorney told the judge that she did not want to testify in front of a jury when the stakes were so high for Spector. The 67-year-old faces 15 years to life in prison if convicted of murder in the Feb. 3, 2003, shooting of Clarkson.

"I am appealing to your sense of justice not to do this to my client," Nasatir said.

"My sense of justice applies not only to Mr. Spector and counsel ... [but] also to Ms. Clarkson and to justice itself," the judge replied.

Later, Fidler told Caplan's lawyer, "I'm basically begging you not to do this."

"I'm begging you not to do this," Nasatir shot back.

After that exchange, Caplan, who had been sitting in the spectator's gallery, rose and walked into the well of the courtroom. She appeared shaken. (VIDEO)

"I'm just so upset right now. I never in my life thought I would be in a position like this," she said.

She said she did not believe her testimony was critically important.

"I do not know what I saw. I did not see it leave the premises. I saw something. It was not my call to make," she said.

She suggested the prosecution could rely on the account of defense investigator Stanley White alone and did not need her as a witness.

The judge rejected that argument, saying that White had credibility problems while Caplan, as a former defense insider, was "virtually an unimpeachable witness."

Fidler hinted that if Caplan refuses to testify, he may allow prosecutors to read jurors her testimony from the May hearing.

"Her victory, if you want to call it that ... may be very hollow," he said.

There will be no testimony Thursday to allow Deputy District Attorney Patrick Dixon to attend his daughter's graduation.