1:42 AM - Taking His Stand
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Jordan 11,THE Standard WISDOM Final week was that there
wouldn't be a Perry Mason moment. There would not be a time when O.
J. Simpson would suddenly break down around the stand or make a
mistake so poor as to become decisive. For as soon as the analysts
were right; that momentous occurrence didn't occur. Yet because the
day anticipated by millions was drawing to an end, plaintiffs'
lawyer Daniel Petrocelli approached Simpson and began a series of
questions that stilled the courtroom: You utilized the Bronco to
visit Nicole Brown's condominium that evening . . . You had gloves.
You had a hat. You were wearing a dark sweat outfit. And also you
had a knife?'' Simpson, hesitating ever so slightly, answered:
That's absolutely not accurate.'' You confronted Nicole Brown
Simpson and also you killed her, did not you?'' Petrocelli
continued. That is completely not accurate,'' Simpson replied, now
turning his body to face the jury. And you killed Ronald Goldman,
sir, did you or did you not?'' Petrocelli demanded. That is
completely not true,'' Simpson repeated. And as Petrocelli coursed
via the acquainted occasions, Simpson repeated the denial to every
question, his voice faltering at times and his breathing
occasionally labored. ããOnce
the criminal-trial jury came back with its not-guilty verdict just
over a year ago, the nation stood still and watched. It is a safe
bet to say that, nicely, a large chunk of the nation would have
stood still last Friday--were it not that a judge named Hiroshi
Fujisaki dislikes cameras in the courtroom. In this most
overexposed situation with the century, the only factor missing had
been Simpson himself on the witness stand. Certain, the obsessed
could have caught his $29.95 video or watched a Television
interview he's offered or even read his civil-trial deposition on
the web. But Simpson took a constitutional bye on testifying in his
criminal trial. He could not do that within the civil case, so
final week, and continuing this week, marked the very first time he
needed to answer questions publicly, under oath, from an
adversarial lawyer--and prior to a jury.How did he do? On the
positive side for the defense, a gray-suited Simpson solidly stuck
from the story he had told in his 10-day-long deposition earlier
this year. Petrocelli was difficult pressed to find many
substantial inconsistencies or even get Simpson to express any
doubt. He did not truly bruise Simpson's charisma. Indeed,
Simpson's demeanor, nervous at first, seemed to hit the right
pitch--polite and deferential, showing aggravation at appropriate
moments and expressing heartfelt sentiments toward Nicole at other
people. This is really a woman I love today,'' he stated, whilst
denying any battering. I have always loved her.''But the
performance wasn't flawless. He swore he never'' hit, struck or
slapped his ex-wife--yet jurors viewed photographs of a bruised
Nicole on a giant courtroom television. He produced himself, not
Nicole, the victim, saying it was she who struck him throughout a
battle. He branded her a liar for telling other people he had hit
her. By the end with the day, Simpson had accused just about
everybody he knows, from Nicole to his golfing buddies to loyal
secretary Cathy Randa, of lying. Inexplicably, he even refused to
accept as true a telephone record showing that he had retrieved a
Dear John'' message from his then girlfriend Paula Barbieri on the
night of the murders.The denials did not make for an appealing
picture, and that seemed to be what Petrocelli, via his relentless
burrowing, knew he had to attain. He wanted Simpson to construct a
self-portrait of a man who not just seemed full of rage but
additionally seemed to find everyone a liar but himself. And he
hoped the jury would discover these cascading denials so
implausible that O.J.'s credibility would be destroyed within the
ultimate denial: that he did not kill Nicole and Goldman. Simply
because he could not alter the account he gave in his deposition,
O.J. has boxed himself into a real corner,'' stated Stan Goldman, a
Loyola Law College professor.It was not possible, obviously, to
tell in the event the jury saw it that way. They seemed riveted;
some seemed much more interested in taking copious notes than
watching the former football star. Not so loved ones members with
the victims, who stared hard. The Goldmans and Browns sat behind
their attorneys, close to the jury box. The courtroom, arranged
much like Judge Lance Ito's, was packed with reporters and spec-
tators; it had the same charged at- mosphere that was present the
day Simpson was found not guilty.Within the morning session,
Petrocelli quickly turned towards the concerns of domestic abuse.
Simpson conceded a troubled relationship with Nicole--heated
arguments, thrown pictures, broken lamps--and 1 physical
altercation, the brand new Year's 1989 fight. Simpson had pleaded
no contest in that battle. Petrocelli went through the enlarged
pictures and asked how she got the welts and scrapes. I do not
know,'' Simpson said, but suggested she got them when he was
rassling'' with her to push her out of the bedroom.How numerous
occasions in the program of these physical altercations did you hit
Nicole?'' Petrocelli asked later on.Never,'' he stated.How many
times did you slap Nicole?''Never.''Then in a increasing voice
Petrocelli asked, How numerous times did you beat her,
sir?''Never,'' Simpson declared. He even suggested the facial marks
were brought on by her habit of picking at her blemishes.Retaining
Simpson under a tight rein, Petrocelli took him rapidly through
other tumultuous and apparently violent factors in his relationship
with Nicole. The checklist integrated a half-dozen incidents,
including one when Simpson allegedly slapped Nicole on a seaside.
But Simpson flatly denied they had occurred. Turning to the October
1993 incident at Nicole's home in which Simpson kicked in the door,
Petrocelli read from a police tape of the interview: When he gets
this crazed I get scared . . . He gets a very animal look in him,
his veins pop out and his eyes get black.'' Simpson insisted that
if she had been truly frightened, she would by no means have left
her bedroom to speak to him. When asked about searching
animal''-like, he responded: I can never recall becoming mad and
looking inside a mirror.''Petrocelli read entries from Nicole's
journal that detailed the deteriorating relationship in the last
days of her existence. In one passage Nicole wrote of an
expletive-filled outburst by Simpson. Enraged that she had hung up
on him, he allegedly called her a bitch'' and threatened to make
certain she did not possess a f--king dime left.'' Simpson denied
the entire exchange.Everything in these diary entries is accurate
except exactly where Nicole reports what you said to her?''
Petrocelli asked incredulously. Yes,'' Simpson responded. All that
was a pack of lies?'' Yes,'' stated Simpson.The two men also
sparred more than the final months of the connection between Nicole
and Simpson. Petrocelli tried to display that it was Nicole who
lastly broke off the connection, creating, in the plaintiffs'
theory, an enraged and obsessed Simpson poised to murder.
Petrocelli asked about Kato Kaelin's testimony last week that
seemed to depict Simpson as upset more than his former wife's adore
existence. Kaelin testified that the day prior to the murders he
and Simpson were watching the video of The Globe Based on Garp''
when O.J. said a scene reminded him of an incident in 1993--when he
had peered into the window of Nicole's home and watched his ex-wife
have oral sex with her boyfriend around the sofa.Simpson asserted
that he would not have told Kato about that sexual incident with
Nicole. And he stated it was Nicole who incessantly'' pursued him,
sending him cookies and cakes. I didn't want to cope with any of
her problems,'' he stated, insisting he had ended the
connection.Simpson attempted a bit of humor within the afternoon
session. Asked concerning the request to Kato for change of $100
the night with the murders, Simpson explained that Kato had $73 in
expenses and he had only a $100 note. If he had had $87 I would
have given him the bill, but I wasn't going to provide him $100 for
$73,'' Simpson said. Spectators laughed. But later, following
Simpson joked that he was not dating'' Kato, Petrocelli asked if he
believed the proceeding was funny. No, I don't think any of this
really is funny,'' he replied. I want I had been anywhere but
here.''It was taken as gospel that Simpson's testimony would be
crucial to the outcome with the case. A credible efficiency may
permit jurors to dismiss the physical evidence; a poor one would
only feed into it. But offered the tenor of the situation so far,
it was especially crucial for Simpson to impress the jurors.
Fujisaki has issued a series of pro-plaintiff rulings that largely
block Simpson's attorneys from offering theories of police
conspiracies or planted evidence--theories that served his side so
well in the criminal trial. Just final week Fujisaki also barred
the jury from hearing about former detective Mark Fuhrman's perjury
guilty plea or his testimony within the criminal trial. So Furhman
won't be taking the stand.The plaintiffs also seemed to be staying
away from the error of their predecessors: putting on lengthy and
rambling testimony. And they've added a few elements that the
criminal-trial jurors by no means heard. They presented final week
a photograph of Simpson, broadcasting at a 1993 football game,
wearing the Bruno Magli shoes that the plaintiffs contend he wore
the evening of the murders. The defense says the photo is really a
phony.Meanwhile, in an Orange County juvenile court a type of
parallel battle is becoming waged. Simpson is fighting to regain
custody of his two kids from Nicole Brown's parents, who are
utilizing exactly the same allegations of domestic violence as
their claim to keep the children. NEWSWEEK has learned that within
the weeks before taking the stand in the civil trial, Simpson sat
via about a dozen witnesses' testifying about previous incidences
of alleged abuse for your custody situation. And two weeks ago,
Simpson took the stand himself--a virtual rehearsal for his
performance within the civil trial. He denied every thing,'' a
supply told NEWSWEEK. He's sticking closely towards the
script.''Whether that script has just the proper lines and excess
weight for the civil trial stays to become observed. The defense
hasn't even begun its case however and hopes to rip into what the
jury has heard thus far. As for your public, O.J.'s day in court
has come at last. Will it alter any minds? Not most likely.The
civil situation against Simpson usually follows the terrain with
the criminal trial. Yet in the judge to new evidence, the situation
has turned up important distinctions--and the defense hasn't even
begun.No-nonsense Judge Fujisaki keeps testimony clicking with few
sidebar interruptions. He quickly ruled out speculative defense
attacks and barred cameras.A star-struck Lance Ito ran a loose
ship. The attorneys rambled, and also the situation dragged on far
too long. He gave the defense excellent latitude.This time
plaintiffs introduced a 1998 photo of Simpson wearing the shoes at
a football game, and an FBI agent testified the footwear matched
the footprints discovered at the crime scene.Jurors heard
concerning the size-12 shoes final time, and the footprints left
behind within the blood. But no link was produced directly to
SimpsonKato hurt O.J. testifying that the three notorious thumps
sounded like an individual falling behind his wall. And he stated
O.J. was upset about Nicole and an ex-lover.Fumbling, nervous,
childlike, Kaelin final time gave testimony that was so weak
against O.J. that prosecutors turned him into a hostile
witness.This time it is Mark Who? Whilst the defense has raised his
title, he will not be testifying. The judge barred any mention of
his guilty plea to perjury.The defense rested its theory of racist
cops and planted proof on this former LAPD detective who found the
bloody glove behind O.J.'s Rockingham home.New witness Dr. Werner
Spitz, a pathologist, asserted that a few of the cuts were
fingernail gouges mused by either of the victims fending off the
attacker.Simpson's mysterious cuts were stated to be from a mobile
phone, from a broken glass or, because the prosecution argued,
inflicted during the murder struggle.A plaintiffs' professional
testified that the well-known gloves have shrunk, and they do fit
Simpson. And jurors only saw a tape of O.J. trying around the
gloves, not a reside demo.If they don't match you must acquit, went
the winning mantra, deflecting prosecution attempts to display that
Nicole had purchased the gloves for O.J.The most popular online
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