Week 33

Sept. 5 - 8, 1995

Jurors also heard a tape recording of Mark Fuhrman's interview with professor and screenwriter Laura McKinny. Speaking on the subject of the effectiveness of female police officers, Fuhrman said, "They don't do anything. They don't go out and initiate contact with some 6'5" nigger that's been in prison for seven years pumping weights."

This testimony came nearly six months after Fuhrman told the court how he scaled the fence at Simpson's home and found a bloody glove. At that time, Fuhrman denied being a racist, planting evidence to incriminate African Americans, or using what has come to be known in the trial as "The N-word." In addition, Fuhrman said that anyone who told the court that he used that word is a liar.

The first defense witness, Kathleen Bell, testified that she met Fuhrman at a Marine recruiting center in 1985 or 1986, found him handsome, and wanted to set him up on a date with her friend, Andrea Terry.

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At one point, Fuhrman told Bell that when he sees a black man driving with a white woman he pulls over the car. Bell said she asked him if he needed a reason. "He said he'd find something. I asked what if they're in love? He said, 'That's disgusting.'" she testified.

In the same conversation, she testified that Fuhrman said, "If I had my way, I'd gather all the niggers together and burn them."

Bell said she called the Los Angeles Police Department after the meeting to report Fuhrman, but could only recall his first name. She said she did not ask for his last name at the recruiting station because she was scared of him.

Bell said she wrote to defense lawyer Johnnie Cochran, Jr. after seeing Fuhrman testify at the preliminary hearing.

Prosecutor Christopher Darden limited his cross-examination and didn't question the veracity of Bell's statements. He only suggested that despite those racist statements, Bell introduced Fuhrman to her friend, a claim Bell denied.

Possibly wary of opening the door for the defense to use more of the Fuhrman tapes, the prosecution was careful in attacking the credibility of witnesses on the race issue.

A second witness, Natalie Singer, testified that Fuhrman's partner Tom Vitrano dated her roommate in 1987, and the officers were frequent guests in her Beverly Hills apartment. She quoted Fuhrman as saying, "The only good nigger is a dead nigger." At a later date, she kicked Fuhrman out of the house for calling her a "fucking bitch." She next saw him several years later testifying against Simpson, prompting her to call the defense.

On cross-examination, prosecutor Marcia Clark tried only to establish that Singer was not as angered by Fuhrman's words as she appeared to be.

Late in the day, McKinny took the stand and described how Fuhrman agreed to work with her in 1985 on her screenplay about women in law enforcement. She said she told Fuhrman to be honest about his opinions and as factual as possible.

Though her plot dealt with sexism, not racism, she said Fuhrman used the "N-word" about 41 times in interviews over the past ten years while describing his experiences as a police officer.

In addition to one taped segment played aloud, jurors were allowed to read a transcript of Fuhrman saying, "We have no niggers where I grew up." The recording of this statement, one of the two that Judge Lance Ito ruled could be played for the jury, was found to be barely audible.

Before McKinny took the stand, the defense called William Blasini, Jr., who said he visited Viertel's, the tow yard where O.J. Simpson's Ford Bronco was held, and saw no blood on the console. He said he went to the yard to bid on some cars and that the manager, Bob Jones, let him look around. He said he found the Bronco doors unlocked, which supports the defense contention that the police had the opportunity to plant evidence.

On cross-examination, prosecutor Clark established that Blasini was a frequent bidder at the yard and that because he had a long relationship with Jones, it was not unusual for him to be left alone to look at the cars.

Blasini continued to insist that there was no blood on the Bronco console, even after Clark introduced blown-up photos of blood stains in the Bronco taken a week before Blasini's visit.

Clark also got Blasini to admit that he wears tinted glasses because he has trouble seeing in fluorescent light, which is how Vertel's is lit.

SEPTEMBER 6 - Former detective Mark Fuhrman returned to the witness stand and invoked the Fifth Amendment when asked whether he lied or planted evidence or filed false reports in the O.J. Simpson investigation.

Fuhrman, who previously testified to finding a bloody glove on Simpson's estate the day after the murders, refused to answer a series of questions from defense attorney Gerald Uelmen.

Among them were: "Was the testimony that you gave in the preliminary hearing in this case completely truthful?" "Have you ever falsified a police report?" and "Did you plant or manufacture any evidence in this case?"

In each instance, Fuhrman turned to his lawyer, Darryl Mounger, then declared, "I wish to assert my Fifth Amendment privilege."

The brief exchange, outside the presence of the jury, came during a hearing in which the defense asked Judge Lance Ito to suppress all the evidence gathered at Simpson's estate from the point when Fuhrman said he found blood on Simpson's car several hours after the murders.

Uelmen asked the judge to exercise his independent judgment on the issue of Fuhrman's credibility vis-a-vis finding blood on the Bronco. He argued that Judge Ito should place no faith in Fuhrman's reasoning for conducting the warrantless search of Simpson's home.

Uelmen argued that the Fuhrman tapes reveal the former police officer's inclination to create whatever facts are necessary to arrest someone and to lie in order to justify an improper search. This suggests, Uelmen argued, that Fuhrman's testimony regarding the Bronco blood spot was suspect.

Finally, Uelmen argued that in order for Judge Ito to assess Fuhrman's credibility accurately, the judge should allow the defense to cross-examine Fuhrman on his statements to professor and screenwriter Laura McKinny.

Prosecutor Cheri Lewis argued that Judge Ito does not have to decide whether he himself believes Fuhrman's preliminary hearing testimony. Instead, she argued, the judge only must consider whether the Fuhrman tapes would have affected Judge Kathleen Kennedy-Powell's decision not to suppress the evidence during the preliminary hearing.

In the end, Judge Ito reserved ruling on the suppression issues but allowed Fuhrman to take the witness stand.

In earlier testimony Wednesday, the defense lawyers offered more details of Fuhrman's racial bigotry.

First, McKinny completed her testimony. Prosecutor Christopher Darden suggested McKinny was being less than truthful about whether she had tried to sell the explosive "Fuhrman tapes." But she insisted: "They are not for sale."

At one point during a discussion of the so-called "N" word, McKinny, who teaches screenwriting at a North Carolina college, asked Darden: "Why are we having this adversarial relationship? The word is vile, why try to make it worse?"

Later in his cross-examination, Darden asked McKinny why she had used the word in a screenplay developed from the tapes if she found it vile.

"Because it is reflective of particular officers', or officer's, dialogue, feelings at a particular time. It would be representative of what would be said," she replied.

Darden produced a four-page document prepared by two entertainment lawyers representing McKinny that he said was an attempt to sell the tapes for $500,000. She said the document was prepared to ascertain the value of the tapes, which she had no intention of selling.

She needed to know the value, she said, for other reasons. "I have had a great deal of the material leaked (to the media) and that's an aspect I would be considering," she said.

She was also asked if her relationship with Fuhrman was purely professional. "It was a business relationship," she told the jury.

She was followed by Roderic Hodge, a black man who said that when Fuhrman arrested him in 1987, he declared: "I told you we'd get you, nigger."

On cross-examination, Hodge told Darden that he filed a complaint about the incident with the police department. Darden then showed him a copy of the complaint, which did not mention Fuhrman's use of the word nigger. On re-direct, Hodge testified there was no doubt that Fuhrman referred to him as a nigger.

SEPTEMBER 7 - Judge Lance Ito rejected the defense's attempt to force former detective Mark Fuhrman to testify again before the jury. But the judge angered prosecutors by ruling that he would tell jurors that Fuhrman was not available for further testimony and that they may consider his unavailability in evaluating his credibility as witness.

The judge then halted the proceedings and granted angry prosecutors a chance to appeal the ruling by noon Friday. The jury was then dismissed until Friday when the defense is expected to rest its case.

In his ruling, Judge Ito conceded that Simpson was prejudiced by the fact that Fuhrman was not cross-examined about defense witnesses Natalie Singer, Roderic Hodge and Laura McKinny. But, he said, California case law clearly states that it's inappropriate to present to the jury a witness whom the lawyers know will invoke the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

The defense had argued that the California cases dealing with the issue do not address the situation in which a witness invokes the Fifth Amendment privilege after having testified. Fuhrman, the defense contended, voluntarily took the witness stand and therefore should have to stay there and answer whatever questions come his way.

Although the prosecution was angered by the judge's ruling, the defense did not get exactly what it wanted. Defense lawyer Gerald Ulemen had asked Judge Ito to consider three remedies, none of which were specifically granted. The defense options were: let the jury hear Fuhrman invoke the Fifth Amendment or be read the transcript of Wednesday when he took the Fifth outside the presence of the jury; give the jury a special instruction explaining that Fuhrman took the Fifth Amendment and what it meant; admit portions of the Fuhrman tapes that describe the former detective manufacturing evidence.

In another ruling, Judge Ito refused to throw out a bloody glove and other prosecution evidence, ruling that Fuhrman's explanation for entering Simpson's estate without a warrant can still be trusted.

In a two-page ruling, the judge said the recently-discovered Fuhrman tapes didn't require the reversal of earlier decisions that admitted evidence found by Fuhrman and other detectives who entered Simpson's estate without a warrant several hours after the murders. The detectives scaled a fence onto Simpson's property after Fuhrman noticed a blood spot on Simpson's Ford Bronco.

The defense had argued the Fuhrman tapes cast doubt on whether Fuhrman was telling the truth about his justification for the warrantless entry. But the judge said Fuhrman's credibility remained intact.

"The testimony of Fuhrman . . . is corroborated by the testimony of other witnesses," the judge wrote.

Meanwhile, defense attorney F. Lee Bailey confirmed that Simpson will not testify in his own defense.

SEPTEMBER 8 - A California appeals court rejected Judge Lance Ito's proposed jury instruction on Mark Fuhrman. The judge had wanted to tell the jury that the former detective was unavailable for further testimony and the panel could consider his unavailability in assessing his credibility as a witness.

In its order, the court said, "Pending further order of this court, the proposed instruction regarding the unavailability of Detective (Mark) Fuhrman is not to be given."

The appeals court said Judge Ito could submit arguments to that court Monday if he wished fight the ruling, but in the meantime he was "ordered not to stay (delay) any other proceedings in this case." The judge decided to comply with the order and voided his instruction.

Fuhrman, who testified earlier to finding the infamous bloody glove on Simpson's estate the morning after the murders, invoked his constitutional right against self-incrimination Wednesday to avoid being cross-examined by the defense over the racial epithet "nigger" which he was heard uttering 42 times in tape recorded conversations with a screenwriter.

Fuhrman had previously sworn on oath that he had never used the racial epithet word in the last 10 years. The audiotape recordings were made between 1985 and 1994.

In the successful writ of appeal, lead prosecutor Marcia Clark wrote that in making the order, Judge Ito had "erred as a matter of law and exceeded his jurisdiction."

WEEK 34