Prosecutor Shores Up Key Witness Controversial Detective Begins Testimony In Simpson Trial
Eight months after defense attorneys launched a campaign to portray him as a racist who tried to frame O.J. Simpson for the murders of his ex-wife and her friend, police Detective Mark Fuhrman began testimony Thursday.
Within minutes of taking the stand Fuhrman struck a blow against one of the defense’s key accusations against him, namely that he had made racially charged statements about African Americans.
The charges used by the defense originated with a letter sent to attorney Johnnie Cochran Jr. last year by a woman named Kathleen Bell who claimed to have met Fuhrman at a Los Angeles area Marine recruiting office in 1985 or 1986.
But under questioning Thursday from Deputy District Attorney Marcia Clark, Fuhrman denied ever knowing Bell.
“In 1985 and 1986, sir, can you tell us whether you knew someone or met someone by the name of Kathleen Bell?” Clark asked Fuhrman.
“Yes, I can tell you. I did not,” he responded. It was Fuhrman who found a bloody leather glove in a walkway next to Simpson’s Brentwood mansion that matched one found near the bodies of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman.
The defense claims he planted the glove at Simpson’s house as part of a plot to frame the former football star.
Seeking to undermine the credibility of the key prosecution witness, the defense has portrayed Fuhrman as a Nazi-sympathizing rogue cop who was enraged by interracial couples.
During Thursday’s testimony, the prosecution sought to take on the race issue as a means of defusing it before the defense began questioning Fuhrman.
Clark showed Fuhrman - and the jury through the use of an overhead projector - a copy of the letter Bell had written to Cochran, which was filled with grammatical and spelling errors.
“Officer Ferman said that when he sees a ‘nigger’ (as he called it) driving with a white woman, he would pull them over,” Bell’s letter said. “I asked would if he didn’t have a reason and he said that he would find one.”
The letter could be read by the jury, which includes eight African Americans, and continued with more charges against the detective.
“Officer Ferman went on to say that he would like nothing more than to see all ‘niggers’ gathered together and killed. He said something about burning them or bombing them.”
After court had adjourned for the day, attorney F. Lee Bailey, part of Simpson’s defense team, said that the prosecution had made an error in introducing Bell’s letter.
“I think any African American looking at those phrases … (has) got to have an impression that is going to be hard to get rid of,” said Bailey, who will cross-examine Fuhrman.
After broaching the issue of race, Clark quickly moved on to other matters. Guided through his testimony by the prosecutor, Fuhrman spoke about having first encountered Simpson and his wife in 1985 when, as a patrol officer, he was summoned to their Brentwood estate on a domestic violence call.