Glove, Blood, But No Fuhrman For Prosecution Rebuttal
In their hurryup rebuttal case, O.J. Simpson prosecutors showed that they believed Mark Fuhrman was beyond repair, Henry Lee wasn’t beyond reproach and that when all else fails, bring back the glove man.
Prosecutors pared a list of 60 witnesses to 13, called over five days to keep things hopping so the weary, sequestered jury doesn’t lose all interest and blame its plight on the district attorney’s office.
The jury hadn’t seen this much testimony in a court week since the end of August, when Lee took the stand for the defense.
The prosecution’s answer to a still-unfinished defense case is expected to wrap up Monday with the end of testimony from an FBI shoe print expert. He did what no other witness dared to do: challenge the internationally renowned Lee.
Apparently rattled by FBI agent William Bodziak’s testimony, Lee called a news conference in his home state of Connecticut and took the unusual step of commenting on evidence and testimony during the trial. He could still be recalled for more testimony.
Legal analysts said Bodziak’s statement that the defense, through Lee, mischaracterized murder-scene blood stains as a second set of shoe prints injected much-needed life into a prosecution case wilted by the defense attack on Fuhrman.
“It was just what the prosecution needed,” said Southwestern University law professor Myrna Raeder. “This is a very strong ending for the rebuttal case, assuming that (defense attorney) Barry Scheck is not able to come back with anything that will dynamite Bodziak’s testimony.”
As for Fuhrman, skewered by his own racist words on tape, the prosecution didn’t even try to rehabilitate him. Fuhrman was so badly discredited by the defense that some legal experts had anticipated a lengthy rebuttal to put space between the Fuhrman tapes and jury deliberations.
Fuhrman wasn’t the only issue missing from the rebuttal.
The prosecution decided against putting on any evidence of the notorious slow-speed chase with Simpson in his Ford Bronco. That included what the prosecution said was testimony about Simpson’s personal attorney hauling away a bunch of cash from Simpson’s safe-deposit box the day of the chase.
Prosecutor’s also didn’t present any of the several witnesses who could say that fibers on the bloody glove found behind Simpson’s house almost certainly match carpeting in the Bronco. This testimony, which could have countered the suggestion that Fuhrman planted the glove, was barred by the judge.
The glove on Simpson’s property matched one found near the slashed bodies of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman, who were murdered on June 12, 1994.
Also abandoned was an effort to call Donald Dutton, who has studied the behavior of homicidal spouses. He was expected to respond to defense suggestions that Simpson didn’t act like a killer in the hours after the murder.
It also appears that the prosecution won’t call any witnesses to elaborate on the testimony of defense witness Robert Heidstra, who said he was walking his dog the night of the slaying and heard voices, a gate clang and a barking dog, then saw a Jeeplike vehicle speed away.
The rebuttal witnesses were billed as likely to say that Heidstra gave them information that is much more incriminating: that the voices sounded like Simpson’s baritone, and the speeding vehicle looked like Simpson’s white Bronco.
The prosecution did, however, bring back one familiar face. Glove expert Richard Rubin returned for his fourth stint on the stand and testified that gloves Simpson wore during football broadcasts were the same unique model as the evidence gloves.
And, prosecutors put on state crime lab technician Gary Sims to heap more DNA evidence against Simpson.
But it was the FBI witnesses who formed the heart of the rebuttal, if only because they served to knock down by a few notches a witness who once was seen as standing taller than them all. That witness was Lee, whose testimony about mysterious parallel-line bloodstains had been used by the defense to try to discredit the prosecution’s single-killer theory.
“If the jury believes Bodziak,” said UCLA law professor Peter Arenella, “the defense’s two-killer theory just took a serious hit.”
The defense wants to cast doubt on all of the FBI testimony by calling a whistleblower who will testify about general problems and corruption involving the FBI crime lab, and about wrongdoing in the Simpson case.
And in a preview of more legal wrangling, The Los Angeles Times reported that prosecutors have turned over to the defense discovery materials related to the conduct of police Detective Philip Vannatter, who was with Fuhrman and other detectives during the initial search of Simpson’s home. The defense has unsuccessfully challenged the search as illegal and has sought to have all evidence, including the bloody glove, thrown out.
In a statement, prosecutors said only that the materials related to “previously litigated search and seizure issues.”
xxxx PROSECUTION STRIKES BACK Key points made in the O.J. Simpson prosecution rebuttal: MYSTERY STAINS: An FBI scientist said parallel-line blood stains on a walkway, envelope and piece of paper at the crime scene didn’t come from a second pair of shoes, as the defense suggested. FBI footwear expert William Bodziak said the walkway stains were caused by little bumps in the concrete, and FBI analyst Douglas Deedrick said stains on an envelope, a paper and victim Ronald Goldman’s jeans likely came from the victim’s own clothes. GLOVES: Glove expert Richard Rubin said the gloves Simpson wore during football broadcasts are the same model of gloves that police collected as evidence. One such glove was found near the bodies, another behind Simpson’s house. Both were covered in blood. Prosecutors have tried to link Simpson to the gloves by telling jurors his murdered ex-wife bought two pairs of the same model in 1990. MORE DNA: State crime lab scientist Gary Sims said a late-arriving DNA test found the genetic markers of Simpson and Goldman in a bloodstain on the console of Simpson’s Ford Bronco. The test, called RFLP, corroborated the findings of a less-established, more controversial test that the defense had attacked. Sims also said victim Nicole Brown Simpson’s blood was found in the Bronco. MISSING BLOOD: Jail nurse Thano Peratis, testifying by videotape because he was ill, said he misspoke when he testified in a preliminary hearing that he withdrew 8 milliliters of blood from Simpson the day after the murders. Instead, Peratis said, he withdrew about 6.5 milliliters. Peratis’ original estimate provided the basis for the defense theory that unaccounted-for blood could have been planted by police to frame Simpson.