Fuhrman Image Based On Fantasies Former Detective Exaggerated Experiences, Newspaper Says

Former Detective Mark Fuhrman became a symbol of police bigotry and brutality during the O.J. Simpson trial, but federal, state and local investigators have found little evidence he committed the crimes he boasted of to a screenwriter, The New York Times reported Saturday.

Furthermore, interviews with more than 40 of Fuhrman’s colleagues, friends and critics, as well as a review of confidential police documents, suggest that many of his lurid stories were simply concocted by an egotistical and troubled man, the Times reported.

Defense lawyer Johnnie Cochran portrayed Fuhrman as a “lying, perjuring, genocidal racist.” Prosecutor Marcia Clark called him the “worst LAPD has to offer.” And several jurors cited his untrustworthiness in deciding to acquit Simpson in the slayings of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman.

But the Los Angeles public defender’s office reported that its review of the 35 most serious cases in which Fuhrman had been the investigating officer since 1988 showed virtually no complaints against him.

“Astoundingly, there was not a single complaint about planting evidence,” Michael Clark, a deputy public defender, said in a statement in January. Nor were there any complaints about racial misconduct.

On the contrary, Clark said in the statement, “there were some compliments paid to Fuhrman by arrestees,” some of whom were members of minorities.

Clark concluded that although Fuhrman might well be a racist, he had “grossly exaggerated” his experiences on the tapes.

There are now three investigations into his conduct: a civil rights investigation by the FBI, an inquiry into whether he committed perjury by the California attorney general’s office, and a review of all his cases by the Los Angeles Police Department.

The Times reported that all three investigations have found little to back up Fuhrman’s boasts to screenwriter Laura Hart McKinny in tapes that were played at the trial.

Fuhrman told McKinny that police officers often manipulate evidence and frame innocent people, and that he enjoyed lining up “niggers against the wall and shooting them.”

But the Times said its own interviews found that Fuhrman’s public image is based in large part on his fantasies, and often has been at odds with his everyday life.

For example, Fuhrman made racist comments, yet counted blacks among his close friends. He boasted of violent exploits as a Marine in Vietnam, yet spent the war on a ship in the South China Sea. He cultivated a reputation as a macho officer, yet he really wanted to be an artist.

“Looking back on it, I think he had a real identity problem,” Janet Hackett, who divorced Fuhrman in 1980, told The Times. “He loved art, but he joined the Marines and the police as if he was trying to prove himself. On the outside Mark is very poised, but inside he had the lowest self-esteem you can imagine.”

On March 10, Fuhrman is scheduled to be questioned in the wrongful-death civil suit filed against Simpson by the Brown and Goldman families. Until then, he will not give any interviews, his lawyer told The Times.