Lawyers Hustle To Prepare For Simpson Trial Evidence In Wrongful-Death Suit Includes Photo Of ‘Ugly’ Shoes

With the deadline fast approaching for the wrongful-death lawsuit against O.J. Simpson, attorneys are hurrying to check a photo that might show him wearing a pair of shoes he denied owning.

Lawyers from both sides also are exploring a therapist’s recent testimony that Simpson and his ex-wife had a fight just days before she was killed, and they’re getting ready to put questions to more witnesses.

This week, lawyers will travel to Chicago, St. Louis and Kansas City for depositions, which for most witnesses must be completed by June 25. Trial in the suit brought by the relatives of Ronald Goldman and the estate of Nicole Brown Simpson is set for Sept. 9.

One of those witnesses is football star and longtime Simpson friend Marcus Allen, who resisted efforts to force him to testify at Simpson’s criminal trial. He agreed to submit to a deposition Friday in Kansas City.

Simpson is being sued for monetary damages over the June 12, 1994, knife murders of Nicole Simpson and Goldman outside Nicole Simpson’s Brentwood condominium.

The photo is just one piece of recently uncovered evidence that has raised plaintiff attorneys’ hopes.

At the criminal trial that ended with Simpson’s acquittal on murder charges, prosecutors introduced evidence that bloody footprints near the bodies were made by a size-12 Bruno Magli shoe that was only sold in a few places in the United States.

Simpson wears a size 12 shoe, but prosecutors didn’t link him to a Bruno Magli of any model.

In depositions, Simpson testified he didn’t own that model of shoe and would never buy something he considered so ugly.

But sports photographer Harry Scull of Buffalo, N.Y., turned up a picture in his files showing Simpson wearing what appears to plaintiff experts to be a Bruno Magli, in the same style as the one that left the footprints, said sources.

The photo of Simpson was taken at a Buffalo Bills-Miami Dolphins game in Buffalo on Sept. 26, 1993 - less than nine months before the murders, sources said. In the picture, Simpson’s shoes are clearly visible, including part of the sole of the right shoe. The issue will be whether the photo is authentic.

Among other developments, a therapist testified last week in Los Angeles that Nicole Simpson recounted being struck by Simpson during a fight about a week before her murder, said sources, speaking on condition of anonymity. The therapist’s credibility is expected to be strongly challenged by Simpson’s attorneys.