Plaintiffs Ask Judge To Reject Theory That Simpson Framed

O.J. Simpson’s lawyers have failed to meet even the most minimal standard of proof for their police frameup theory and should be barred from using it in his wrongful death trial, lawyers for the plaintiffs said Tuesday.

Attorneys for the families of Ronald Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson said a packet of defense documents Simpson’s lawyers provided under orders from the judge included no proof that evidence was planted by police.

The frameup theory was key to Simpson’s acquittal on murder charges last year.

The plaintiffs’ motion advises Superior Court Judge Hiroshi Fujisaki that “It is time for the court to end this long-running charade.”

“Defendant’s ‘evidence’ is not - and never has been - sufficient to permit him to make the highly charged, inflammatory, confusing, time-consuming and ultimately absurd argument” about a police frameup, the court papers say.

Attorneys are under a gag order, and there was no immediate response from the Simpson lawyers in court or in legal documents.

The papers were filed as jury selection ground on before Fujisaki. Six more potential jurors were accepted Tuesday, for a total of 62. The judge wants 100 people in the pool before beginning more detailed questioning.

Simpson, 49, was acquitted last year of murdering Goldman and his ex-wife, but their families are determined to hold him responsible in civil court.

Evidence planting is key to the defense case in this second trial, and many prospective jurors - nearly all of them black - said they believed in Simpson’s innocence in part because they felt Simpson was framed.

But the plaintiffs argued that Simpson has no proof that police planted a bloody glove at Simpson’s house, as well as blood at the murder scene, in the house and in Simpson’s Bronco.

“Simpson does not identify a single person who planted the evidence,” the papers say. “He does not state when the evidence was planted. He does not explain how the evidence was planted.”