Simpson Attorneys Try To Show Evidence Tampering Question Police Criminalist About Damaged Glove In Photo

In an apparent effort to show evidence-tampering, O.J. Simpson’s lawyers Wednesday introduced a police photograph of what appears to be a hole on the ring finger of the leather glove found near the bodies of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman, noting that the crime-scene glove introduced at the criminal trial shows no such damage.

The glove evidence, introduced through the testimony of Los Angeles Police criminalist Dennis Fung, was one of two revelations Wednesday. The second was testimony from a Los Angeles police sergeant, Stephen Merrin, who acknowledged that a woman, identifying herself as a reporter, called police at about 10:30 p.m. on the night of the murders, June 12, 1994, and asked whether a double homicide had occurred on the West Side.

The bodies weren’t discovered until shortly before midnight. At the criminal trial, the time of death was put at around 10:20 p.m.; at the civil trial the plaintiffs say the death occurred closer to 10:40 p.m.

Merrin did not testify at the criminal trial, at which Simpson was acquitted in 1995. The current trial is of a wrongful death suit brought by the victims’ families.

Fung, who testified at the criminal trial and for the plaintiffs in the civil case in November, was called back to the stand by Simpson’s lead lawyer, Robert Baker, whose line of questioning suggested there may have been a switch of major evidence in the case.

Fung agreed that the glove in the photograph, for the left hand, appeared to have a hole or a damaged area on the ring finger. Baker then asked Fung to examine the glove booked into evidence.

“There’s no damaged area on the ring finger of that glove, is there?” he demanded.

“No, there is no damage,” Fung replied.

Baker pressed Fung. “Tell us how that happened,” Baker said.

“I can’t explain it,” Fung said.

During a morning break a source close to the case said the plaintiffs were examining the photograph and suggested that the area in question could be showing debris.

Merrin’s testimony was designed to show that police ignored other evidence in the case and targeted Simpson almost immediately. In the afternoon, the jury heard testimony from Larry Fiato, a former boyfriend of Nicole Simpson’s sister Denise Brown, who said one of the lead detectives in the case, Philip Vannatter, told him early in 1995 that Simpson was a suspect early on.

On questioning by defense lawyer Daniel Leonard, Merrin acknowledged that he received a call from a woman identifying herself as a Channel 4 reporter who asked if police were “sitting on two bodies on the West Side.” Merrin was serving as watch commander of the Wilshire precinct on the night of the murders. He said his tour of duty ended at 10:45.

Baker also recalled Brian “Kato” Kaelin in an effort to impeach his testimony about what Simpson was wearing June 12.