Murder in Brentwood (19 page)

In paragraph ten, York provides a blanket disclaimer for her memory. Stating that she was responsible for many officers and read hundreds of reports, York claims that the volume of her work made it difficult for her to remember specific events or individuals. I’m glad that York has been so able to put our difficulties behind her that she now no longer remembers them. Perhaps the next time we meet, she’ll say “Good morning.”

Around the same time as her declaration, news reports quoted York as saying I was a “productive officer.” While there were no statements like that in her declaration, the quotes must have come from somewhere. If she did think I was a productive officer, why did she do everything she could to curtail my effectiveness? She subjected me to intense scrutiny, both by herself and her subordinates. This attention was unwarranted and also undocumented. Perhaps that’s why she finds it so difficult to remember.

York was also quoted as saying, “I possess no relevant material or personal knowledge of Officer Fuhrman, nor do I possess any information relevant to this [O.J. Simpson] case.”

The same news reports also contained the defense’s claims that not only was I investigated for “Men Against Women,” but I was also “the subject of an internal investigation of charges that he used excessive force and that he harbored racist attitudes.” Of course, if those investigations did occur, they came up empty because I never heard of them. But the defense didn’t want to waste an opportunity to smear me.

In the trial, Johnnie Cochran first made a motion to call York as a witness. But then he withdrew the motion. Why would Cochran want to overcomplicate an already complicated defense strategy by calling the judges wife as a witness to a supposedly sexist complaint? There was no relevance to sexism in the case, and no female defendant involved. There was nothing that York and I engaged in that had any bearing on this case whatsoever. It had bearing only on Judge Ito.

Cochran received an unsigned statement from Donald Evans. The statement reads, in part:

“Captain York was also directly involved in internal affairs investigations which centered on Detective Fuhrman that [concerned] alleged gender and racial bias. Captain York also personally counseled Detective Fuhrman regarding these issues while I was stationed with the two of them at West Los Angeles station, but I have read her declaration and she is factually inaccurate.”

Why didn’t Cochran use this statement in court? Was it because he preferred to have Ito on the bench, knowing he had material information that the judge’s wife had been less than truthful?

If York remembered our professional relationship the way I did, or even came close, the inference would be that she harbored animosities that would have been conveyed to the closest person in her life, her husband Judge Ito. Had she not talked to Ito about me, then it seems to me that describing our problems to Judge Rappe would have been irrelevant, because she could truthfully say that she never mentioned me to Ito. By failing to remember me except as a name in roll call, she put more distance between the two of us than would have been necessary, unless she had something to hide.

Judge Ito might have recused himself. But he didn’t. Instead, he remained on the case, putting himself in a vulnerable position that the defense could have exploited at any time.

The controversy surrounding York, Ito, and me is something that the media could have investigated further, but didn’t. The evidence was there. The people were available to interview; why didn’t the media pursue it? Needless to say, Marcia Clark let this slip away and we were left with Lance Ito presiding over the trial. It was the first mistake Marcia made, but not the only one.

Let’s assume that York never mentioned me to Ito nine years ago. Let’s assume she was unlike just about every other married professional and didn’t take her work home with her.

Along comes the preliminary hearing of a celebrity murder case. Would an LAPD captain and a Superior Court judge not watch any of the coverage? After my testimony in the preliminary hearing, I was on television several times, day and evening. Newspapers covered the hearings and my testimony extensively. Is it really possible that York never commented about me to her husband?

There are dozens of officers and detectives I could name who would corroborate the professional relationship Margaret York and I had in 1985 and 1986. I would gladly provide these names to county or state investigators attempting to learn the facts surrounding her statements to Judge Rappe. I would equally cooperate with the LAPD s Internal Affairs personnel, as their interest should be of a higher level; after all, York actually supervises this sensitive division.

Did Captain Margaret York, Commanding Officer of Internal Affairs Division, lie to a Superior Court judge? Did she do it in a willful attempt to deceive not only the judge, but the judicial system as well? If she did, then not only did York’s conduct affect the outcome of the Simpson trial, but she could possibly have affected it more than any one person.

The defense played the race card, but Ito let them. Although armed with relevant case law concerning the racial issues in the case, which clearly dictated that race should not be an issue, Ito allowed it to become one. He allowed the defense to spin their bizarre conspiratorial fantasies throughout the trial. He had a choice: He could have controlled the courtroom and the trial, or he could let the defense get away with their race-baiting and lies. For whatever reasons, personal, legal, or political, Ito chose the road most devastating to me, the one player in the trial who had an adversarial relationship with his wife. He allowed the trial of O.J. Simpson to become the trial of Mark Fuhrman. The most tragic result was not my own difficulties which arose from the trial, but how the families of the two victims were cheated from watching O.J. Simpson sit behind bars for the rest of his life.

Chapter 13

THE EVIDENCE

THE BUNDY MURDERS were not as complicated as they were depicted to be. Any experienced detective could tell you that the suspect would be hard pressed to leave any more evidence than the murderer did. The only way the evidence could be more incriminating to O.J. Simpson would be if he had left a videotape of himself committing the murders.

What follows is an annotated list of the major pieces of evidence found in the investigation.

PHYSICAL EVIDENCE

The suspect in the Bundy murders entered that property wearing two gloves. The left-handed glove was dropped at Bundy and the right-handed glove was discarded at Rockingham.

ON THE GLOVE FOUND AT BUNDY

1. One hair from Nicole.

2. Fibers with blood on them consistent with fibers from Ron’s shirt.

3. Fibers consistent with those of Ron’s jeans.

4. Dog hair from the Akita.

The glove at Bundy was not an innocently discarded item of clothing. Bloody fibers from Ron’s shirt had been transferred onto the glove. That glove definitely came into contact with Ron. There were also fibers consistent with Ron’s jeans on the glove, another corroborative indication that the glove came into contact with his body in at least two places. From the dog hair, we can conclude two things: that the dog’s hair was prevalent throughout the entire property at Bundy, and that the dog probably investigated the bodies after they had fallen.

ON THE
 
ROCKINGHAM GLOVE

1. Several hairs from Nicole, one with blood on it.

2. Three hairs from Ron, ripped or torn from his head.

3. Fibers consistent with those from Ron’s shirt.

4. A number of hairs from the Akita.

5. One unusual type of fiber from the Broncos carpet.

6. Blue-black cotton fibers consistent with similar fibers found on Ron’s shirt.

The Rockingham glove was shown to be a match with the Bundy glove. It had many pieces of evidence that connected both crime scenes. The Rockingham glove, worn by the murderer, held the knife that committed the murders. On this glove, we have the blood of both victims and of Simpson himself. We have hairs from Nicole, one with blood on it. Three hairs from Ron, ripped or torn from his head. We have additional fibers consistent with Ron’s shirt, one fiber from the Bronco carpet, and blue-black cotton fibers consistent with similar fibers found on Ron’s shirt and consistent with the apparel Simpson was seen wearing earlier in the evening by Kato Kaelin.

The Rockingham glove was damning because it carried blood from both the victims and the accused.

Reviewing the evidence on both gloves, we could conclude that whoever had these gloves on was involved in the death of both Ron and Nicole. The physical evidence on these gloves connects them irrefutably as the right and left hand of the murderer. Notwithstanding any further evidence, we have connected the two murdered victims to O.J. Simpson. He can’t account for his whereabouts the hour of the murders. He can’t account for the cut on his finger. And how his blood could have gotten on the Rockingham glove was never addressed. Absent anything else, the Rockingham glove should have been enough to convict him.

THE SOCKS FROM THE MASTER BEDROOM

1. Blue-black cotton fibers.

2. Blood from Simpson and Nicole.

The blue-black cotton fibers are no doubt from the clothes that Simpson wore the night of the murders. Now we have the same fibers found on Ron’s shirt, the Rockingham glove, and the socks found in Simpson’s bedroom. This, by itself, would loosely connect the Rockingham glove and the socks found in his bedroom. But when it was discovered that Simpson’s and Nicole’s blood both were found on the socks, this put a bleeding Simpson at the scene after Nicole was cut.

The defense’s theory that the Rockingham glove was planted and the socks were splashed with blood seems ridiculous considering that whoever supposedly committed these acts would also have had to make sure that both items had the same blue-black fibers on them.

ON RON GOLDMAN’S SHIRT

1. One hair consistent with Simpson’s.

2. Twenty-five hairs from Nicole.

3. Several hairs from the Akita.

4. Four torn fibers from Nicole’s dress.

5. Several fibers from the knit cap.

6. One fiber consistent with the cashmere lining of both gloves.

7. Many blue-black fibers.

Although the Rockingham glove and the black dress socks are very incriminating, Ron’s Goldman’s shirt is an important piece of evidence. On the shirt we have one hair consistent with Simpson’s, plus many blue-black fibers. We have one fiber consistent with the cashmere lining of both gloves. We have several fibers from the knit cap found at the Bundy scene, and two of the most important pieces of evidence that the shirt gives us: four torn fibers from Nicole’s dress, which probably could have been transferred only if Nicole had been involved in a physical confrontation with the suspect before his contact with Goldman. The dress fibers and the twenty-five hairs from Nicole show me that Ron had contact with Nicole physically, no matter how slight, before Simpson engaged him in a battle for his life.

Of the items of evidence described thus far, we can make some absolute connections. At the time of the murders, Simpson is forever connected to both gloves, the knit cap, both victims, and the Bronco.

ON RON
 
GOLDMAN’S
 
PANTS

1. Several hairs consistent with Nicole’s.

2. Several hairs from the Akita.

There were no hairs from Ron on Nicole’s body or dress. This would indicate that Ron made contact with Nicole in such a way that he left no trace evidence. Considering the position of Nicole’s body slumped on the steps of the Bundy residence, when Goldman would have first approached her, Nicole’s hair would come in direct contact with his body. But Ron’s hair would not come in contact with hers.

ON THE BLUE KNIT CAP FOUND AT BUNDY

1. Several hairs from the Akita.

2. Twelve hairs matching that of O.J. Simpson’s. All these hairs were naturally shed, not ripped. Ten came from the inside of the cap and two from the outside.

3. Several fibers consistent with Ron’s shirt.

4. One fiber consistent with the cashmere lining of both gloves.

5. One unusual fiber consistent with the Bronco’s carpet.

Simpson s hair was all over the knit cap. The placement of the hairs on the cap suggest they were shed naturally as he wore it. Nobody planted the cap on his head. There is no way he could argue that it wasn’t his. He is connected to the cap at the murder scene. The transfer of the fibers consistent with Ron’s shirt no doubt occurred during the struggle when the cap was pulled from Simpson’s head.

(All matches are based on Cellmark Diagnostics and Department of Justice DNA lab reports)

The blood evidence in this case is total and absolute incrimination of O.J. Simpson. Not one particle of blood evidence points to anyone other than Simpson and the two victims.

BLOOD EVIDENCE AT BUNDY

1. Blood drop near victims matching Simpson’s.

2. Four blood drops on walkway all matching Simpson’s.

3. Blood on rear gate matching Simpson’s.

4. Two footprints of size twelve Bruno Magli loafers in blood matching Nicole’s.

5. Blood stain from Ron’s boot matched both his and Nicole’s.

The blood from the footprints was tested and proved to be Nicole’s blood. Further evidence at the Bundy scene still irrefutably connects Simpson to these murders. A blood drop near the victims matched Simpson’s. The blood drops on the walkway to the left of the bloody shoeprints matched Simpson’s. The blood on the rear gate where the suspect exited also matched Simpson’s. The shoeprints matched Simpson’s shoe size and were the distinct impression of a pair of expensive casual shoes that Simpson was later proved to have owned, which he denied owning until a photograph of him wearing them was produced. Then he claimed the photograph was a fraud.

Once the evidence was disseminated and analyzed, the progression of the murders could at least be generally stated, and the murderers actions, the evidence he left at the scene, and the way he exited from the property were completely documented. Everything pointed to one and only one person-O.J. Simpson.