ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, February 5, 1996 TAG: 9602050026
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
O.J. Simpson's performance in his as-yet-incomplete deposition has created new problems for his own lawyers and new opportunities for the attorneys representing the families and estates of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Lyle Goldman in their wrongful death suits against the former football star, leading legal analysts said.
The Los Angeles Times' publication Saturday of extended excerpts from Simpson's five-day interrogation by Daniel Petrocelli, lead attorney for Goldman's father, Fred, gave the analysts and others their first look behind the closed doors that previously shielded from scrutiny Simpson's first sworn account of the events surrounding the murders of his ex-wife and her friend.
Though they practice or teach law across the bar's spectrum, the experts - many of whom have followed the case from the outset - all focused on two themes that seemed to dominate the first testimony Simpson has given while under oath: The former NFL star's absolute denial that he ever battered his then-wife; and his contradiction of limousine driver Allan Park, who was regarded as one of the most appealing and credible witnesses to testify against Simpson in the double-murder trial that ended in acquittal.
Los Angeles County District Attorney Gil Garcetti left no doubt about what he thought the impact of putting Simpson under oath has been so far. ``The flower of truth unfolds when someone is questioned by a skilled lawyer,'' he said. ``When all is said and done, the whole truth will have blossomed.''
A pair of leading civil lawyers said that the fact that these two lines of inquiry - both apparently damaging to Simpson - immediately emerged into such high relief was characteristic of the pretrial deposition process on which the civil lawsuit relies.
``A deposition is like pinning a moth to a wall,'' said attorney Brian C. Lysaght. ``The wings may continue to flail, but the bug has nowhere to go. By definition, then, a deposition can never help the person being questioned. It can only give ammunition to an adversary. The only question is, how much?''
Another prominent trial lawyer, who asked not to be identified, said he thought it was no accident that what emerges from the 1,534-page transcript of the interrogation so far ``is a wealth of information that casts doubt on the only thing that O.J. Simpson has going for him, which is his charisma, a quality most people translate into credibility. This deposition is meaningless, other than as a vehicle for letting O.J. Simpson hang himself. But I think he gave Fred Goldman's attorneys enough rope to hang him in a civil courtroom, where a verdict can be reached on a preponderance of the evidence by as few as nine people.''
Simpsonis now at what appears to be the mid-point in his pretrial deposition for the pending civil suits, scheduled for trial April 2 in Santa Monica Superior Court.
Even at this stage, a number of analysts question what some call the defense's high-risk strategy of allowing Simpson to portray himself as the victim of an erratic and physically abusive wife, who according to him also abused drugs and alcohol.
``Trashing the victim is always a bad strategy,'' said Professor Laurie Levenson of Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. ``People will be outraged that he's not taking responsibility for his actions, and that he's making accusations about Nicole, who had her throat slashed. The witnesses against him may start coming out of the woodwork.''
Publication of the deposition's content, Levenson said, has changed the tenor of the case. ``It's no longer O.J. vs. the police, who are everyone's favorite bad guy. Now it's O.J. vs. the victims.''
LENGTH: Medium: 68 linesby CNB