Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 26, 1994 TAG: 9406260119
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES LENGTH: Medium
Simpson's ex-wife, Nicole, placed the emergency call last fall after Simpson allegedly broke into her home. Much of the tape remains unintelligible or out of context, but comments that previously were inaudible can be heard in the enhancement.
"No use me hitting you. You know, I don't give a ---- anymore," Simpson says.
"Could you please leave? Please leave. Please leave," Nicole Simpson says.
"I'm leaving with my two fists is when I'm leaving," Simpson responds.
The tape was digitally analyzed and enhanced for the AP by audio expert George Papcun of the Los Alamos National Laboratory in Los Alamos, N.M.
Meanwhile, a member of the grand jury investigating Simpson said he and other jurors heard the 911 tapes on television.
"The only way you could avoid it was not watch TV," the unidentified juror told the Los Angeles Times in a report published Saturday.
The grand jurors had been told not to view, listen to or read reports about the Simpson case. But the juror said they were not told to avoid TV.
"This was just news," he said. "It was a surprise to us when it came on."
The release of the 911 tapes prompted Superior Court Judge Cecil Mills to end the grand jury's probe Friday. Prosecutors will now bring the case to a judge Thursday to determine if there is enough evidence for a trial.
The juror refused to say if the panel had been near an indictment.
Simpson is accused of killing Nicole Simpson, 35, and her friend, Ronald Goldman, 25. He has pleaded innocent to two counts of first-degree murder.
Police Chief Willie Williams said he didn't want to release the 911 tapes, but was told by a prosecutor and the city attorney that he had to.
"We felt that there was a danger that it would be perceived that we were dumping on Mr. Simpson, that we were trying to taint the jury pool," Williams told the San Gabriel Valley Newspapers in an interview published Saturday.
But District Attorney Gil Garcetti said he would have fought to keep the tapes secret. Suzanne Childs, a spokeswoman for Garcetti, said a police official had told prosecutor David Conn only that the department had "a public information request for a previous incident involving the Simpsons."
Unaware that 911 tapes were involved, Conn told the official to handle the request in the usual way, Childs said.
The tapes recorded two calls Nicole Simpson made Oct. 25. She is heard pleading for help and sobbing while a man in the background screams at her, often using vulgarities.
In other developments:
Republican presidential hopeful Jack Kemp, Simpson's friend and former teammate, appeared Saturday on CNN. He called the tapes' release "outrageous."
Nicole Simpson's sister said she has difficulty thinking of her slain sibling as a battering victim.
"It wasn't a horror story all of the time. She was very devoted to him," Denise Brown told the Orange County Register in a report Saturday.
"We know O.J. has a temper. Nicole has a temper. To me, being a battered wife is like an everyday occurrence or somebody gets drunk and then beats his wife all the time. That was not happening to her."
Simpson, who has been jailed since his arrest June 17, was visited Saturday by his longtime friend and personal attorney Robert Kardashian and LeRoy Taft, another personal attorney.
"We just discussed nice, fun things" like golf and the NBA finals, Kardashian said. "We didn't really get into anything heavy."
Kardashian said Simpson was "encouraged" by the dismissal of the grand jury.
Memo: NOTE: below