Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 18, 1995                   TAG: 9501180077
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: C-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES                                LENGTH: Short

PROSECUTORS: SIMPSON HIT 1ST WIFE, TOO

The prosecution documents contradict Marquerite Simpson Thomas' longstanding contention that Simpson never abused her during their marriage from 1967 to 1979.

In the papers, a police officer says he responded to a domestic violence call at some point during those years and that Simpson's then-wife told him that Simpson had hit her.

Thomas told police Simpson called her the morning of June 17 - the day he was supposed to surrender to authorities on murder charges in the slayings of his second wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman.

``O.J. told everyone that he was `framed' for the murders and was going to commit suicide,'' Thomas said.

She said their son, Jason, got on the phone and ``told his father not to kill himself and that everyone needed him.''

The statement was contained in court papers filed Friday and unsealed Tuesday in an effort by prosecutors to force Thomas to testify at Simpson's murder trial. Opening statements were scheduled for Thursday.

- Associated Press