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

DATE: THURSDAY, January 19, 1995                   TAG: 9501190109
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Knight-Ridder Newspapers
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES                                LENGTH: Medium

ITO SAYS JURY CAN HEAR ABOUT PAST VIOLENCE

In a major victory for prosecutors, Judge Lance Ito ruled Wednesday that jurors in the O.J. Simpson murder trial can hear evidence that Simpson beat, tormented and verbally abused his wife Nicole, stalked her after they split and once claimed to know a ``secret way'' to her house where ``sometimes she doesn't even know I'm here.''

In a 10-page ruling that dramatically will shape Simpson's double-murder trial, Ito also ruled that prosecutors could characterize Nicole Brown Simpson as a ``battered wife'' and Simpson as a ``stalker'' in opening statements expected on Monday.

Among pieces of evidence allowed by the judge were:

Photographs of injuries Nicole Simpson received in a 1989 New Year's Eve beating for which Simpson pleaded no contest, and letters he wrote her afterward apologizing for the beating.

Tapes of two emotional 911 calls Nicole Simpson made in 1985, after Simpson is said to have tried to kick down her door. On the tapes, Simpson can be heard in the background shouting obscenities.

A 1988 incident in which Simpson is said to have ordered his wife from the house with a gun, and a 1989 incident in which he is said to have pushed her from a moving car.

Sworn statements by neighbors and acquaintances that Simpson stalked his ex-wife in public, sometimes lurked in the bushes outside her home and once peeked through the window while she had sex on the sofa with a boyfriend.

Simpson's lawyers had strongly urged the judge to keep jurors from hearing the abuse allegations, which they said would be inflammatory and prejudicial to his defense.

``By attaching the label of domestic violence'' to the case, defense lawyer Gerald Uelmen argued last week, prosecutors ``seek to transform these proceedings into a general inquiry into the character of O.J. Simpson, in which he will be called upon to explain every aspect of his life for 17 years.''

But, in his ruling, Ito said evidence of past abuse was relevant to ``motive, intent, plan'' and a ``pattern of conduct'' in the couple's stormy 17-year relationship.

In his ruling Wednesday, the judge disallowed some of the evidence sought by prosecutors, including diary entries in which Nicole Simpson chronicled abusive incidents, and secondhand accounts of conversations in which she expressed fear that Simpson would kill her if she left him.

``To the man or woman on the street, the relevance ... of such evidence is both obvious and compelling - especially those statements made just days before the homicide,'' Ito wrote of the material he admitted. ``It seems both just and right that a crime victim's own words be heard, especially in a case where the facts and circumstances of her demise are to be presented.''

But Ito said that appellate courts have ruled that ``statements of fear by a homicide victim, even those made on the day of a murder,'' are not admissible.

Overall, the judge's ruling was a severe blow to the defense, which had sought to treat the June 12 murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend, Ronald Lyle Goldman, as an isolated incident.

Defense lawyers downplayed the impact of the decision, hinting that they will offer jurors their own versions of the abuse allegations.

``We're very comfortable with the evidence,'' lawyer Robert Shapiro told reporters. ``We're very comfortable with the explanations we will have to the jury on the evidence, and we're very secure in our position.''

In other developments:

Ito ruled that members of the victims' families may attend the trial, except when a witness is testifying about matters on which those relatives may also be called to testify.

Ito dismissed without comment two jurors: a black man employed by the Hertz Corp., where Simpson once served as spokesman, and a Hispanic woman who reportedly is involved in an ongoing abusive relationship that might color her judgment on the case. Two alternate jurors were seated in their places.

Ito severely restricted Simpson's jail visitation privileges after the Sheriff's Department complained that Simpson had abused the system by meeting with a book author in a room reserved for attorneys and material witnesses.