Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 7, 1995 TAG: 9503070112
SECTION: NATL/INTL PAGE: A3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES LENGTH: Medium
Detective Tom Lange also dismissed a defense suggestion that waiter Ronald Goldman was the primary target of ``the assassin or assassins.''
Touching on a defense theory that the murders might have been drug-related, Simpson attorney Johnnie Cochran Jr. asked whether police investigated that angle. Lange said authorities looked ``superficially'' into drugs as a motive, but ``in this particular case, we had another direction to go.''
Cochran also asked if police looked into the background of Faye Resnick, who lived with Nicole Brown Simpson days before the murders and has admitted past drug problems. The judge barred questions about Resnick's entry into a drug treatment clinic, where she was the night of the crime.
Lange said his partner, Detective Philip Vannatter, interviewed Resnick on tape. But Lange said he had never listened to the recording.
Lange retook the stand after a 10-day interruption during which the jurors were left on hold at their hotel and housekeeper Rosa Lopez had her alibi testimony videotaped for possible use later in the trial.
``Detective Lange, you haven't retired yet?'' Cochran joked as Lange took the stand.
``Not yet,'' Lange answered in the same deadpan delivery that marked his earlier four days of testimony.
Cochran took up where he left off, trying to elicit evidence of shoddy police work and a ``rush to judgment'' that Simpson was the killer.
``Did you ever consider that Mr. Goldman may have been the targets of the assassin or assassins that particular night? Did you ever consider that at all?'' Cochran asked.
``The targets of an assassin?'' Lange replied, incredulously.
Cochran then changed his wording to whether Goldman was ``the target of ... the perpetrator or perpetrators'' on June 12. Lange still seemed mystified.
``Did you ever - as the investigating officer in this case - ever consider any other theory than if O.J. Simpson was the only perpetrator in this case?'' Cochran asked.
``I had absolutely no other evidence that would point me in any other direction,'' Lange said under cross-examination.
Asked whether he considered the possibility that Goldman had been followed to Nicole Simpson's condominium, Lange said, ``I think it's entirely possible he was followed.''
``Did you ever consider that something regarding him or his background may have led some person or persons to follow him there, to that location?'' Cochran asked.
``I had no evidence at all to suggest that,'' Lange said.
``And so did you ever pursue that or look at it at all?''
``There was nothing to pursue.''
Prosecutors have said that Simpson set out to kill his ex-wife and that Goldman happened on the scene when he went there to return a pair of glasses.
Lange acknowledged finding a list of women's phone numbers, including Nicole Simpson's number, in a notebook at Goldman's apartment but was unsure anyone ever followed up on the names.
``I didn't see any other leads to follow up on,'' Lange said. ``There was no other evidence to pursue.''
by CNB