Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 7, 1995 TAG: 9504070080
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES LENGTH: Medium
``We will never agree to a mistrial,'' said lead defense trial lawyer Johnnie Cochran, moments after Simpson's legal team accused authorities of harassing defense witnesses. A defense motion accusing government lawyers of misconduct does not address the alleged harassment, but in the motion, the defense accuses Deputy District Attorney Rockne Harmon of making improper statements in court and of trying to elicit confidential information from defense experts.
Ito set a hearing on those accusations for next week, but District Attorney Gil Garcetti disputed any allegations of prosecutorial misconduct, saying, ``I am confident that whatever we do in seeking the truth - and that's the bottom line here, seeking the truth - that we're doing it in an ethical, professional and honorable way.''
Two jurors were taken to the hospital with influenza symptoms Thursday, and a third fell ill with less serious symptoms, forcing the cancellation of court Thursday and today.
But Ito met the lawyers outside the jury's presence and ruled that a new videotape of the crime scene may be shown to the panel, a significant defense victory that prosecutors had fought hard to prevent. Simpson, 47, has pleaded not guilty to the June 12 knife slayings of Nicole Brown Simpson, 35, and her friend Ronald Lyle Goldman, 25.
Although the judge and lawyers met briefly in court Thursday morning, much of the day's commotion took place outside court as both sides reacted to new concerns about the integrity of the jury considering the charges against Simpson. The latest fracas arose from a televised interview that one excused juror gave hours after being released from the panel.
That juror, Jeanette Harris, told a Los Angeles television station that she and other panelists had been allowed unsupervised conversations with people not on the jury and that some jurors might be talking about the case among themselves. In addition, she said the jury was dividing along racial lines, and she accused Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies of promoting racial divisions among the jurors.
A senior sheriff's department officer was summoned to Ito's chambers Thursday morning.
Later, department spokesman John Castro said an investigation had been launched into the allegations raised by Harris. In response to questions from reporters, Castro said the inquiry had been initiated by Ito. Although Castro would not discuss the investigation in detail, he denied the allegation that any deputy had encouraged or contributed to racial divisions within the panel.
``That's not a problem,'' Castro said. ``I can say that confidently.''
In her television interview, Harris at first denied she had been the victim of domestic abuse and had failed to disclose that during the jury selection process - the stated reason for her removal from the panel. Thursday, however, a 1988 request for a restraining order surfaced, and it documents her allegations that her husband shoved her and forced her to have sex with him.
Her husband, meanwhile, denied ever abusing her.
``I never, ever touched my wife violently,'' Melvin Harris said. ``Absolutely, we both deny it.''
In Thursday's brief morning session, defense attorneys won the right to introduce yet another videotape into the Simpson trial, this one a clip of news footage of the crime scene. On the videotape, a dark-brown object that resembles a glove appears to be sitting on a white blanket that police took from Nicole Simpson's condominium and used to cover her body.
by CNB