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

DATE: SATURDAY, June 17, 1995                   TAG: 9506190017
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-5   EDITION: METRO  
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES                                 LENGTH: Medium

O.J. PROSECUTION TRIES DAMAGE CONTROL

Richard Rubin, former vice president of glove maker Aris Isotoner Inc., who himself donned the bloodstained, cashmere-lined gloves, said he wasn't sure what would make them shrink by as much as 15 percent.

Shrinkage, he told jurors, could be caused by rain and snow. Defense lawyer Johnnie Cochran Jr. then asked whether 3 cubic centimeters - or a 10th of an ounce - of liquid could cause such shrinkage.

``Three cc's of liquid would have no effect whatsoever on those gloves,'' Rubin said firmly.

At the defense table, attorneys smiled broadly. That amount of liquid was equal to the blood extracted from the evidence for tests.

Rubin testified as the prosecution began its damage control over what was seen as a major blunder on Thursday: asking Simpson to try on the gloves that prosecutors claim he wore when he killed his ex-wife and her friend.

The prosecution's effort Friday to save the glove presentation followed a blistering hearing outside the jury's presence. Defense attorney Alan Dershowitz accused the prosecution of targeting selected jurors for removal in order to engineer a guilty verdict or mistrial.

``Yesterday's incidents and events make it as clear as any events ... why the prosecution would benefit if they had a second opportunity to try this case,'' Dershowitz said, asking for a heightened standard for juror dismissals. Ito said he would consider the request.

``If the prosecution had a second opportunity ... they would try this case rather differently. I doubt that we would see O.J. Simpson being asked to try on'' the gloves, he said.

The accusation infuriated Clark.

``This was a motion filed deliberately for inflammatory effect. ... This is a scurrilous attempt to inflame the community, if not the very jury itself,'' she said.

Prosecutors have presented a receipt indicating that Nicole Brown Simpson bought two pairs of men's gloves in 1990, suggesting she gave her ex-husband a gift he subsequently used to kill her and Ronald Goldman on June 12, 1994.

But defense attorneys disputed the shrinkage theory and indicated the gloves don't fit Simpson because they weren't his.

On Friday, prosecutor Christopher Darden asked to reopen his examination of Rubin in an effort to recoup lost ground. He asked the glove maker if the size extra-large gloves should fit Simpson.

``The gloves in the original condition would easily go onto the hand of someone of Mr. Simpson's size,'' Rubin said.

Asked to try on the right-handed glove and estimate its size, Rubin declared: ``As is, in this condition right now, this is a little bit above average of a large, but below, well below an extra-large.''

Darden at one point had the witness take out three white golf gloves from Simpson's golf bag, which is in evidence. Each was extra large, casting doubt on a defense theory that Simpson sometimes wore double-extra-large gloves.