Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, July 28, 1995 TAG: 9507280081
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES LENGTH: Medium
The testimony of Herbert MacDonell, a world-renowned forensics expert, was halted at midday because a juror got sick during the lunch break.
The 43-year-old juror - the only black man still on the panel - became dizzy, and paramedics were called. He was taken to a hospital for evaluation and Friday's trial session was cancelled.
MacDonell told jurors the blood had seeped through at the ankle to the opposite side, indicating no foot was inside when the stain was deposited. The stain measures 1 inch by 11/2 inches.
``The ankle stain was very large,'' MacDonell said before the lunch break. ``It was not spattered. ... I concluded it was from compression movement.''
Asked to explain, he said the blood was not smeared but was consistent with someone having blood on their finger and touching the fabric.
The prosecution has alleged that Nicole Brown Simpson's blood splashed onto her ex-husband's socks, perhaps as he slashed her and Ronald Goldman to death. Simpson says the socks were bloodied and planted to incriminate him.
Simpson's ex-wife and her friend were slain outside her condominium on June 12, 1994. The next day, police collected the pair of dark socks they said were found on a rug at the foot of Simpson's bed.
Prosecution witnesses have said that they at first didn't notice blood on the socks, but microscopic analysis later revealed it.
Attorney Peter Neufeld showed jurors microscopic photographs of the sock fabric that MacDonell said had ``small red balls that appeared to be a dried liquid on the inside.''
``Did these little red balls have the appearance of blood?'' Neufeld asked.
``They certainly did,'' replied MacDonell, who was not permitted to identify the substance as blood because he had not done serology tests on it.
His testimony contradicted that of a prosecution expert, Department of Justice chemist Gary Sims, who said he saw no indication of blood soaking through the sock. Sims also had said the blood appeared to be splattered on the socks.
Prosecutors had tried to block MacDonell's testimony on several issues and managed to keep out of evidence an experiment he did on the drying time of the socks. MacDonell, who operates a forensics laboratory in Corning, N.Y., has consulted on many other high-profile cases, including the assassination of Sen. Robert Kennedy and the killing of Scarsdale diet doctor Herman Tarnower. MacDonell said he has specialized in bloodstain analysis since the 1960s.
His testimony began after a lively morning of legal arguments on issues the defense says are crucial to their presentation.
The prosecution sought to bar testimony from three witnesses who claim to have heard Detective Mark Fuhrman utter racial slurs during the 1980s. Prosecutor Cheri Lewis said the accounts are ``remote in time,'' and she argued that Fuhrman's views on racism are irrelevant.
``They [defense attorneys] still have no substantial evidence of any police conspiracy,'' Lewis said. ``That makes the probative value of him being a racist absolutely nil.''
Defense attorney Gerald Uelmen countered: ``The significance of this evidence is not that it simply shows that Detective Fuhrman is a racist. This evidence shows that Detective Fuhrman is a liar.''
Fuhrman, who the defense claims planted evidence against Simpson, testified that he had not uttered a racial epithet in the past 10 years. Uelmen said if the defense can prove he lied about that, the jury is entitled to throw out all of his testimony as false.
Also, Judge Lance Ito ordered a TV reporter to appear Monday for questioning about a news leak the defense wants to use as further evidence of misdeeds involving the socks. KNBC-TV reporter Tracie Savage reported in September 1994 that DNA testing on one sock had identified Nicole Simpson's blood.
by CNB