Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, October 4, 1995 TAG: 9510040044
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: ELISSA MILENKY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Reactions to the not-guilty verdict of O.J. Simpson ranged from frustration:
"I don't believe it," deputy Billy Saunders said after hearing the verdict at the Montgomery County Sheriff's Department. "If I were the family of the murdered victims, I would be absolutely sick."
To relief:
"There were too many questions that hadn't been answered from the get go," said Linda Tomlinson, who took a shopping break at the New River Valley Mall to watch the verdict in the Sears television section.
Many people gathered in groups to watch the verdict at the workplace, at restaurants and even in other court chambers.
Most of the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office spent its lunch hour in the large field office, encircling a small color television.
"You'd think the Hokies were playing Nebraska in the Orange Bowl or something," Investigator Bob Fleet said as officers filled the room. A few state troopers even stopped by to watch the verdict.
On a chalkboard hanging nearby, someone had listed every possible jury decision. Just about everyone had written his or her name under the combination first- and second-degree murder category: First degree for planning to kill Nicole Brown Simpson, they figured, and second degree for killing her friend, Ron Goldman.
Many officers shrugged their shoulders, rolled their eyes and resigned themselves to a verdict they believed was wrong.
Police officers were not the only members of the legal system who stopped to watch the verdict. The General District and Circuit Court sessions at the Montgomery County Courthouse were delayed by 15 minutes.
Retired Circuit Judge Kenneth Devore, substituting for Judge Ray Grubbs this week, watched in his chambers on a small black-and-white screen. Devore had been an opponent of cameras in the courtroom but has watched the Simpson trial faithfully.
Two floors down, General District Judge John Quigley, several lawyers, a courtroom bailiff and others gathered around a television .
Preverdict levity was at a high, with jokes about ordering popcorn or pizza. But the group - defense lawyers and assistant prosecutors - fell silent with the verdicts.
"He pulled it off," someone said.
"I'm just flabbergasted," General District Clerk Polly Myers said moments later, back at her desk.
In the more public places, strangers joined together for a few minutes to watch the verdicts on any available television.
At Sears in New River Valley Mall, about 30 people of all ages stood by the televisions in the electronics department. Curious shoppers, store employees, even a teen-ager with a shaved head and an earring pierced below his lip quietly waited for the verdict.
Deronda Bishop, a Sears employee, let off an excited cheer and smiled once Simpson was found not guilty. Now Simpson can return to his children and his life, Bishop said.
Still, she said she felt sorry for the families of Nicole Simpson and Ron Goldman.
"I'm real surprised because I would've thought it would go the other way," she said.
"I'm relieved," Bishop quickly added.
Marcus Cunningham, another Sears employee, was not as satisfied with the verdict. Cunningham said money and lawyers who used race as a "smoke screen" released a guilty man.
"If it had been my family, I'd take him out," Cunningham said of Simpson.
At Virginia Tech, many students who were in class during the verdict still took a break to watch it on television.
Students and professors lucky enough to be on a break gathered in front of the Squires Student Center TV. Some, like Tech senior Matt Garcia, were regular viewers.
"I watch it every day," said Garcia, who is applying to law school next year.
He had no immediate prediction of the jury's verdict, except "it seems like they had their minds made up before they ever deliberated."
After months of watching the trial, Garcia had no strong reaction.
"I don't know. Surprised, sort of."
Not everyone interrupted their normal routines to catch the Simpson verdict.
The board of the Southwest Virginia Governor's School declined to leave its meeting place to catch any of the broadcasts.
A student who had been watching television down the hall reported the verdict to those who attended the meeting. A few board members shook their heads and returned to the meeting agenda.
Life also returned to normal for those who did watch the verdict - after they played armchair critic for a few minutes. Sears Manager Norm Cohen walked through the electronics department as the crowd around the televisions began to disperse.
"So are we all done now?" he asked. "Can we get back to work?"
Staff writers Allison Blake, Lisa Applegate, Paul Dellinger, Kathy Loan and Hale Sheikerz contributed to this report.
by CNB