ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, October 3, 1996 TAG: 9610030064
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES
SOURCE: Associated Press
NOTE: Below
Exactly a year after a jury voted to acquit O.J. Simpson, Mark Fuhrman on Wednesday pleaded no contest to perjury for denying at Simpson's trial that he had used the word ``nigger'' in the past decade. He was given three years' probation and fined $200.
The former detective answered only, ``Yes, your honor,'' ``Yes'' and ``Yes, sir,'' when asked if he understood the plea bargain. He could have gotten up to four years in prison.
It was Fuhrman who found one of the most critical pieces of evidence - the bloody glove - beside a guest house on Simpson's estate. But he became the prosecution's biggest embarrassment after his past statements came to light, and the defense successfully built a case on its claim that Simpson was the victim of a racist frame-up led by Fuhrman after the killing of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman.
Fuhrman was charged with lying on March 15, 1995, when he agreed under cross-examination from F. Lee Bailey ``that he had not addressed any black person as a `nigger' or spoken about black people as `niggers' in the last 10 years.''
Four defense witnesses contradicted that, including an aspiring screenwriter who testified that Fuhrman had said the word at least 41 times on tapes they made while working on a screenplay. Jurors were played one example from the tapes.
Fuhrman later returned to the witness stand at Simpson's trial, out of the jury's presence, and when asked about his use of the word ``nigger'' invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
California Attorney General Dan Lungren filed the perjury charge, picking up the investigation in November after the Los Angeles district attorney's office bowed out. Superior Court Judge John Ouderkirk accepted Fuhrman's plea, calling the deal ``appropriate and fair.''
Fuhrman, 44, retired after Simpson was acquitted. He works as an apprentice electrician in rural Idaho, where he will be allowed to serve his probation.
LENGTH: Short : 47 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: (headshot) Fuhrman. color.by CNB