ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, November 25, 1996 TAG: 9611250166
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: SANTA MONICA, CALIF.
SOURCE: Associated Press
O.J. Simpson sat in the witness chair, stared jurors in the eyes and told them Friday it was ``absolutely not true'' that he killed his ex-wife and her friend.
Answering rapid-fire questions from an attorney determined to prove him responsible for the bloody slayings, Simpson was intense, but restrained his emotions as he was asked if he had taken gloves, a hat and a knife to Nicole Brown Simpson's condo and committed murder the night of June 12, 1994.
``That is absolutely not true,'' Simpson said.
Telling his story to a jury for the first time, Simpson frequently seemed exasperated. He pursed his lips, sighed heavily, breathed hard and even clenched his fists during the tense confrontation with a plaintiffs' lawyer in the wrongful death lawsuit.
``You confronted Nicole Brown Simpson and you killed her, didn't you?'' attorney Daniel Petrocelli asked.
``That is absolutely not true,'' Simpson said.
``And you killed Ronald Goldman, didn't you?'' the attorney barked.
``That is absolutely not true,'' Simpson said.
He was turned in the seat toward the jury box and addressed all his comments to jurors. They returned his stare.
At times it appeared that tears were welling in his eyes, but he delivered his answers in a firm, clear voice.
He continued to repeat ``absolutely not true'' as Petrocelli summarized the plaintiffs' case point by point: Simpson rushed back to his estate to meet a waiting limousine, he bumped into a wall, and he bled on a wire near an air conditioner at the back of his house.
``Between 9:35 p.m. and 10:55 p.m., there is not a single human being that you can identify that saw you?'' the attorney asked.
``That's absolutely true,'' Simpson said.
Petrocelli's questioning took Simpson through every moment of the day of the killings, detailing his efforts to reach his girlfriend, Paula Barbieri, his trip to a dance recital where his daughter performed, his encounter there with his ex-wife and her family, his exclusion from a dinner they planned afterward.
He questioned Simpson about a trip to McDonald's with house guest Brian ``Kato'' Kaelin, then made the series of accusations about what happened during the missing 80 minutes after he arrived home and the time he was picked up by a limousine driver for a trip to the airport.
Petrocelli wound up the first day of his inquiry by accusing Simpson of dripping blood in his driveway and in his Bronco, and Simpson answered once again, ``That's absolutely untrue.''
At one point during the afternoon session, there was a flash of Simpson's humor, which had not come through during the grim exchanges with his relentless inquisitor.
When asking about the McDonald's run, Petrocelli wanted to know if Simpson asked Kaelin where he wanted to go for hamburgers.
``No,'' Simpson answered. ``I didn't have a date with Kato,'' he said, drawing laughter from spectators.
``You think this is funny, sir,'' Petrocelli said.
``No,'' Simpson bristled. ``I don't think any of this is funny. I wish I was anywhere but here.''
The dramatic exchanges ended a day of denials by Simpson, who took the stand in front of a larger-than-life image of a bruised Nicole Simpson projected on a huge screen behind his shoulder.
Simpson denied he'd battered his ex-wife and accused her of lying when she said he abused her.
``This is a woman I love today. I have always loved her,'' Simpson said.
Petrocelli moved quickly to the infamous New Year's 1989 fight that sent Nicole Simpson to the hospital and resulted in Simpson's no-contest plea. Going through the photos, Petrocelli asked Simpson to explain the scrapes, welts and bruises.
``You caused all these injuries, didn't you?'' Petrocelli asked.
``I felt totally responsible for every injury she had,'' Simpson answered. But asked how she got the injuries, he said, ``I don't know.''
``Don't know what?'' Petrocelli snapped.
``That I caused any injury,'' Simpson said.
Turning to specific marks on Nicole Simpson's face, Petrocelli asked, ``How did she get the welt over her right eye?''
``I don't know,'' Simpson said.
``How many times in the course of the fight did you hit Nicole?''
``Never,'' Simpson said.
``How many times did you slap Nicole?''
``Never,'' Simpson said.
Then, in a dramatic voice, Petrocelli asked, ``How many times did you beat her, sir?''
``Never,'' Simpson answered emphatically.
``I certainly didn't strike her or hit her. I didn't punch her or slap her. Did not happen.''
Simpson even suggested that some of the marks on her face could have been caused by her habit of picking at her blemishes.
As he has in previous interviews and in his deposition, Simpson admitted to an ``altercation'' with his wife that night. He said he ``rassled'' with her, trying to push her out of his bedroom.
Yes, she may have started the argument, he said, but ``I was wrong. I physically tried to impose my will on Nicole and I shouldn't have.''
Turning to the stark photo above his shoulder, he said, ``I was wrong for everything that led to this.''
The lawyer asked whether Nicole Simpson had lied when she wrote in journals and told others that Simpson had hit her.
``Yes,'' Simpson said.
Asked if she lied to the police when she told them she was frightened by her then-ex-husband, Simpson replied: ``I think that was a lie. Yes.''
If anyone caused trouble in their marriage, Simpson suggested, it was Nicole Simpson, who sometimes hit him, asked for their separation, lured him back for a reconciliation and made a final break with him only weeks before she was slashed to death.
Simpson's testimony in a jammed courtroom, expected to last at least three days, capped a 21/2-year drama that included a surreal slow-speed freeway chase and Simpson's acquittal last year on murder charges that split the nation along racial lines.
Clad in a light gray suit, Simpson sat facing members of the two families who have dogged him in an effort to prove that he killed the victims.
Fred Goldman, the moving force behind the wrongful death suit, sat at the counsel table, his eyes fixed on Simpson. Nicole's sister Denise Brown sat forward in her seat, clasping her hands.
Petrocelli accused Simpson of minimizing his domestic problems to preserve the image he prized.
``You have always been concerned with your image?'' Petrocelli asked.
``I always knew people liked me,'' Simpson said.
At one point, Petrocelli snapped, ``You are a pretty effective liar, aren't you?''
Simpson's lawyer, Robert Baker, shouted an objection and the judge ordered the comment stricken.
``You lied to cover up the beating of Nicole?'' the lawyer asked.
``No,'' Simpson said, but he admitted that he called the 1989 incident ``no big deal'' when he was interviewed on a TV sports show.
``When it was necessary to lie, you lied?'' Petrocelli asked.
``I minimized the situation,'' Simpson said.
LENGTH: Long : 136 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. O.J. Simpson arrives at Los Angeles County Superiorby CNBCourt in Santa Monica, Calif., Friday to testify. color. KEYWORDS: 2DA