ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, December 7, 1996 TAG: 9612090034
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: SANTA MONICA, CALIF.
SOURCE: Knight-Ridder/Tribune
IN TESTIMONY for the plaintiffs, Juditha Brown recalled a kiss and words at the open coffin.
The mother of Nicole Brown Simpson testified Friday that her former son-in-law, O.J. Simpson, was ``very angry'' and glowering at Nicole Brown Simpson just hours before his ex-wife was slain.
In tearful testimony, Juditha Brown made it clear she blames Simpson for her daughter's death. He sat impassively at the defense table barely 10 feet from her, only rarely glancing toward the witness box where Brown wept reminiscing about her daughter, whose photographs were flashed onto a large TV screen behind her.
But the emotional impact of Brown's appearance was blunted when defense attorney Robert Baker pointed out some of her testimony contradicted previous statements.
Brown told the jury Friday that Simpson had leaned over her daughter's open coffin at the cemetery, said, ``I'm so sorry, Nic, I'm so sorry,'' and then kissed her lips.
When she chased after Simpson to confront him, ``Did you have anything to do with this?'' Brown said Simpson replied, ``I loved your daughter.'' She pointedly noted that he did not answer her question.
But then Baker played an interview Brown had granted to Diane Sawyer, in which she described the same scene and quoted Simpson saying, ``No. I loved your daughter.'' Baker suggested Brown had deleted the crucial denial to make Simpson look guilty.
``Tell the truth, you dislike O.J. Simpson,'' Baker said.
``Dislike?'' Brown said, adding archly, ``Dislike now? Yes.''
It was the most emotional day yet of the wrongful-death lawsuit against Simpson, who last year was acquitted of murdering his ex-wife and her friend Ronald Goldman in 1994.
The families of the victims theoretically could be awarded millions if Simpson is found responsible for their deaths, although he is financially strapped because of his huge legal bills and his inability to market himself since the murders.
The plaintiffs have almost wrapped up their case, and the defense will begin arguing its side Monday. But first, the jury will hear the testimony of Fred Goldman, whose son was killed alongside Nicole Simpson. Goldman in particular is pursuing a judgment against Simpson with a vengeance. Since Simpson's acquittal in criminal court, Goldman wants the satisfaction of getting at least one jury to agree with his own conviction that Simpson got away with murder.
After calling more than 80 witnesses, the plaintiffs have shifted their focus from witnesses who contradict Simpson's testimony to the raw emotion of grieving relatives.
Brown told the jury how Simpson had telephoned her a few days after Nicole's 35th birthday in mid-May. When Simpson lamented that Nicole didn't love him anymore, Brown said, she told him to get on with his life. She said he replied ominously:
``The first time she left me, I took the blame. It was my fault. The the second time, it's going to hurt.''
In contrast to Brown's teary reminiscences, a videotaped deposition of Goldman's mother, Sharon Rufo, was markedly emotionless. Goldman's parents were divorced, and he had not seen his mother since he moved with his father and sister to California in the late '80s. Rufo, who lives in Missouri, said her son had called her twice since 1990, and had never answered two letters she wrote him asking why he didn't call more often.
Attorneys also read aloud parts of a deposition from Robert Kardashian, Simpson's former attorney and estranged friend. He is out of state, and the plaintiffs cannot locate him to serve a subpoena.
In his May deposition, Kardashian said he considered it ``odd'' that Simpson seemed obsessed with retrieving his golf clubs from an airline just 36 hours after Nicole was killed. Kardashian's testimony contradicted Simpson, who testified they swung by the airport on a whim because they had time to spare before his children were due at his house.
In the morning, a statistician called by the plaintiffs to testify about the astronomical odds of DNA blood evidence acknowledged he had made several mathematical errors in his prior testimony.
Bruce Weir, a professor of statistics and genetics at North Carolina State University, described astoundingly huge odds that blood found in Simpson's Bronco and on a glove behind his estate came from Simpson and Goldman. But his testimony was undermined in cross-examination, when he admitted he had made many errors testifying for the prosecution in the criminal trial.
LENGTH: Medium: 86 linesby CNB