ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, January 15, 1997 TAG: 9701150058
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: SANTA MONICA, CALIF.
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
O.J. Simpson's defense rested Tuesday, after four weeks of testimony aimed at discrediting the case against him as an audacious frame-up built on untrustworthy cops, unreliable witnesses and contaminated evidence.
The 39th and final witness for the defense was Simpson's oldest child, Arnelle, who neatly summed up the two primary strands of her father's case.
First, she contradicted the testimony of three detectives about their actions the night of the murders, pressing home the defense theme that the Los Angeles Police Department cannot be trusted. She also described her father as ``very upset, sad, confused'' and in shock when he learned of his ex-wife's murder, bolstering the defense contention that Simpson acted like an innocent man, not a guilt-wracked killer, throughout his ordeal.
Acquitted on criminal murder charges in 1995, Simpson is fighting a civil lawsuit filed by the estate of Nicole Brown Simpson and by the parents of homicide victim Ron Goldman. The suit seeks to hold Simpson responsible for the June 12, 1994, killings and force him to pay unspecified damages to the victims' relatives.
Jurors are expected to get the case within the next two weeks.
Before deliberations can begin, the plaintiffs must put on their rebuttal case. They began that job Tuesday by focusing on a hotly disputed piece of evidence: 31 photos purporting to show Simpson wearing the same rare brand of shoes that left a trail of bloody footprints at the murder scene.
Simpson has denied ever owning or wearing the shoes in question. The photos, he has declared, must be frauds. But the former head of the FBI's photo analysis division, Gerald Richards, on Tuesday insisted that one of the photos was genuine; he is prepared to make similar statements about the other 30 today.
``I could find no indication whatsoever... of any sign of alteration to any portion of the photograph,'' Richards declared.
The photo Richards analyzed Tuesday was purportedly snapped by Associated Press free-lancer Harry Scull at a Buffalo Bills football game Sept. 26, 1993, about nine months before the slayings. Scull discovered the photo in his files more than a year ago. The other 30 pictures surfaced just last month and allegedly were taken at the same football game by free-lance photographer E.J. Flammer.
LENGTH: Short : 50 linesby CNB