THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, November 6, 1996 TAG: 9611060441
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: SANTA MONICA, CALIF. LENGTH: 68 lines
An 18-year-old court intern with a passing resemblance to Nicole Brown Simpson says O.J. Simpson invited her to a Halloween party and made suggestive remarks to her. He denied harassing her.
``How could I do anything around here without you people seeing,'' Simpson asked reporters at his civil trial Tuesday.
The controversy, first reported in USA Today, postponed the trial for more than an hour while the judge met with the intern, a bailiff, Simpson's attorneys and a court spokeswoman. The judge sealed the record of the meeting and the intern was not at her usual post after the meeting.
The intern, Amber McGrath, is a high school senior working part time at the court. Her duties include handing out courtroom passes to media members covering Simpson's wrongful death civil trial.
She was visibly shaken when she returned to work Tuesday, a day after talking to the newspaper.
McGrath refused comment Tuesday, as did court spokeswoman Jerrianne Hayslett, who supervises her.
USA Today reported three other incidents witnessed by spectators and court officials.
Once, the two accidentally bumped and McGrath excused herself, the paper said. Simpson reportedly replied, ``You can bump into me any time you want.'' Simpson told reporters Tuesday: ``That would be something I would say.''
Another time, Simpson reportedly spotted McGrath and groaned: ``I want her.''
And once, as McGrath was bending over in court, Simpson gestured as if he was going to lift her skirt, according to the newspaper. A court bailiff shook her finger at him in a warning, the paper said.
Simpson acknowledged he may have ``joked around'' about a pretty girl at the trial, but added, ``I joke around all the time.''
But he said he didn't have a party on Halloween, and two reporters who saw him that night knew he was out on a date with a woman he would not identify.
Asked if he liked McGrath, Simpson said: ``How could I like her? I don't know her.''
USA Today quoted McGrath as saying she couldn't help but notice the similarity between her and Ms. Simpson, who was also 18 when the football star met her.
``Here he is at the trial involving the death of his ex-wife who he's supposed to be in love with,'' McGrath told the paper, ``and he's hitting on me.''
Simpson, acquitted last year of murder, is being sued for wrongful death by the families of his slain ex-wife and her friend, Ronald Goldman.
After the trial delay, criminalist Dennis Fung was called to the witness stand to conclude his cross-examination.
He told jurors he found traces of a substance that may have been blood in the drains of Simpson's bathroom.
He said the ``presumptive blood tests'' were never confirmed with more sophisticated tests.
Those preliminary tests were not admitted as evidence in Simpson's criminal trial because the results were not absolute. Defense attorney Robert Blasier pointed out that other substances, including fruit juice and household cleaners, could have been falsely read as blood on Fung's test.
Fung said he used chemicals to guard against false positive results. ILLUSTRATION: ASSOCIATED PRESS photo
O.J. Simpson, who is defending himself in a wrongful-death civil
trial, reportedly has been accused of making sexual advances toward
Amber McGrath, an 18-year-old court intern with a passing
resemblance to Nicole Brown Simpson. by CNB