11 ore 18 agos 1995 anni - Judge Reid rules on Cpt. York's testimony

Descrizione:

Superior court judge John Reid rules that Captain York's testimony is not relevant to the Simpson trial.

Ruling Appears to Keep Judge Ito in Simpson Case and Put the Trial Back on Track By David Margolick Aug. 19, 1995

"Judge Lance A. Ito's continued stewardship of the O. J. Simpson trial was all but assured today when a fellow jurist on the Los Angeles County Superior Court ruled that prosecutors could not call Judge Ito's wife as a witness.

Taking but one paragraph to resolve a dispute that had embroiled the Simpson case for days and could have effectively aborted it altogether, Judge John H. Reid held that there was "no reasonable expectation" that Judge Ito's wife, a police captain named Margaret York, could contribute anything relevant to the trial.

Judge Ito had sent the matter to Judge Reid because ethics rules barred him from considering it himself. Judge Reid said he would reconsider the issue if either side could show it had a need for Captain York's testimony. The defense has no such interest, and the prosecution is unlikely to show such a need.

Had Judge Reid ruled otherwise, and had prosecutors elected to call Captain York, Judge Ito would have had to step off the case. That, in turn, could have led to long delays, as another judge came up to speed, or to a mistrial, as the fragile sequestered jury either arose in indignation or fell victim to attrition.

One of Mr. Simpson's lawyers, Carl Douglas, called Judge Reid's decision a "complete vindication" of the defense's position. "Judge Ito will be our judge," Mr. Douglas said. "We're very pleased."

Earlier this week, one of Mr. Simpson's lawyers, Robert L. Shapiro, accused the prosecutors of raising the issue of Captain York's testimony because they were unhappy with Judge Ito. He called the move "prosecutorial extortion."

Prosecutors had never explicitly stated how they hoped to use the testimony of Captain York, the highest-ranking woman in the Los Angeles Police Department. But it would presumably have been to raise doubts about the racially incendiary, tape-recorded comments of Detective Mark Fuhrman, who once worked under her supervision.

Captain York is one of many people -- blacks, Jews, Mexicans and others -- whom Mr. Fuhrman disparaged during 12 hours of interviews with Laura Hart McKinny, a professor and screenwriter from Winston-Salem, N.C. But the judge's wife has sworn in an affidavit that she barely remembers Mr. Fuhrman. Prosecutors hoped to show that if Mr. Fuhrman had exaggerated his familiarity with Captain York, he might also have exaggerated his animus for blacks and the penchant of Los Angeles police officers to tamper with evidence.

In the end, the prosecution's fight for Captain York's testimony -- a fight that derailed the trial for two days and could have washed away a seven-month, $7 million production -- seemed almost halfhearted.

Today, Judge Ito and the prosecution continued to digest the tape-recorded interviews, made between 1985 and 1994, which are filled with racial slurs of the sort Mr. Fuhrman has sworn not to have used for the last decade. The judge is expected to allow some portions of the tapes into evidence, but it could be well into next week before that happens.

There was no testimony today, and court will not reconvene on Monday until 1 P.M., giving the jurors a chance to sleep off a late-night tour of 875 South Bundy, where Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald L. Goldman were killed 14 months ago, and of Mr. Simpson's home, at 360 North Rockingham, a five-minute drive away. Judge Ito is expected to give final approval to the tour after he inspects the premises Friday or Saturday night.

The defense announced today that its next two witnesses would be forensic scientists, Larry Ragel and Henry Lee. One of Mr. Simpson's lawyers said he hoped the much-anticipated testimony of Dr. Lee, the head of the crime laboratory at the Connecticut State Police Department, would be "punchy but short," but that may be optimistic.

Given the pitched battles that can be expected over every question pertaining to the Fuhrman tapes and to a second appearance by Mr. Fuhrman, the defense's prediction that it will complete its case by Aug. 28 may also be optimistic.

On Thursday, Mr. Simpson's lawyers submitted a wish list of some 50 Fuhrman-tape excerpts that they want the jury to hear. Judge Ito, who has kept that motion sealed, is now weighing the request. Prosecutors began to interview Ms. McKinny only on Thursday afternoon, trying to ascertain the context and timing of Mr. Fuhrman's comments.

Meanwhile, Mr. Fuhrman's lawyer, Robert Tourtelot, continued the herculean task of defending his client without access to the recordings. The defense is in no mood to give Mr. Fuhrman the tapes. Nor is Ms. McKinny, whose screenplay is based largely on Mr. Fuhrman's cooperation. Nor are the prosecutors, to whom the detective said nothing about the explosive recordings.

"The truth is that Mark Fuhrman is not a racist," Mr. Tourtelot told The Associated Press. "I want to be able to sit there with my client and listen to the context of what he says in those tapes."



Sourced from:
The New York TImes

Https://www.nytimes.com/1995/08/19/us/ruling-appears-to-keep-judge-ito-in-simpson-case-and-put-the-trial-back-on-track.html

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