Simpson pal: Nicole said 'she was hit'

  Jonathan T. Lovitt ; Richard Price

  12/04/1996

  USA Today

  FINAL

  Page 01A

  (Copyright 1996)

  SANTA MONICA, Calif. -- Al ``A.C.'' Cowlings testified Tuesday O.J.

  Simpson's wife told him that Simpson hit her during an argument in 1989.

  A lifelong friend of O.J. Simpson, Cowlings spoke publicly for the first time

  since the murders of Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman in 1994.

  Cowlings, who drove the Bronco during the infamous slow-speed chase of

  Simpson five days after the murders, appeared reluctant to testify.

  He joined a string of witnesses Tuesday called to contradict key parts of

  Simpson's testimony in the civil suit against him.

  Asked about a 1989 fight between O.J. and Nicole, Cowlings said that as he

  drove her to the hospital the next day ``she had told me that she was hit, yes.''

  When pressed, he admitted she said Simpson hit her.

  Simpson had emphatically denied in his testimony that he hit Nicole. ``Never,

  never, never,'' he said. His lawyer, Robert Baker, has told jurors he will prove

  Nicole a liar.

  Cowlings also appeared to refute Simpson's testimony that when Simpson left the

  house the day after the 1989 incident, he didn't know police were looking for

  him.

  Brown family lawyer John Kelly cited Cowlings' pretrial deposition in which he

  said Simpson told him ``he felt the police were still looking for him.'' Cowlings

  then conceded Simpson ``may have said that.''

  In his questioning, Kelly did not ask Cowlings about the Bronco chase. If he had,

  analysts say, Cowlings could have refused to answer on grounds it would be

  self-incriminating.

  Earlier, Judge Hiroshi Fujisaki denied a request for a mistrial because he let

  Simpson be asked about a lie-detector test Simpson reportedly failed.

  The judge instead instructed the jurors to forget about the lie detector testimony.

  Legal analysts had said the testimony might be grounds for the reversal of the

  case on appeal.

  Also Tuesday, former model India Allen said she saw Simpson in 1983 hit

  Nicole ``across the face and her glasses and her headband flew off.''