Simpson team forced to back down Testimony contradicts expert on how

  victims were killed

  Jonathan T. Lovitt

  12/18/1996

  USA Today

  FINAL

  Page 04A

  (Copyright 1996)

  SANTA MONICA, Calif. -- O.J. Simpson's accusers continued their attack on

  the defense Tuesday. The plaintiffs drew concessions from a pathologist about

  the way Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman died.

  At Simpson's criminal trial, which ended in acquittal last year, Michael Baden

  testified that it was likely two people armed with two knives committed the

  murders. He repeated that Monday at Simpson's wrongful-death civil trial.

  But under a sometimes shrill cross-examination by Edward Medvene, one of the

  lawyers representing the Goldman family, Baden said there was strong evidence

  to support a one-killer theory.

  In particular, he backed off the two-killer theory when told that another defense

  witness, Henry Lee, had testified in a pretrial deposition that only one pair of

  shoe prints was found leaving the scene.

  The testimony came in the second week of the defense case, expected to go until

  mid-January. The plaintiffs have presented their side.

  Also, Baden previously had testified that Goldman struggled for as long as 15

  minutes before crumpling to the ground and dying. If so, it would have been

  impossible for Simpson to begin his attack at 10:40 and return to his home by

  10:55 as the plaintiffs contend.

  Baden said he based his opinion on trails of blood down Goldman's clothes and

  blood in his shoe. Baden said the evidence suggested death was caused by

  bleeding from the jugular vein, from which blood oozes slowly.

  But under cross-examination, when confronted with pictures of Goldman's

  clothes that showed relatively small amounts of blood, Baden couldn't point to

  evidence that there was more than half a quart of expended blood. At least 1.5

  quarts must be lost for a person to die, experts say.

  The plaintiffs' pathology expert, Werner Spitz, testified last month that death

  came within seconds after the attacker pierced Goldman's aorta.

  Baden acknowledged that Goldman could have collapsed within two or three

  minutes. ``I think it was pretty quick, a few minutes, whatever,'' he said

  brusquely.

  Baden also contradicted Simpson's testimony on how Simpson cut himself.

  Baden told jurors that while examining Simpson five days after the murders,

  Simpson said he thought he cut himself going to his car to get his cell phone.

  Simpson told police the same thing after the murders. But when he testified in

  the civil trial, Simpson emphatically denied cutting himself in Los Angeles. He

  said he cut himself on broken glass in Chicago.

  Tuesday's testimony was the third time since last Thursday that Simpson's

  forensic witnesses seemed to waffle. Last week, DNA expert John Gerdes

  repeated testimony criticizing Los Angeles police department techniques for

  collecting DNA. But he then acknowledged that most of the test results in the

  case were reliable.

  And before Baden on Monday, expert Herbert MacDonell repeated his testimony

  that a bloodstain found on socks left on Simpson's bedroom floor was deposited

  after the socks had been taken off. He based that on tests detailing how blood

  passed from one side of the socks to the other.

  That was the cornerstone of a defense argument that the blood was planted.

  Under cross-examination, MacDonell conceded the seepage could have occurred

  when police criminalists applied wet swatches to the socks to pick up the blood

  sample.

  Analysts said the testimony weakened the defense's case.

  ``The big three (witnesses) have not delivered the kind of doubt-raising impact

  that the defense hoped they would have done with this jury,'' says Southwestern

  law professor Robert Puglsey. ``The failure is particularly significant in light of

  Simpson's poor performance on the stand.''

  Also Tuesday, an alternate juror was dropped after bragging in a Christmas card

  to a friend that he was on the panel. The friend, a sheriff's deputy, reported it to

  court officials. The ouster leaves four alternates.

  PHOTOS, B/W, Kevork Djansezian, AP(2); Caption: For defense: Pathologist

  Michael Baden, with O.J. Simpson Tuesday, backed off the two-killer theory. He

  also acknowledged that Ron Goldman could have died quickly and not after a

  long struggle. For accusers: Edward Medvene's questioning was fierce.