Simpson team may challenge police tape

  Jonathan T. Lovitt

  03/20/1995

  USA Today

  FINAL

  Page 03A

  (Copyright 1995)

  LOS ANGELES - A recording of O.J. Simpson's three-hour talk with police the

  day after his ex-wife was slain could be played today in his double-murder trial.

  Detective Philip Vannatter was about to begin testifying about the conversation

  when court adjourned Friday.

  Vannatter testified that he began to suspect Simpson in the killings of Nicole

  Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman after a bloody glove and drops of blood

  were found on his estate and after seeing a cut on the middle finger of Simpson's

  left hand.

  Simpson spoke to police on June 13, the day he returned from Chicago, where he

  had flown late the night before. He told police he cut his finger on a glass at a

  Chicago hotel.

  The taped conversation is generating controversy.

  Howard Weitzman, who represented Simpson at the time, has said he did not

  give police permission to record the conversation. He said Simpson volunteered

  to talk. Simpson's lawyers may challenge the tape.

  The defense team spent the weekend trying to regroup after criticism of F. Lee

  Bailey's cross-examination of police Detective Mark Fuhrman, whom the defense

  accuses of planting a bloody glove at Simpson's estate in a racist attempt to

  frame Simpson.

  "Without a doubt, this was the defense's worst week yet," says UCLA law

  professor Peter Arenella. "The prosecution has every reason to be overjoyed."

  Defense lawyer Robert Shapiro opened the second-guessing by publicly

  questioning the strategy of painting Fuhrman as a racist to appeal to eight

  African-Americans on the jury.

  Bailey deflected Shapiro's comments, saying on ABC's 20/20 that lead attorney

  Johnnie Cochran and Simpson himself were pleased.

  Trial watchers say Bailey fell short after promising to "assassinate" Fuhrman's

  character and prove he's racist. Fuhrman remained calm for three days of Bailey's

  questioning.

  "Either (Fuhrman's) one of the coolest professionals or an incredible actor and

  pathological liar," Arenella says.

  Other criticism focused on Bailey's handling of potential witness Max Cordoba, a

  former Marine recruiter who the defense says Fuhrman called a racial slur at a

  Redondo Beach recruiting office in 1985 or 1986.

  Bailey said he and Cordoba had talked "Marine to Marine" and Cordoba would

  testify about the slur. That night, Cordoba said in an NBC interview he had not

  talked with Bailey.

  In court the next day, prosecutor Marcia Clark assailed Bailey as having "lied" to

  the judge. Bailey admitted he had spoken with Cordoba only to say hello.

  Still, Bailey was not bowed. He told Time magazine: "I'm not Perry Mason;

  nobody is. . . . Still, I feel good."

  PHOTO,b/w,Kevork Djasezian