Simpson `train' picks up speed // Conflicting reports on bloody glove
Sally Ann Stewart; Richard Price
07/14/1994
USA Today
FINAL
Page 03A
(Copyright 1994)
Preliminary DNA tests show blood on a glove found on O.J. Simpson's estate
matches the blood types of the people he's accused of killing but were
inconclusive for Simpson, according to unconfirmed reports out Wednesday.
Reports early in the day suggested Simpson's blood type was found on the glove
- which matches one found at the scene where his ex-wife, Nicole Brown
Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman were stabbed to death - but The
Associated Press later said tests were inconclusive for Simpson's type.
Simpson has pleaded innocent to the killings.
The reports came as both defense and prosecution are pressing to meet a Sept. 20
trial deadline that would apply if Simpson lawyer Robert Shapiro fulfills his vow
to demand a speedy trial.
"The train has left the station. This train ain't going to stop," says lawyer Robert
Hirschhorn, a Galveston, Texas, jury consultant.
Two other reports from the bizarre-twist department filled out the day.
-- KNBC-TV, citing unidentified sources, reported that police seized nearly
$10,000 and Simpson's passport from the car Simpson and friend Al Cowlings
used to elude police in a 60-mile televised chase June 17. Prosecutors are
deciding whether Cowlings should face charges of aiding and abetting a fugitive.
Police have pushed for prosecuting Cowlings, who faces a hearing Friday if
charged.
-- Simpson friend and lawyer Robert Kardashian said he doesn't have the bag
belonging to Simpson that he took after Simpson returned to his mansion from
Chicago the day after the murders.
Blow-ups of the tape aired by the TV show Premier Story show Kardashian
leaving with a bag. The show's executive producer, Peter Brennan, said two
police detectives viewed the tape Monday and "were very, very interested in
talking with Kardashian."
Kardashian said the bag had Simpson's clothes in it.
"It's absurd. . . . We couldn't get in the house because police wouldn't let us in,"
Kardashian said. "So if they wanted his bag, they could've taken it.
"All I can say is O.J. is innocent. You guys are fabricating things and making
things up."
Meanwhile, more extensive DNA tests - not expected for at least another eight
weeks - could determine whether any blood on the glove matches Simpson's
blood type.
In question is the Polymerase Chain Reaction test. Although it can narrow a field
of suspects to less than 1 in 100, it's regarded as less precise than the Restriction
Fragment Length Polymorphism test, which potentially pinpoints a blood type to
1 in a billion.
Even the RFLP test remains contested, and most recent California appeals courts
have excluded DNA results from criminal cases.
Mike Botula of the district attorney's office declined comment on the DNA report
other than to say prosecutor Marcia Clark would fight any effort to block
admissibility.
And from the defense came a list of still-to-be-filed motions.
"A small forest is going to be chopped down to make all the paper to print all the
motions that are going to appear in this case," Hirschhorn says.
Shapiro told the Los Angeles Times motions would include dismissal of charges
on grounds prosecutors didn't present enough evidence at the preliminary hearing
and a second challenge to evidence gathered during a warrantless search of
Simpson's estate.
"We are only going to file motions that are legally supportable and that support
O.J.'s innocence," Shapiro said. "We are not going to file anything frivolous."
Also Wednesday, guessing games about who will judge the case focused on
Superior Court Judge Paul Flynn, 55, a former federal prosecutor known as a fair
judge with a dry wit.
But Cecil Mills, the supervising criminal courts judge, won't make his decision
until Simpson's July 22 arraignment for trial, according to spokeswoman Susan
Yen.
She says the choice could be any of the judges usually assigned to long cases.
That would put Flynn in the running along with the likes of William Pounders,
who guided the first McMartin preschool molestation trial; John Ouderkirk, who
presided over the Reginald Denny beating trial; and Jacqueline Connor, a former
deputy district attorney who founded the office's sexual assault committee.
Jonathan T. Lovitt contributed
PHOTOS,b/w,Lee Celano(2); PHOTOS,b/w,AP(2); PHOTO,b/w,Kevork
Djansezian,AP; PHOTO,b/w,Michael Caufield,AP