Victims' families are visibly heartened Relief shows up after numerous

  months of sorrow

  Jonathan T. Lovitt ; Richard Price

  02/06/1997

  USA Today

  FINAL

  Page 10A

  (Copyright 1997)

  SANTA MONICA, Calif. -- They were tragic figures of the O.J. Simpson case

  for 33 months, their names linked daily to stories of tears, rage and frustration.

  But now the families of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman have given

  the world a new look: laughter, relief, fists raised in triumph.

  Both families spent Wednesday at home, savoring the verdict over Simpson.

  ``He's still high,'' said Tom Lambert, a lawyer for Goldman's father, Fred. ``It's

  still sinking in.''

  Tanya Brown, Nicole's youngest sister, described ``a bittersweet victory.'' She

  had doubts about the jurors, she said, ``but they came through for us.''

  Now ``I just feel like there's a big tension off our family's shoulders.''

  At the victims' grave sites Wednesday, people trickled by to leave flowers and

  notes. One note on Ron Goldman's grave read: ``Finally, justice is served.''

  The families had buried their loved ones in June 1994. Now, with the civil court

  victory, there was closure and elation, a time to celebrate.

  ``Oh, my God, it's so wonderful, so wonderful,'' a breathless Fred Goldman said

  Tuesday on his way up to a party at the Doubletree Inn hotel across from the

  courthouse.

  ``I'm ecstatic, just ecstatic,'' echoed Nicole's sister Denise as she headed for her

  family's party in the same hotel.

  Their spirits do not appear tempered in the least by the fact that Simpson will

  never serve a day in prison. They believe the verdict hurts Simpson substantially

  and destroys his hopes that society might one day re-accept him.

  And family members are ready to move on.

  Many people wondered whether Fred Goldman, 56, would ever reach that point.

  An outsider to celebrity, he looked baffled in the early stages of this case. He

  shied from the media at the outset of the criminal trial.

  But as the criminal case turned Simpson's way, Goldman's veneer crumbled. He

  began holding news conferences. He wept in frustration. Mustache quivering, he

  screamed his rage. He called Simpson ``murderer'' and ``butcher.''

  Embittered by the judicial system, he railed against Simpson's defense lawyers.

  At one point he was so furious he could barely talk.

  ``Are we all fools?'' he demanded. ``Do they take us for morons?''

  And when the jury in the criminal trial acquitted Simpson, Goldman vowed that

  he and his family would ``do everything in our power to bring about the kind of

  change that won't allow what happened today to happen to another family again.''

  He became the standard-bearer not only for the families but for millions who

  believed the verdict unjust. He started a legal fund and pressed his civil case.

  Along the way he quit his job as an advertising executive and announced he was

  joining the Safe Streets Alliance of Washington, D.C., an advocate for victims'

  rights.

  During the civil trial, when the Brown family and even Simpson showed up only

  periodically, Goldman was there almost every day. He stopped his public

  outbursts, because the judge threatened to jail him for contempt.

  But his pain was evident. if anyone talked about his son beyond a sentence or

  two, his eyes would fill with tears.

  The Browns seemed to adjust faster. Their open frustration came early in the

  criminal case. In the civil case, they were more restrained.

  Their next critical step is appealing a judge's order in December granting

  Simpson custody of his two children, Sydney, 11, and Justin, 8, whom the

  Browns had taken care of since the slayings.

  PHOTO, B/W, Michael Caulfield, AP; PHOTO, B/W, Steve Grayson, Reuters