The People V. . . . The Glove Demonstration

Let me begin by offering a disclaimer and an observation on memory.

My disclaimer is that I read the books about OJ's case ten years ago.  While I have scanned most of and read a little of KILLING TIME since watching the AMERICAN CRIME STORY series, I have largely gone on the basis of memory and lack thereof in my preparing this blog.  I have already stated that my focus was on evidence and timelines in order to sort out this particular crime and paid little attention to the dynamics that have largely occupied the writers of this series.  The writers have played up or even made up elements for the story to make it more interesting.  But I have usually had no recollection about just how far the writers wandered from what actually happened in and around the trial.

My observation on memory is that I discovered in reviewing the details that my memory has been a little off.  I used to think there were four different knife shapes involved in the autopsies.  But in studying them for the blog a couple weeks ago, I saw there were only three different shaped blades identified by Dr. Golden.  I must then point out that this kind of slight discrepancy happens all the time, and not just with me.  The two main books covering the narrative of the whole event, Jeffery Toobin's THE RUN OF HIS LIFE and Lawrence Schiller's AMERICAN TRAGEDY that I now have in my personal library are second editions and are actually different than the first editions I read ten years ago.  So details that may not have been in the earlier editions have slipped into the second.  Which details differ is hard to know because I do not have either first edition available as I write this.  Let me just say that because memories change over time for a wide range of reasons, we run into some questions that are hard to clear up.

I bring up the disclaimer and observation because the trailer for Episode Eight indicated there would be a lot about the "jury rebellion" that occurred not long after the glove demonstration.  I remembered so little about that I decided to read Toobin's take on the jury's behavior and how suddenly several members were removed.  I happened upon his telling of the glove demonstration.  He seemed to be remembering things I did not recall seeing in his first edition, mainly about the latex gloves OJ wore when he put on the bloody gloves in the court room.

In the second edition, he said he saw that the latex gloves themselves were not all the way on and that OJ ignored Chris Darden's request that he straighten his fingers in order to get the gloves on properly.

There are two reasons I think that Toobin may have unintentionally enhanced his memory.  One, Schiller made no such claims about the demonstration even though he, like Toobin, went from being impartial in the first edition of his book to believing OJ was guilty in the second edition.  Two, in Episodes Seven and Eight both Marcia Clark and DA Gil Garcetti responded to the demonstration that it was obvious to them the gloves did not fit.

Let me give a little more information on the gloves, based on the testimony of the executive of the glove company that made them.  The gloves were designed to fit snuggly and smoothly over the hands.  For OJ's purposes, such a glove was perfect for holding a microphone on the sidelines during TV broadcasts of football games on cold days.  

According to Toobin, all of the defense lawyers checked the gloves and tried them on one day and were convinced that they were too small to fit OJ.  They knew his hand size because when they left their visits with OJ, some put their hands on the glass window of the visitor's booth (all the visits were not in a spare room where they could be face to face) and OJ would put his hand up against theirs from the other side of the security glass.

If by chance those gloves were the ones purchased originally by Nicole at Bloomingdales in New York five years before, what other explanation could there be?  I suggest they were too small and OJ never wore them.  He could have gotten a larger size than XL that he could wear.  No one investigated that possibility but it could easily have happened.

If OJ had other gloves that were larger and did fit, how did these smaller ones get involved in the murders?  As came out in the trial, OJ's mansion had many guests and something as small as a pair of nice gloves could easily have been taken by almost anyone who came as a guest and no one would have noticed, particularly if they were unused.

Such forethought implies someone setting up OJ before the crimes.  The coincidence is too strong to be chance.  

We've already seen that the police, Fuhrman in particular, may have scrounged things like the gloves just in case.  As we'll see in one or both concluding episodes, Fuhrman could have conceived doing something like that or even actually would do it.

The other group mentioned in passing, the Colombian cartel, may already have had in the works for some weeks the prospect of a murder of Faye Resnick, the cocaine junkie who lived with Nicole at that time, or even Nicole herself.  

In the deep racist mindset of people like Fuhrman, OJ had stepped over the line by marrying a white woman.  To Fuhrman, OJ was uppity and not supposed to be rich and famous so he had to be brought down on few notches.  Gathering things that could be used as evidence in the future would be the smart thing to do.

And if you want back $25 K of cocaine that you think is stored at Bundy, you'd take advantage of gathering things that could be left at the scene if you thought you'd have any problems, things that would incriminate someone else.

Are either of these narratives more believable than the prosecution's story of an enraged 46 year old guy with bad knees who used three different knives to kill two younger and athletic people in that small space and come out with only a nick on the finger?

Reasonable doubt is what the defense needs.  When speculation provides a better explanation than the description provided by the prosecution, the jury has reasonable doubt.

On top of the demonstration that the gloves did not fit, most of the jury probably already had their minds made up.

The People V. . . . Fuhrman timeline

The series about the Simpson case has shown the kind of self-centeredness of Detective Fuhrman that makes him an unlikeable character.  Narcissism is not just a problem for OJ.

Fuhrman talks a lot about the case in his book MURDER IN BRENTWOOD.  His book is so full of himself it is almost laughable.  His arrogance and lack of professionalism are obvious in his description of what he did that early morning.  First, he makes himself at home on the couch in the Bundy condo after he has toured the crime scene.  Second, his critique of Vannatter and Lange for their failures to do their duties is gratuitous, because third, Fuhrman’s description of his own actions which show he was as inept as they had been when he was left in charge for periods of time at Rockingham and Bundy.

He is just the kind of person who would find a way to become the center of attention in any circumstance.  So he was in his element when the call came that the ex-wife of OJ Simpson had just been murdered.

The moment he learned that he was being replaced as lead detective, he looked for a way to be so important to the case that he would be in the middle of it anyway.  Here is what I think he did, based on his own book, which Jeffery Toobin accepted as fact for THE RUN OF HIS LIFE.  

The following was also how the defense understood Detective Fuhrman’s role.  We may see that in Episode Nine or Ten of AMERICAN CRIME STORY.

I am following the LAPD timeline from the previous blog posting, put together in the order gleaned from the series writers of the TV show and the specific times provided from the book KILLING TIME by Freed and Briggs.

Because Rockingham and Bundy were five minutes apart, Fuhrman would be able to leave and return with hardly anyone noticing.  With so many officers around, he would not be missed, especially if he usually operated in seclusion, like the inside of the condo to make notes.  He figured that by taking one of the pieces of evidence from Bundy and depositing it somewhere else, and then being the one to find it, he could take back the attention he enjoyed.  Before joining his partner and his captain on the corner, he picked up one of the gloves and put it into an evidence bag.  The glove would still be wet with blood two or three hours after the likely time of death.  He figured that OJ would be the prime suspect.  Significant others, even divorced ones like OJ, usually did it.  

As they stood there waiting for Vannatter and Lange, about 3:30 or so, he probably excused himself to go to the bathroom, climbed into his car and drove over to Rockingham.  He may even have taken his partner.  Chachi, the watchdog, would be no bother.   He and the dog were buddies from many previous visits.  Parking further down Rockingham, walking up to the estate, and then climbing the wall, he would check out likely spots to put the glove.  The foot traffic around these mansions at 3:30 in the morning would be less than around the Bundy site with all its condos.  According to his book, Fuhrman went along the unused walkway next to the garage.  He ran into a problem, he wrote: cobwebs.  He turned that into a verbal drama in his book, making it scary because he could not see that far in front of him, and making it brave, because he soldiered through it with his gun at the ready and the flashlight showing the way.  He went the length of the walkway and got no brilliant ideas about where to plant the glove.  

When he returned to where a street light shown on Rockingham, he realized his jacket was full of cobwebs and that he’d have a devil of a time explaining them.  Still hanging on to the evidence bag with the glove in it, he knew he had to somehow get back to Rockingham and see if anyone there could say something that would give him an idea where to plant it.  

Rosa Lopez testified to hearing a loud argument somewhere around 3 am and it could have been Fuhrman and his partner arguing over the cobwebs on the jacket, not leaving the evidence, and how to get back to drop it later.  

Fuhrman could also have had along his dog-handling friend who still had blood on his uniform from the dog at Bundy.  He might have had him climb into the Bronco at this point.  Or the friend may have been among the officers who followed the four detectives when they came to Rockingham around sunrise.   

Upon returning to Bundy by 4 am, Fuhrman left the jacket in the car and rejoined the captain at the corner to wait for the detectives from downtown.  Vannatter showed up just after that and Lange arrived about 4:30.  It is unlikely Fuhrman told them of his plan.  Really all he had to do was have his partner tell them that he was familiar with OJ’s home and they’d likely let him lead them there.  To show his humility, he pretended to need to be reminded and got directions from another officer.  He and his partner then led the way, arriving a little after 5 am.  The two lead detectives, like Fuhrman, believed in the theory about estranged partners usually being the killers so they were ready to presume OJ was guilty and would be looking for any sign that pointed in his direction.

When they arrived at the estate, Fuhrman struck gold.  Kato Kaelin had this weird story about bumps on his back wall at about 10:40 or so.  That left Fuhrman with the problem of how to get the glove back there.  He decided to see if anyone was awake next door, since it was daylight.  The housekeeper, Rosa Lopez, talked about hearing the argument around 3 am.  He asked if he could check the back yard that abutted the Simpson estate and got permission.  In his book, he spoke about going into the yard to have a look.  

I think it was then that he took the still wet glove from the plastic evidence bad and slipped it over the fence just below Kaelin’s air conditioner.

He then was in a position to get the other detectives and lead them to the glove.  

That confirmed Vannatter’s belief that OJ was the culprit.  But he knew it would take more evidence than just that so he got extra blood from OJ when he interviewed him that afternoon.  Vannatter would have had plenty of time to leaves drops of OJ's blood at the Bundy crime scene before returning to Rockingham by 4 pm.  And he probably did take samples of blood from the autopsies of Nicole and Ron, which he and Lange witnessed the next morning.  With the three vials of blood, Vannatter was in a position to spread it wherever it would do the investigation the most good, mainly the Bronco and the back gate at Bundy which were not examined until weeks after the crime.

Fuhrman wasn’t finished.  While Vannatter and Lange were interviewing OJ downtown, Fuhrman was in charge at Rockingham.  He had plenty of time to hunt up something innocuous like socks.  So he drives back to Bundy, looks around as if he is “detecting,” dips the two socks into a bloody spot and returns to Rockingham, plants the socks on the floor of OJ’s bedroom where the photographer later photographs them.

This narrative of how things could have happened explains how it is that the glove got where it did, how the socks were not in the first photo of OJ’s bedroom and were there on the floor late that afternoon when another photo was taken, and how the socks had parallel blood spots, as if they had been side-by-side and flat when the blood soaked into them.  The press would not have understood any of Fuhrman’s coming and going, if he were even noticed, as part of the framing of OJ.

After all, it was not the press who noticed Lange’s keeping OJ’s shoes overnight nor Vannatter’s ignorance of the street lingo surrounding the Colombian cartel.  It was the defense’s investigators.

Please understand that this telling does not prove OJ was innocent.  It just shows how the LAPD could have easily “enhanced” their case against their chief suspect.  We have yet to explore OJ’s alibi and the actual murders themselves.

The People V. . . . Rockingham Crime Scene

OJ's home in Brentwood is on the corner of Rockingham Avenue and Ashford Street.  Ashford comes into Rockingham at an angle so that the lot is a rounded-point long triangle.  The driveway is a loop from the bit of Rockingham on the point of the triangle up to the house and then over to Ashford.  Both entrances are gated, opened only from inside the house upon a call from the telephone intercom at each gate, by latches near the inside of the gates, and probably from a key pad in OJ's cars.  

From the Rockingham entrance, along the property line between OJ's and the neighbor to his south is a six foot fence.  On the neighbor's side is lawn and shrubbery.  On OJ's side is a walk way that goes all the way to the back yard where there is a tennis court.  At the front is the garage, attached to the house, and beyond it toward the back are two contiguous guest houses.  There is one entrance from the walkway to the house but the walkway is seldom used.  From the Ashford entrance, the driveway loops across the front of the house over to the garage and connects with the drive from Rockingham.  In the "court yard" behind the house and in front of the apartments is the swimming pool.  From the Ashford entry driveway, there is a winding walkway to the side of the house, back to the pool, and finally ends at the tennis court in the back of the lot.

The Ashford entrance is where the limo driver, Allen Park, waited for OJ on June 12 to take him to LAX.  He was early for the 11 pm departure time, arriving about 10:20.  He was unsuccessful reaching OJ through the intercom phone until almost 11, though he saw a tall dark figure near the front of the house at about 10:54.  He got through to OJ who came out with his golf bag and suitcase a little after 11.

As OJ was going out the door to get into the limo, Kato Kaelin who stayed in one of the apartments told him about some bumps he'd heard in the walkway behind his apartment, like someone bumping into his air conditioner.  OJ was already a few minutes late in leaving so he did not himself check on what that might have been.

Detectives Van Natter and Lange arrived around 5 am on the 13th to tell OJ about the death of Nicole and to ask him to pick up his two children.  Outside the gate of the Rockingham entrance was OJ's white Bronco, a gift loaner from Hertz.  Detective Fuhrman came with the other two.  He noticed a spot of blood on the Bronco door.  He climbed over the wall when no one responded to their call from the telephone intercom at that gate, fearing that there may have been violence done there as well. The detectives first encounter Kaelin who directs them to OJ's older daughter from his first marriage who is living in the other guest house.  

While Van Natter and Lange speak to her and then call OJ in Chicago, Fuhrman hears Kaelin's story about the 10:45 pm bumps behind the apartment.  Fuhrman investigates by going around to the front of the garage and back along the walkway to the AC where Kaelin said he heard the three bumps.  Fuhrman discovers the bloody glove, goes back to get the other two detectives, and takes them back along the walkway and shows them the glove, a perfect partner to the one found at Bundy.  

Van Natter notices drops of blood running from the Rockingham entrance across the front of the garage to the front entrance of the house.  To him, it was as though the blood trail that ended at Bundy connected up with the blood trail on OJ's driveway.

A criminalist arrives around 7:10 to examine the evidence at Rockingham, three hours before a criminalist arrives at Bundy.

OJ returns about 12:30 pm from Chicago.  He meets with Van Natter and Lange downtown at the police station without a lawyer and lets Van Natter take a sample of his blood.

At 5:30 pm, the police return to Rockingham to go over the house inch by inch. 

The People V. . . . Episode One

Rather than begin with the trial or even the crime scene, the first episode begins with scenes of conflict between the Los Angeles Police and Africa American young men.  Scenes from the riots surrounding the exoneration of the police in the beating of Rodney King show the depth of the racial tension at the time of the murders.  The conversations shown between Johnny Cochran, whose law practice was built on representing some of those young people, and Chris Darden, a young member of the prosecutor’s office in Los Angeles, showed the stress that was going on within the African American community.

The Toobin book on which the series is based does not start there.  Few of the other books about the Simpson case did.  They were all written to discuss the case without taking into account the social context of the case.  Each writer had other purposes.  Another social movement, however, was to take front and center, spousal abuse.  

For the crime itself, what we are shown is the dog getting attention of someone who then sees the blood and the bodies and calls the police.  

For the investigation, we see the police spotting blood drops from OJ's Bronco to the house in Brentwood, and Mark Fuhrman leading detectives Lange and Vannatter along the fence on OJ’s property and finding a glove.  OJ cooperates and talks to the detectives without a lawyer present.  They find a cut on his finger and OJ can’t explain it.  The acting DA, Marcia Clark, is shown interviewing two people, one of whom found the victims and the other who claims to have seen OJ driving away from the scene of the crime and nearly running into her car.  That scene was then dramatized with the actor portraying OJ, Cuba Gooding Jr., shouting at the witness.

The defense also is shown in the first episode to be investigating their client.  They have him physically examined.  The doctors find no sign of any physical nature, not even a bruise.  The sore finger is not mentioned in the scene.   OJ is shown to go through a lie detector test.  It shows that OJ tests out by that particular expert to have a bad score, showing the machine picked up physiological signs as he answered questions which were considered to be signs of being untruthful.

I am not sure how the series will handle any of these scenes when it comes to the trial.  I presume that in those later episodes, the evidence of some of these matters will be argued.  If not, I will try to shed light on each whenever I think it will help.

For now, let me touch on eight things I am sure are not going to be dealt with. 

One, when OJ was interviewed by the police, he allowed them to take a substantial blood sample, only part of which was turned in as possible evidence for the case by the police.

Two, while OJ was with the police, they also gave him a physical.  All they found was the injured finger.  No bruises, bumps, or scrapes.  

Three, the episode would have been more adequate if it had not shown the alleged scene where a witness said OJ nearly ran into her car with his Bronco the night of the crime.  That there was such a witness I do not deny but whether she actually saw OJ was not used by Marcia Clark.  Dramatizing that scene makes the viewer feel as though it must be true.  If I had artistic control, I would have added a couple other witnesses describing what they thought they saw or heard, demonstrating the conflicting nature of testimony with so many witnesses, and leaving in just the verbal statement of the woman driver.  I’m sure that a future episode will go into why that witness was never called.  Update: Episode Three shows the driver sold her story for $5,000 to a TV program so she immediately lost her credibility and was dropped by the DA’s office.  

Four, the lie detector test scene from the first episode will be understood according to the individual viewer’s prejudice about the case.  Lie detector tests are not admissible in a court of law for very good reasons.  One is that false scores occurred far too frequently.  There are several techniques used by various experts and differing results can occur depending on the technique.  The state of mind of the client and the approach of the tester can lead to very different results.  I am asking viewers to take that scene with a grain of salt in terms of helping solve the murders.

Five, the scene where Fuhrman took Vannatter and Lange back to find the glove was inaccurate.  It occurred after sunrise, not before.  Toobin took Fuhrman’s word that it occurred in the dark.  Fuhrman writes fiction since he left the LAPD.  But his police reports show signs he was already doing it before he left.  He included the time of day along with the dramatic moment in the dark in Brentwood when the glove was shown to the detectives, as he described it.  The national observatory sunrise time for that place occurred almost an hour before the time he gave.

Sixth, anyone who watches crime shows knows about the integrity of a crime scene.  According to Fuhrman, he found the glove earlier and led the detectives back to it.  How did the glove get there?  If OJ had come that way and accidentally dropped it, any foot impressions he’d have left were messed up by Fuhrman and, a little later, by the three officers.

Seventh, the glove shown in the scene was the actual glove.  It matched the other glove found at the murder scene on Bundy.  They look like oak leaves that have fallen from the tree, crinkled and mostly flat.  The picture was on a poster screen set up for showing evidence to the jury.  Imagine sitting for eight months staring at such things as the lawyers on both sides went over and over things, especially the DNA arguments.  I’ll leave that to your imagination for now.

Eighth, regarding the location of the white Bronco the night the driver came to pick up OJ (the night of the killings), as the camera panned away from the driver outside OJ’s mansion, there was no Bronco there.  That was the testimony of the driver.  However, other witnesses indicated the Bronco was near the other gate during the whole time and the driver somehow did not see it.  The series showed the Bronco was not there and that biases the telling of the story.

Before I conclude, let me clarify the situation a bit.  For at least two months, OJ was scheduled by one of his sponsors to attend a golf outing in Chicago on June 13.  He scheduled a limo to take him to the airport at 11 am on the 12th.  The murders took place sometime around then.  The prosecution felt that OJ had time between 10 pm and 11 pm to kill his wife and her friend, dispose of the weapon and bloody clothes, and still meet the limo.  The Chicago trip was not a last minute attempt to escape.  In fact, it set a limit on the time during which OJ could have done the crime and led the prosecution to have great difficulty establishing their own narrative of how OJ could have done it. 

It was hard to be accurate but the first episode gave it a good try.  But was it adequate?  Did it put critical things in proper perspective?  Did it misrepresent something of importance?  Did it leave out critical information?  I will try to keep sorting that out as we go along during the series.