OJ Simpson preliminary hearing, day 3.

Posted on by ladyhope | Category: Preliminary hearing

This is probably going to be a long one! When I was looking at the long video, it was 5 hours, and 14 minuts! Preliminary hearing excerpts are short for some reason, trial ones are longer. Unfortunately the audio starts becoming somewhat iffy right away, there’s a bit of static. Thankfully the static subsides! We also get back to the hair motion very briefly at the beginning, as two exhibits were admitted for the purpose of that hearing.
Since I like making lists, let’s make a list at the beginning!

Second excerpt, 43 minutes.
The testimony of Brian Kaelin, AKA Kato, was cut off during excerpt transitioning. It was also cut off on the longer video, apparently they’re taken from the same source, and just edited back together. It’s a small gap, but it took me some time to find it. However, I was able to.
Q SO YOU WERE GOING TO RENT A ROOM IN THAT HOUSE?
5 A YES.
Q BUT YOU DIDN’T?
6 A NO.
Q WHY NOT?
7 A BECAUSE I HAD A CHANCE TO MOVE INTO ANOTHER
PLACE.
8 Q HOW DID THAT COME ABOUT?
A O.J. ASKED ME TO MOVE INTO HIS PLACE.
9 Q WHEN YOU SAY, “O.J.,” YOU MEAN THE DEFENDANT?
A YES.
Here’s the entire transcript for July 5th, 1994.
Third excerpt, 55 minutes.
At the end of the third excerpt, the court takes the lunch break. No testimony gets cut off, although they do go into chambers to discuss scheduling.
It was a lot more than scheduling, it ended up being a 90s discourse on the media, and I just have to say, people are a whole lot more whiney and sensitive about graphic exhibits now!
01 (The following proceedings were had
02 in chambers at 11:55 a.m.)
03
04 THE COURT: Okay. I guess I’d just like to get a
05 feel for where we’re at.
06 It seems to me that in our discussions before,
07 we thought that this would be about the point where we’d
08 start the motion, after this witness gave his direct.
09 MS. CLARK: Right.
10 THE COURT: Is that still accurate?
11 MS. CLARK: Right.
12 MR. UELMEN: Yes.
13 THE COURT: Now, I have still yet to read your
14 entire opposition to their suppression motion. But at
15 the beginning you indicated that you’re not seeking to
16 introduce any of the evidence that was recovered
17 pursuant to the execution of the search warrant.
18 MS. CLARK: That’s right.
19 THE COURT: So is it a fair statement then that
20 those items 1 through 34, with the exception of the
21 blood sample from Mr. Simpson, were not recovered
22 pursuant to the search warrant?
23 MR. UELMEN: Your Honor, we have not yet seen the
24 return to the search warrant.
25 THE COURT: Nor has the court.
26 Do you have a copy of that return?
27 MS. CLARK: All I have is a property — I have a
28 copy of a return, but the return refers to the property
0129
01 report, I believe, for the items. I’ll have to go back
02 and look.
03 THE COURT: Okay. Because I think that’s critical
04 to —
05 MS. CLARK: I can tell the court what I’m going to
06 be asking to admit.
07 THE COURT: Well, that’s a starting point.
08 MS. CLARK: I’m going to be asking to admit the
09 glove. I mean, I’m just confining my statement now to
10 the Rockingham address, because there’s no issue about
11 anything else.
12 THE COURT: Right.
13 MS. CLARK: The glove, and the blood on the door
14 handle of the Bronco, and blood drops in the driveway
15 leading up to the property. Nothing recovered from the
16 inside of the house will be offered at the preliminary
17 hearing. In other words, nothing recovered pursuant to
18 search warrant.
19 THE COURT: So just so that I understand, the
20 return of the search warrant you say — but you’ll
21 provide copies to everyone this afternoon — just refers
22 to the property report?
23 MS. CLARK: I think so.
24 THE COURT: Without enumeration by number?
25 MS. CLARK: Oh, yes, it’s numbered by item number.
26 THE COURT: It says, refer to items number blump,
27 blump, blump.
28 MS. CLARK: I’ll have to look. I’m unclear right
0130
01 now. I’ll get it from the investigating officer.
02 THE COURT: I guess we need to see that, because if
03 it indicates any of these items as things that were
04 returned pursuant to the search warrant, then
05 conceivably the search warrant is in issue in this
06 proceeding.
07 MS. CLARK: Right.
08 MR. UELMEN: We believe it will be in issue in any
09 event with respect to the credibility of the officers in
10 terms of the statements made in the affidavit.
11 MS. CLARK: No, it’s not going to be brought into
12 issue at all, and is not by law unless I’m asking to
13 admit items that were seized pursuant thereto.
14 THE COURT: Well —
15 MR. UELMEN: The affidavit is the statement under
16 oath by the officers as to what they observed.
17 THE COURT: So, Mr. Uelmen —
18 MS. CLARK: But that affidavit is irrelevant.
19 THE COURT: You’re indicating that perhaps
20 statements in the affidavit might come in for some
21 purpose of impeaching a witness that testifies?
22 MR. UELMEN: Yes, Your Honor.
23 THE COURT: May or may not. I don’t know at this
24 point.
25 Now, do we have any indication as to timing of
26 how long we expect or how many witnesses you expect to
27 call for the motion?
28 MS. CLARK: I expect to call three witnesses, I
0131
01 think. Three.
02 THE COURT: Can you just tell me what their names
03 are?
04 MS. CLARK: Sure. Detective Vannatter, detective
05 Fuhrman and perhaps detective Phillips. Oh, Excuse
06 me. And Dennis Fung.
07 THE COURT: All right.
08 Do you know at this time, Mr. Uelmen, whether
09 you intend to present any evidence with regard to the
10 motion?
11 MR. UELMEN: Yes, we will call two witnesses,
12 Your Honor.
13 THE COURT: Would you care to give me their names
14 at this point?
15 MR. UELMEN: Arnelle Simpson and Brian Kaelin.
16 THE COURT: Okay.
17 Is there — do we have any sort of an
18 indication, just for time estimate, as to how long we
19 think this particular portion is going to take?
20 MS. CLARK: I don’t know.
21 MR. UELMEN: I would imagine the testimony will
22 take the afternoon.
23 THE COURT: I would think it would probably take
24 that at least, that if not longer, if we’re talking
25 about six witnesses. Okay.
26 MS. CLARK: I was thinking we could probably
27 conclude it by the end of tomorrow.
28 What do you think?
0132
01 MR. UELMEN: I don’t know that it will take all day
02 tomorrow. We may be able to conclude it in the morning
03 tomorrow.
04 MS. CLARK: Then I’ll have, you know — okay.
05 Probably by noon tomorrow, you think? Okay.
06 I have another civilian witness who is very,
07 very brief. I forgot. She showed up after I left for
08 court. If I could call her briefly before we begin the
09 motion.
10 Rachel Ferrara. The Rachel that he referred
11 to in the phone call.
12 THE COURT: I don’t have a problem with that.
13 MS. CLARK: She’ll take, I mean, I think five
14 minutes, ten minutes on direct, very brief.
15 THE COURT: Okay. For your information, I
16 received a request from A.B.C. news for the release of
17 the photographs. It was just by way of a letter. And
18 I just asked the press liaison to inform them that at
19 this point in time I was not going to release — we’re
20 referring to the crime scene photographs.
21 MS. CLARK: Um-hum.
22 THE COURT: That I felt that it would be
23 detrimental at this time to release those. And that’s
24 all that I have relayed back to them.
25 So I don’t know, you know, whether — what
26 they intend to do from there. But just so that you’re
27 aware of what’s going on with that.
28 It seems to me there was another —
0133
01 MS. CLARK: Your Honor, may I raise something? I
02 know I’ll forget otherwise. You know, I’m glad you
03 raised that.
04 I’m going to ask to remove photographs from
05 the board as it presently exists, because I do not want
06 to put into evidence the more graphic photographs that
07 are on it.
08 As far as graphic goes, the one that has been
09 shown to the witness is as about as graphic that I want
10 to get.
11 THE COURT: That one?
12 MS. CLARK: That one. And it’s just for position,
13 so that they can have something to refer to.
14 The others I’ll be asking to admit, I’m going
15 to ask to take them off the board. Those are the ones
16 that show evidence. The envelope, the hat, the
17 glove.
18 Other than that I’ll — so what I’d like to do
19 is take them off and mount them singularly, and I’ll
20 withdraw the others.
21 THE COURT: Let me just inquire.
22 Were these particular boards, with the
23 photographs as they are arranged on them now, exhibits
24 in the grand jury proceeding?
25 MS. CLARK: Yes.
26 THE COURT: And —
27 MS. CLARK: They were released to us permanently.
28 THE COURT: Okay. I just don’t want there to be
0134
01 any kind of a problem or a mix up if the photographs are
02 removed from where they were mounted and there was
03 testimony somehow in the grand jury proceeding
04 identifying those photographs by a number or a letter
05 that they will not have in this proceeding.
06 You know, will we end up in some kind of a
07 very confusing situation? And I haven’t read the grand
08 jury testimony, but —
09 MS. CLARK: The photographs that I am asking not to
10 admit now were referred to only by police officer
11 witnesses, not civilians. I don’t think they’re going
12 to create — their absence will create a problem for the
13 record.
14 MR. HODGMAN: And Your Honor, what I would suggest
15 is, say, at the conclusion of the hearing when we’re
16 seeking to introduce exhibits, we will provide the court
17 with perhaps a listing indicating what photograph is a
18 preliminary hearing exhibit, which came from which grand
19 jury exhibit, that you will see, you will have a record,
20 if that will suffice for you.
21 THE COURT: It’s fine with me. I’m more concerned
22 for a record that might ultimately be read by someone
23 else that there not be a confusion in the record.
24 MR. HODGMAN: Understood.
25 THE COURT: And with reference to the one
26 exhibit — there was one particular exhibit, the one
27 that you did show to the people that discovered the
28 body, and even when you were walking up from the counsel
0135
01 table up to where you were showing it to the witness,
02 that white paper that you had sort of draped over it
03 sort of came away a little bit, and the court could see,
04 not specifically, but I could see just in general some
05 of what the other photos that were concealed were
06 shown — what it contains.
07 MS. CLARK: It was a white cardboard which I
08 thought would actually — not white paper, white
09 cardboard, which is — I mean, I wanted to use it that
10 way so it wouldn’t fly around the way the butcher paper
11 does.
12 THE COURT: Whatever it was, I could see just a
13 little bit.
14 Are you talking now about taking that picture
15 off of what it’s attached to, because that exhibit is in
16 the clerk’s custody at this point.
17 MS. CLARK: Right.
18 THE COURT: Do you have a problem with that,
19 removing that one photograph from the cardboard so that
20 it’s not — we’re not traipsing around the courtroom
21 with all the other photographs?
22 MR. UELMEN: Well, I have read the grand jury
23 transcript, and there are references to specific
24 numbered exhibits in the grand jury; and if we’re going
25 to be questioning witnesses about their grand jury
26 testimony and not be able to reconstruct what exhibits
27 were presented, it may present a problem.
28 THE COURT: That’s an area of concern.
0136
01 MS. CLARK: Yes.
02 THE COURT: Do you have a duplicate of that
03 photograph that somehow you can utilize for purposes of
04 our proceeding here instead of carrying that other board
05 back and forth?
06 MS. CLARK: I don’t have a duplicate now, but I’m
07 going to go and ask the officers if they can duplicate
08 those.
09 THE COURT: I mean, it doesn’t even have to be a
10 large photograph. It could be just a small photograph
11 that is handed to the witness and the witness says
12 whatever the witness is going to say about it.
13 MS. CLARK: That’s no problem. Let me go back to
14 my office and see if I can find it and/or see if they
15 can get me eight-by-ten duplicates, which they may have,
16 in time so I won’t have to mess with an exhibit that’s
17 already existing.
18 But I don’t want — I just wanted to avoid to
19 have to traipse around with it. As you say, it’s true,
20 it’s very hard to avoid it being seen and I really don’t
21 want to. It’s unnecessary.
22 THE COURT: I think at this time the better course
23 is not to disclose it.
24 MS. CLARK: Right.
25 THE COURT: Because I just feel that if the media
26 does have access to it, that they’ll just — they will
27 show it every time they talk about the case.
28 MS. CLARK: Right.
0137
01 THE COURT: They’ll print it whenever they decide
02 they should print it, which would be all the time, or
03 some portion of the media would print it all the time.
04 MS. CLARK: I really agree. That’s why I’d like
05 to limit what I put into evidence, so if at some point
06 there is litigation about what you have to show the
07 press and not, at least we’ve ferreted it down.
08 I certainly would be willing to stipulate that
09 they never be given access to it, but I don’t know
10 what —
11 THE COURT: Of course, they feel that they have a
12 different interest from yours and yours and my interest,
13 and their position is they’re entitled to everything.
14 And I did try to find case law on the issue,
15 did not find a case particularly exactly on point, but I
16 feel that the court does have inherent power to control
17 its own records and it is own exhibits, and particularly
18 here where — I mean, ultimately I don’t know if this
19 proceeding is going to go beyond the preliminary hearing
20 because the evidence isn’t finished.
21 But at this point in time, just to protect
22 everyone’s rights, including the defendant’s right to a
23 fair trial, if it gets that far, the court would want to
24 be overprotective rather than the other way.
25 And I just feel that to protect Mr. Simpson’s
26 due process rights — and I could see that the victim’s
27 families wouldn’t want to see this splashed across
28 newspapers and television —
0138
01 MS. CLARK: Right.
02 THE COURT: — all over the place, that it’s just
03 better, more prudent, to not release the crime scene
04 photos.
05 MS. CLARK: I agree. I agree.
06 THE COURT: And that would be the Court’s
07 indication, as I’ve told you before, and what I’ve
08 relayed to the press through the liaison.
09 So I guess that’s where I’ll leave it at this
10 point in time. All right.
11 I suppose there is nothing of a confidential
12 nature that would prevent this transcript of this
13 in-camera proceeding from being — or not in-camera
14 proceeding; I should not say that — in-chambers
15 conference — because this is not an in-camera
16 proceeding — from being released.
17 MR. UELMEN: No, your Honor.
18 THE COURT: All right.
19 Then this can go ahead and be transcribed in
20 the ordinary course of the record.
21 MS. CLARK: Can’t think of anything.
22 THE COURT: All right.
23 MS. CLARK: Thank you, Your Honor.
24 MR. SHAPIRO: Thanks.
25 Have a nice lunch, judge.
26 MS. CLARK: 1:30?
27 THE COURT: 1:30.
28 (Proceedings in chambers were concluded at 12:10 p.m.)
We will now transition to a motion hearing, on a motion we don’t have, of course. Motion to suppress evidence, filed by the defense, at some point in 1994.
Fourth excerpt, 59 minutes.
Just as we did when excerpt transitioning earlier, we have a small gap, but we also have a bit of a faide in the beginning so that if there are those who aren’t using Clipsh 2.1 speakers like myself, you may not be able to hear it. The testimony of Detective Mark Fuhrman for the purposes of the supression motion was cut off while excerpt transitioning, but also for those who like to watch trials on their phone, which isn’t always the best idea, good external speakers are always better!! I decided to take a bit more from the transcript than probably necessary.
Fifth excerpt, also 59 minutes.
Now starting with the transcript section.
10 Q I’m going to show you defendant’s exhibit —
11 if there’s no objection.
12 Can you point to the pool area on this
13 exhibit?
14 A Yes. This is the pool.
15 MS. CLARK: For the record, the witness is
16 designating the area marked as “pool.”
17 THE WITNESS: And just north of the residence this
18 curving path that’s designated on this drawing, it
19 arches and comes down through a patio area directly to
20 the rear of the main house at 360 Rockingham.
21 You walk past this and there’s bungalows or
22 pool houses to the southern — that would be the
23 southeastern corner of the property.
A few minutes later, they took a break. After the break, the tape did a strange thing, but thankfully, it only did it to just part of the first question of the cross examination. I’m glad we got rid of tape a long time ago for this reason! However, since it isn’t indiscernable, I’ll go ahead and leave it.
Sixth and final excerpt, 41 minutes.