The Victims' Mothers Testify
SANTA MONICA, Dec. 6 (Evening) -- Nicole Brown Simpson's mother, Juditha Brown, tearfully testified Friday in the O.J. Simpson civil trial, telling jurors that Simpson bent over his ex-wife's coffin at her wake and said, "I'm so sorry Nic, I'm so sorry." He then kissed her on the lips.
The mothers of both murder victims took the stand and talked about their relationship with their children. But while Juditha Brown took the stand and often broke down in tears recounting her story, Ronald Goldman's mother, Sharon Rufo, spoke by videotape. She was forced to explain why she had not seen her son for the seven years leading up to his murder.
The plaintiffs will call their final witness -- Fredric Goldman -- on Monday and then the defense will begin its case. The first defense witness is expected to be Los Angeles Police Det. Philip Vannatter, who testified in early November for the plaintiffs. Also scheduled for the defense are LAPD criminalist Andrea Mazzola; her boss Dennis Fung; LAPD Nurse Thano Peratis; and DNA expert Gregory Matheson.
Along with talking about her relationship with her daughter, Juditha Brown told the jury about her interactions with O.J. Simpson in the weeks leading up to the murders. Brown often glared at her former son-in-law as she spoke from the witness stand.
Simpson, Brown said, called her two or three days after Nicole Brown Simpson's 35th birthday on May 19, 1994.
"He said, 'she may not love me anymore'...and I said, 'well then go on with your life,'" Brown said. "Then he said, 'I tell you the first time she left me I take the blame, it's my fault. But the second time, it's gonna hurt.'"
The next time Brown saw Simpson, she said, was at the dance recital the night of the murders. Simpson, Brown testified, was "nervous and angry and upset." She and her husband sat in front of Simpson during the recital, and Brown claimed he acted strangely from the minute he arrived.
"Mr. Simpson came down and he put his hands on his hips and he didn't say a word," Brown said. "He looked through me, and I started to feel uncomfortable."
But later, lead defense attorney Robert Baker played a videotape shot the night of the recital that showed Brown kissing Simpson good night. The former football star was also joking around with Brown's husband, Lou, on the tape.
The dramatic ending of Brown's testimony also came under fire by the defense. Plaintiffs' attorney John Kelly asked Brown to discuss her interaction with Simpson at Nicole Brown Simpson's wake.
"I was at the coffin and Mr. Simpson came in and he said, 'could you move, could you move, I have to be alone,'" Brown said. "And then I heard him say, 'I'm so sorry Nic, I'm so sorry,' and then he kissed her on the lips."
Brown continued: "I followed him and confronted him, and I said, did you have anything to do with this and he said, 'I loved your daughter.'"
"Did he ever answer your question Mrs. Brown?" Kelly asked.
"No," Brown replied.
However, as soon as Brown was turned over for cross-examination, Baker asked her to reconsider her answer to that last question. To help Brown refresh her memory, Baker played a tape of her first television interview. In it, Brown could be clearly heard saying, "he said, 'No. I loved your daughter.'"
Also during Brown's testimony, the defense stipulated to the $250 cost of the dress she wore the night of the murders - -an important fact because that is the amount of compensatory damages Nicole Brown Simpson's estate is entitled to win. They are also seeking unspecified punitive damages.
Sharon Rufo, Goldman's mother, testified by videotape. Her attorney Michael Brewer, led her through a series of questions designed to show that she loved her son and explain why she had not spoken to him in the two years before he died. Rufo said that since her children moved to California in 1987 she communicated with "Ronnie" four times -- twice in phone calls and twice in unanswered letters -- but never saw him. Rufo also showed pictures of Goldman that she said she carried with her all the time.
To partly explain the lack of contact between the two, Rufo said the her then-husband Stephen Rufo did not want her to talk to her children. In fact, Rufo testified that her then-husband told Goldman one time when he called his mother, not to telephone the house. But Rufo said she heard the tail end of the conversation and took the phone away.
"I heard it was my son and I grabbed the phone, so he wouldn't hang up," Rufo said.
Goldman had called, Rufo testified, to tell her that he was appearing on the television show "Studs." The conversation, which lasted over an hour, was the last time Rufo spoke to her son, in November 1992.
Before the victims' mothers took the stand, portions of Robert Kardashian's deposition were read into the record. The plaintiffs used his testimony to once again show that Simpson was obsessed with getting back his golf clubs after the murders. They contend that he may have stashed bloody clothes or the murder weapon in the golf-club travel bag. Simpson testified in the civil trial that he and Kardashian were driving near the airport and decided to get the clubs. But Kardashian's deposition testimony differed with Simpson's account.
"O.J. asked me if I would drive him to the airport to get his golf clubs," Kardashian said.
Brewer asked Kardashian, "You thought that was somewhat of an odd request, didn't you that someone whose wife had been killed 36 hours earlier wanted to go to an airport to pick up golf clubs?"
"Yes," Kardashian replied.
-Robert Schmidt
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