Defense Begins Its Case By Grilling Vannatter
SANTA MONICA, Dec. 9 (Evening) -- Det. Philip Vannatter faced a hostile examination Monday afternoon in the O.J. Simpson civil trial, as the defense accused him of shoddy police work and lying when he obtained a search warrant for Simpson's house. The now-retired Los Angeles Police detective, who co-supervised the murder investigation, also faced tough questions about his handling of Simpson's blood vial.
Vannatter will continue his testimony Tuesday morning when the plaintiffs are expected to cross-examine him. Vannatter is scheduled to be followed by LAPD criminalists Andrea Mazzola and Dennis Fung, and LAPD nurse Thano Peratis.
Vannatter testified earlier in the case for the plaintiffs. But his testimony was limited his handling of the blood samples of Simpson and the two murder victims. As a result, Vannatter was on the stand for a mere 40 minutes, and lead defense attorney Robert Baker was frustrated in his attempts to broaden the scope of his questioning. Monday afternoon, Baker did not have that problem. He focused on several themes during his examination of Vannatter: that the police rushed to judgment against Simpson; that Det. Mark Fuhrman was unsupervised much of the time he was at Rockingham; that Vannatter's oversight of the investigation was inadequate; and that Vannatter improperly and inexplicably carried O.J. Simpson's blood sample to the Rockingham crime scene.
The defense also played the entire tape recording of Simpson's interview with Vannatter and his partner Tom Lange, in an effort to show that Simpson, even though he was exhausted from his red-eye flight and quick return from Chicago, had volunteered to go to the station and talk without his lawyer present. Baker also wanted to impeach Vannatter's testimony that Simpson never asked about how the murders were committed. In one part of the interview Simpson complains that the police won't give him any information about the killings.
The contentious questioning built to a crescendo as the afternoon wore on, and by the end of the day Baker was shouting at the retired detective, accusing him of shading his testimony to get a better deal for a book he is writing and to vindicate his inadequate police work.
At one point, Baker complained that Vannatter has denounced Simpson in public.
"I believe your client is guilty of murder, yes," Vannatter replied.
Baker also used his examination to bring up the specter of the racist rogue cop Mark Fuhrman as often as he could. Baker made sure that jurors knew that Fuhrman was the officer who first spotted a bloodstain on the door of the Bronco, jumped the fence to let his colleagues into the Rockingham property, and found the bloody glove while he was "investigating" alone for 15 to 30 minutes.
"Was [Fuhrman] ever wearing a coat?" Baker asked.
"I don't think so," Vannatter said.
The glove itself was an issue, as Baker pressed Vannatter to describe its condition -- whether or not there was dirt on it, if there was any insect activity around the blood spots. Baker also tried to show the glove had been placed there by pointing out that there was no blood trail leading up to it, nor any blood drops around it.
Vannatter was also forced to answer questions about the affidavit he swore out to obtain the search warrant for Simpson's home. The detective said that Simpson had left his home on an "unexpected" flight to Chicago, but Baker contended that Brian "Kato" Kaelin had told Vannatter that Simpson was going to Chicago on a planned trip. Kaelin testified earlier in the trial that the first words he said to the detectives when he answered the door were: Did O.J.'s flight go down? But Vannatter said that when he interviewed Kaelin, he referred the question to Arnelle, Simpson's daughter who was also living at Rockingham. Arnelle, Vannatter testified, told him she thought her father was home that night. Also in the affidavit, Vannatter said that the police had found a spot on the Bronco, which the LAPD Special Investigations Division had determined to be human blood -- which was not true. Vannatter said he made a mistake.
"You lied to the magistrate to get the search warrant, true or untrue?" Baker asked.
"No that's not true," Vannatter answered. "That's nonsense."
"Yeah," Baker muttered sarcastically.
To buttress its claims of poor police work, the defense showed a video clip of Vannatter walking through the middle of the Bundy crime scene and stepping on a blanket that had been used to cover Nicole Brown Simpson's body. Baker also skeptically questioned Vannatter about why he said he saw two cuts on Simpson's fingers but only photographed one cut. Vannatter also admitted that he did not inspect both of Simpson's hands for cuts and only photographed what he could see from a distance.
"So you didn't want to do a thorough investigation?" Baker asked, but an objection was sustained by the judge.
-Robert Schmidt
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