Forensic Expert Follows New Blood Trail
SANTA MONICA, Calif. (Jan. 9, Noon) -- Dr. Henry Lee, testifying through video deposition Thursday morning in the O.J. Simpson civil trial, claimed to have spotted a new trail of blood drops leading to the front of Nicole Brown Simpson's home.
Thursday afternoon the defense will continue showing Lee's deposition. Simpson's lawyers are then scheduled to read testimony from Gary Siglar, a Los Angeles coroner's office employee who gave the blood samples of Ronald Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson to Det. Philip Vannatter.
Lee did not see the seven new blood drops when he was working for Simpson's criminal defense because he was only provided with photographs from the crime scene, not the negatives. The photograph Lee viewed for the criminal trial had been cropped, removing the new blood trail from view, Lee noted. The drops point to the front of the Bundy property -- unlike the blood trail often discussed in the case, which leads to the back gate.
The new drops could support a defense theory that there was more than one assailant, but the plaintiffs will likely argue that the drops could have occurred when the bodies were taken from the crime scene, or dripped from the dog's fur.
A world renowned forensic scientist, Lee also pointed out a number of signs from the crime scene that he said indicated a long struggle. These included: disturbances in the soil; the presence of fresh, green leaves on the ground; and the fact that Goldman's beeper and keys were dropped in different places.
"Do you have any idea," Simpson's lead attorney, Robert Baker, asked, "was it a short struggle, a long struggle, a prolonged struggle?"
"I cannot determine the exact length of the struggle, but not a very short one," Lee said. "Mr. Goldman did fight. [He] put up a big fight."
Lee's testimony featured a number of gruesome photographs from the crime scene, which appeared to upset one female juror. After she bowed her head and seemed to be crying, Judge Hiroshi Fujisaki called an early noon recess.
Before Lee took the stand, Simpson's attorney Daniel Leonard boldly stated that the defense had built a strong circumstantial case that evidence was planted and that Simpson was framed by police. Leonard's comment came during a hearing about the scope of testimony the defense could present from Siglar. The defense argued that Siglar should be allowed to talk about various problems in the coroner's office and about a letter he wrote complaining that the police took about 10 hours to call the coroner to Bundy. While the plaintiffs said that Siglar's testimony on those subjects was irrelevant, Leonard said it went directly to evidence of a police conspiracy. The police, Leonard claimed, did not want the coroners at the scene because officers may have been busy planting evidence.
"They wanted to keep the scene tight. They didn't want to have interlopers there who would interfere with whatever it was they wanted to do," Leonard said. "The fact that they didn't call the coroner's response team is circumstantial evidence of framing."
Judge Fujisaki, however, did not agree. He allowed questions about the 10-hour delay in calling the coroner's response team only as it pertained to the liver temperature of the bodies. The delay, the defense says, caused the temperature to go down, thus not allowing the coroner to determine accurately the time of death. The conspiracy theory did not move the judge.
"I will not permit it on your theory of conspiracy," Judge Fujisaki said. "I don't see evidence of that."
-Robert Schmidt
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