Plaintiffs Call FBI Hair Expert
SANTA MONICA, Nov. 12 (Evening) -- FBI hair and fiber expert Douglas Deedrick took the stand Tuesday afternoon in the O.J. Simpson civil trial, telling jurors that hairs on Ronald Goldman's shirt and the knit cap found at the Bundy crime scene matched hairs belonging to Simpson.
Simpson was not in Santa Monica Tuesday because his child custody case began in Orange, Calif. Simpson, Court TV has learned, took the stand on direct examination in the custody case and is set to continue his testimony Wednesday. The proceedings are closed to the public.
In the civil case, Deedrick will still be testifying on direct examination Wednesday morning. After he finishes discussing hair samples, Deedrick will likely turn to the unique fibers from Simpson's Bronco. Those fibers, the plaintiffs say, were found on the knit cap at the Bundy property and on a glove discovered at Simpson's Rockingham estate. Scheduled to follow Deedrick is DNA expert Dr. Robin Cotton.
Twelve hairs matching O.J. Simpson's hair sample were on the knit cap found at the crime scene, Deedrick testified. Nine of those hairs were inside the cap -- leading Deedrick to say that either Simpson wore the hat, or it was worn by a person sharing the same microscopic hair characteristics as Simpson. One hair matching Simpson's was found on Goldman's shirt, along with 35 hairs matching Nicole Brown Simpson's sample. Some of Nicole Simpson's hairs on the shirt were cut, some were broken, and some were pulled out of the scalp, Deedrick said.
Deedrick was careful in his testimony to point out that hairs do not provide an "absolute form of identification." However, he noted that over the course of conducting more than 10,000 examinations, "it's unusual to find hair samples that exhibit the same microscopic characteristics."
At the beginning of Deedrick's examination, Judge Hiroshi Fujisaki expressed frustration over attorney Edward Medvine's plodding and overbroad line of questioning. "We are just shooting in the dark at this point," the judge said. "We don't need a course in hair and fibers." After sustaining several objections from the defense, the judge could be heard muttering, "Jesus," in frustration.
Earlier in the afternoon, pathologist Werner Spitz finished his testimony -- the most contentious to date in the civil trial. On his re-cross examination, Baker continued to hammer away at Spitz who refused to answer what he considered were misleading questions. Baker, however, refused to let Spitz not answer his questions. In one typical exchange, Baker interrupted Spitz and exclaimed: "I didn't ask you what you said, I asked you a question, sir."
Spitz fought back as well, refusing to be interrupted by Baker, at one point, saying: "Excuse me, you asked me the question, I'd like to answer it."
Robert Schmidt
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