Narrow Questioning Frustrates The Defense
SANTA MONICA, Nov. 5 (Evening) -- Susan Brockbank, a Los Angeles Police Department criminalist, testified about hair and fiber evidence in the afternoon session of the O.J. Simpson civil trial. Jurors also watched a videotaped deposition of Brenda Vemich, a buyer at Bloomingdales, where Nicole Brown Simpson purchased two pairs of Aris Isotoner Light leather gloves.
Court ended fifteen minutes early so jurors could vote. Wednesday morning the plaintiffs plan to read into the record testimony from the criminal trial of witnesses who saw or took photos of Simpson wearing gloves similar to those found at the Bundy and Rockingham crime scenes. The first witness on Wednesday is expected to be Richard Rubin, a former executive at Aris Isotoner and a glove expert.
Amber McGrath, an 18-year-old court intern who told USA Today that Simpson made improper advances toward her in the hallway, was not in court this afternoon. And despite the media swirl, the court says it has no plans to remove her from her internship.
Vemich, whose testimony was played for the jury via a large television, said that Bloomingdales sold Nicole Brown two pairs of Aris leather gloves for $55 each on Dec. 18, 1990. Vemich also identified photos of the gloves found at Bundy and at Simpson's estate as brown Aris leather, sized extra-large--a brand made exclusively for Bloomingdales.
In the deposition, Vemich cleared up a problem that surfaced in her criminal testimony--that the number on the receipt used to denote the particular brand of gloves, which should have been 70263, was actually 70268. The cash register was programmed to accepted only four digits for the order number, Vemich said. The eight was a "check" signifying that the numbers on the receipt were input properly by the cashier.
Plaintiff's attorney John Kelly, who conducted the deposition, showed Vemich a photograph of Simpson providing commentary at a football game wearing a pair of tightly fitting, brown leather gloves. Simpson and a number of courtroom spectators burst into laughter at the picture, which showed Simpson with a wide open mouth and round eyes. Vemich said she could not positively say the gloves were Aris Light.
Brockbank, the LAPD criminalist who handled hair and fiber evidence taken from the Bundy and Rockingham crime scenes, gave a detailed accounting of how the items she handled were catalogued. But the plaintiffs, sticking to their strategy of limiting police witnesses, did not ask Brockbank about any evidence she analyzed or whether it tied Simpson to the murders.
As a result, defense attorney Robert Blaiser was frustrated in his attempts to further indict the police for their mishandling of evidence. However, he alluded to another explanation for rare carpet fibers from Simpson's Bronco being found at the Bundy crime scene, asking Brockbank if the police every tried to determine if his children or their dog could have tracked the fibers there.
-Robert SchmidtFind out about Court TV's coverage of the civil trial, and take a look at the witness lists provided by both sides.
Rob Schmidt's Reporter's Notebook
Court TV Reports and Trial Coverage
Documents and Depositions from the Pre-Trial Civil Proceedings
A Look Back at the Criminal Case
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