Families Present New Timeline
SANTA MONICA, Oct. 25 (Evening) -- The afternoon session in O.J. Simpson's civil trial here lasted less than an hour as the jury heard testimony from dog walker Steven Schwab and Sukru Boztepe, who found the body of Nicole Brown Simpson. Apologizing to the jury for the short day, Judge Hiroshi Fujisaki told them he asked the lawyers to "tighten up the witness list" so there will be full days of testimony in the future.
Court is out of session for the weekend and will resume Monday at 8:30 a.m. Scheduled to testify are several Los Angeles Police Department officers involved in the investigation: Officer Robert Riske, Lt. Frank Spangler, Office Michael Terrazas, and Det. Ronald Phillips. Expected later in the week are other members of the LAPD, including Sgt. David Rossi, police photographer Jonah Wilson, Det. Tom Lange, and Det. Phillip Vannatter.
Schwab told the jury about how he found Nicole's dirty and blood-spattered Akita at 10:55 p.m. on June 12, 1994, while taking his own dog for a walk. Schwab, who also testified in the criminal trial, always walked his dog on Sunday nights during the half-hour break between the Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore shows. After seeing the Akita and hearing its "loud barking, [like it was] trying to get someone's attention or wake someone up," Schwab took the dog back to his home. Not wanting to keep the Akita over night because he had a cat, Schwab gave the dog to his neighbor Boztepe. The defense team did not cross-examine Schwab, who was on the witness stand for 20 minutes.
In his 15-minute testimony, Boztepe told the jury how he ran into Schwab in the courtyard of their apartment building and agreed to keep the dog overnight. The Akita, however, was acting nervous and scratching the door, so he and his wife decided to take it for a walk. As they walked by Nicole's house, the dog pulled them toward the property. Peering in, Boztepe said, he saw "a lady lying down in a pool of blood." When the police arrived, Boztepe pointed them to the crime scene. During a quick cross-examination, defense lawyer Robert Baker asked several questions about the police who first arrived on the scene. But Boztepe said he could not answer because he was standing across the street and they disappeared behind the bushes. Boztepe also testified in the criminal trial.
The timeline witnesses called thus far in the civil trial have spent about half as much time on the stand than they did in the criminal proceedings. That is largely because the defense is not disputing the plaintiffs' timeline for the murders. The plaintiffs have put on witnesses who pin the time of the murders around 10:35 and 10:40 p.m. The defense contends the murders happened five or ten minutes later, but the plaintiffs' timeline still allows them to say it was impossible for Simpson to return home and appear calm and clean when he was seen by limousine driver Allan Park at 10:55 p.m.
Simpson was not in court this afternoon.
Find 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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