Simpson's Travel Bag Opened
SANTA MONICA, Oct. 31 (Evening) -- Retired Los Angeles Police Det. Tom Lange remained on the stand for the rest of the day in the O.J. Simpson civil trial, telling jurors what O.J. Simpson brought with him in his black leather bag during the infamous Bronco chase. Before Lange took the stand for the afternoon session, Judge Hiroshi Fujisaki dismissed an alternate juror who was rushed to the hospital earlier in the day because of complications from his blood pressure medicine.
Court will resume on Friday at 9:00 a.m. with Lange, one of the two lead investigators in the double murder of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman, still testifying on cross-examination. Scheduled to be called after Lange is his former partner Philip Vannatter.
Two and a half years after Simpson fled police arrest in his friend A.C. Cowlings' Ford Bronco, a jury finally heard what Simpson had with him. Among the items, Lange testified, were a .357 revolver and six rounds of ammunition taken from the gun's cylinder, a mustache and goatee disguise with a receipt, changes of underwear, a few pairs of socks, numerous credit cards, Simpson's passport, a Pro Football Hall of Fame ring, and two or three sets of keys.
In their opening statement the plaintiffs argued that whoever committed the murders at Bundy needed keys to get in the back gate, and that that one of the sets of keys, which Simpson had in the Bronco was to Nicole's property. Lange also testified that when he arrived at the crime scene the night of the murders he saw blood on Nicole's back gate and only one dark-brown leather glove.
Lange's credibility, however, was seriously challenged on cross-examination by defense attorney Robert Baker. In a sometimes dismissive, sometimes incredulous tone, Baker tried hard to paint Lange as a liar. By contrasting Lange's testimony with his written report on the murder scene, Baker revealed a number of inconsistencies. The largest among them: Lange never wrote about blood drops on the back gate in his report.
The defense also sought to portray Lange as a bumbling cop who supervised a sloppy investigation. Baker hammered Lange for not beginning to process the evidence at the crime scene until six hours after the police arrived at Nicole's condominium. He questioned the decision to cover Nicole's body with a blanket, which could contaminate the evidence. Lastly, Baker mocked Lange for saying he left Nicole's property in the midst of an investigation to notify O.J. Simpson of her death and establish "a rapport" with him.
"While you have a wealth of evidence at 875 S. Bundy," Baker asked, "it seemed like a good idea to go to Rockingham and establish a rapport with Mr. Simpson?"
In the hallway outside Judge Fujisaki's courtroom, Simpson and Fred Goldman exchanged words over nasty stares that have been flying back and forth between Simpson and Kim Goldman.
"Don't even give me any of your dirty looks," Goldman said to Simpson as they passed in the hall.
"I wasn't even looking at you, I was looking at your daughter, who was looking at me."
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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