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From: Jolanda/Jean
Date: 2/16/02
Time: 11:09:51 AM
I am reposting this to start a new thread -------------------------------------------- Up ] Light SUV near Bundy From: Jolana Date: 2/7/02 Time: 3:45:09 PM Comments What do you all make of the info contained in this article? Many think Shively was a liar. Was McKinnon one too? Jolana Another Potential Star-Witness-for-the-Day Comes Forward in Simpson Case By MICHAEL FLEEMAN Associated Press Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) - If he's telling the truth, John McKinnon's story could put another kink in the O.J. Simpson case. It's the story of a white Bronco racing along near the murder scene, a Bronco that doesn't belong to Simpson. But in the upside down world that is the Simpson case, where a hot story can yield a witness thousands of dollars in tabloid cash and a few moments of TV stardom, truth has become a slippery thing. And when it's all over, McKinnon may be remembered as just another one of those star-witnesses-for-a-day, like the prosecution's Jill Shively or the defense's Mary Anne Gerchas, both of whose credibility was put through the shredder. According to a police report obtained by The Associated Press, McKinnon, a retired plumber from Los Angeles' Brentwood section, told investigators he spotted a white Ford Bronco about two blocks from the scene of the murders at 10:35 p.m. June 12, about 20 minutes after the time prosecutors say the killings occurred. McKinnon, who was returning home from a trip to the grocery store, went so far as to jot down a partial license plate number on a bank deposit slip, thinking the agitated driver - racing around with his headlights off - was drunk, the report says. The first three numbers indicated on the police report match the plate of Simpson friend Al ``A.C.´´ Cowlings´ white Bronco. If McKinnon is telling the truth, he would be the first witness to place Cowlings near the crime scene. Cowlings was under grand jury investigation in connection with Simpson´s June 17 flight from police. He was never indicted. Cowlings´ attorney, Donald Re, rejected the McKinnon report as an old story that nobody gave much credence to. ``The police know where A.C. was. He was nowhere near Nicole´s condo that night. His Bronco was nowhere near the condo,´´ Re said, refusing to say where Cowlings was. ``Police have actually talked to people who are aware of where A.C. was.´´ Boosting McKinnon´s credibility is that, according to the report, he called police on June 14 - two days after the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman and before the world knew Cowlings even had a white Bronco. That was also before Shively claimed before a grand jury and on TV to having seen roughly the same thing: a white Ford Bronco, lights off, driving erratically near the crime scene. But she identified the driver as Simpson. Unlike Shively, McKinnon has apparently accepted no money and has tried to keep a low profile. He declined to be interviewed by the AP. His wife and lawyer said he wants nothing to do with the media. Police assigned one of their top Simpson investigators, Detective Tom Lange, to interview McKinnon and write up the report, which the AP obtained this week. Lange indicated that McKinnon turned over the deposit slip. But McKinnon´s story has holes. Sources told the AP that although police recall getting a call from McKinnon on June 14, there is no written record of the call or tape recording to verify what he said. The detective who first talked to McKinnon, Brad Roberts, told the New York Daily News that he recalled McKinnon reporting ``something about a vehicle and a license plate.´´ But Roberts said he didn´t recall writing a license number down. By the time Lange interviewed McKinnon, it was July 27, several weeks after the televised police pursuit of Simpson in Cowlings´ Bronco and long after Shively´s interview. Also, McKinnon balked at Lange´s request to take a lie-detector test, and reported to police that since he had come forward a mysterious person had threatened to kill him with an ice pick. The alleged threats came in a phone call and in a message scrawled in the dust of McKinnon´s car: ``Keep trap closed. Ice pick,´´ according to police reports. And in a subsequent interview on Aug. 1 with police, McKinnon backpedaled. ``The subject relates that he is unsure of the partial license number he observed on the Bronco as it was moving away from him rapidly with the lights still out,´´ the police report says. McKinnon was never called before the grand jury investigating Cowlings, and sources said he is on neither the prosecution nor defense witness lists for the Simpson trial. Asked about McKinnon, prosecutor Marcia Clark refused to talk about him or even acknowledge she knew him, saying in a brief interview that the prosecution witness list is long and she can´t keep track of everybody. McKinnon, meanwhile, is puzzled at what he calls his ill treatment by authorities, according to his lawyer David Ganezer, who describes his client as ``a real honest guy.´´ ``He wouldn´t take a polygraph because it´s humiliating,´´ Ganezer said. ``He sort of got into a fight with the officer investigating (about the polygraph). He just figured they weren´t treating him with any respect.´´ Added Ganezer: ``The police just seemed to lose interest in him.´´ AP-DS-02-03-95 1547EST