Prosecutorial Misconduct Deputy District Attorney Marcia Clark told the jurors in the O.J. Simpson murder trial that her job was "a search for truth." She said that she couldn't tell them anything that wasn't true. She said that the evidence against Simpson was so overwhelming that she had no choice but to prosecute him. She lied. The evidence in the case went in several directions indicating different timelines and different suspects. Some of it led to O.J. Some of it led to other people acting alone or in concert. Some of it led to direct police involvement in the murders and a frame-up of O.J. Simpson. Only the evidence that implicated O.J. as the killer was ever followed up on by the prosecution but the evidence itself and Fuhrman's connection to it was never questioned. The evidence that pointed toward the police -- and Fuhrman in particular who either found it or proposed a theory that linked it to O.J. in advance of other incriminating discoveries -- was ignored. Although police photos showed that evidence on the murder scene moved the prosecution argued that it didn't instead of trying to determine how it moved, who moved it and why. The fact that crucial blood evidence "disappeared" from the police lab and other crucial blood evidence mysteriously appeared was also ignored by the prosecution. The prosecution did not allow the defense access to all of the evidence. A real search for truth by the D.A.'s Office would have shown that Mark Fuhrman was connected all of it physical evidence and the most damming character witnesses against O.J. The prosecutors first chose to hid Fuhrman's extensive involvement in the case. They then chose to present him as an honest cop and an exceptional investigator who was being unfairly attacked by the forces of evil because he did his job too well. O.J. Simpson's murder trial did not begin in a courtroom. It began with Vannatter's badly flawed search warrant and a call to Marcia Clark to help him out. Spouse abuse, blood evidence and "fixing" shaky search warrants were all specialties of Marcia Clark. Judge Lance Ito, in reviewing the warrant in light of the evidence presented in court, said that it showed a "reckless disregard for the truth." Vannatter called Marcia to Rockingham at 11:00 A.M. on the 13th. When she got there at noon, Vannatter was on his way downtown with O.J. Lange was at Bundy. She got a rundown of the Rockingham crime scene and a walk-through from Fuhrman. It should therefor come as no surprise that her story of the Bronco's "extreme parking angle" and the thumps on Kato's wall were essentially the same as Fuhrman's. He was the first person to show her the evidence and to explain it. Marcia ordered no close-up photos of the blood drop behind the Bronco or the blood trail that Roberts tried to mark going up the left side of the driveway. In court, she used a photograph the Bronco taken at an odd camera angel to show that it was parked in an odd way. She ignored the parking angle in the photos taken of the stick that showed only a minor deviation. The driveway was carefully cropped out of those photos. By her own statement (see Marcia at Rockingham) the photos were taken at her direction. Johnnie Cochran called Marcia as a witness to testify about seeing the man at Rockingham who shot the video of the socks on O.J.'s bedroom rug. Judge Ito allowed her to give an unsworn statement, instead. As you will see in the entirty of her statement below (Marcia at Rockingham) she glossed over her contact with Fuhrman on the 13th. The previous witness, Det. Harper, had testified that he saw her and Fuhrman talking at a table outside but he wasn't sure of the date. Marcia said only that she thought Fuhrman might have been one of three detectives who walked her through the Rockingham crime scene. Harper did not see her with any other detective. The crime scene included the inside of the house, the grounds outside and the Bronco parked on the street. Marcia did not tell anyone that she saw socks on O.J.'s bedroom rug or blood stains inside of the Bronco. Yet, she used other witnesses to strenuously argue that the socks on the rug and the blood in the Bronco were there when O.J. left for LAX the night before. Marcia cherry picked her "dog barking" witnesses to exclude six people who didn't support her theory that the killings began with Nicole's Akita barking frantically at 10:15 or 10:20. She withheld some of Nicole's phone records and buried in procedural routine the most important one, Nicole's phone conversation with her mother between 11:17 and 11:28. When another Deputy Prosecutor brought Marcia information that Fuhrman was the racist that the defense said he was and that he boasted of seeing Nicole's "boob job up close and personal" a year before the murders, Marcia kicked her out of her office. --Jasper -------------------------------------------- Marcia at Rockingham (Transcripts/April 3, 1995) MR. COCHRAN: I HAVE ONE OTHER WITNESS I WOULD LIKE TO CALL, YOUR HONOR. THE COURT: ALL RIGHT. MR. COCHRAN: I WOULD LIKE TO CALL MARCIA CLARK. MS. LEWIS: YOUR HONOR, I OBJECT TO MARCIA CLARK TESTIFYING. SHE IS THE LEAD TRIAL LAWYER IN THIS CASE. IT IS NOT NECESSARY. THERE IS NO EVIDENCE IN THE RECORD TO SUPPORT THAT SHE WAS EVER PRESENT WHEN THE VIDEOGRAPHER WAS THERE. MR. COCHRAN: I DON'T WANT HER MAKING THIS ARGUMENT IN FRONT OF MISS CLARK. MS. LEWIS: MISS CLARK KNOWS THE ISSUES. THE TESTIMONY IS SHE LEFT AT 2:50 OR 3:00 -- MR. COCHRAN: YOUR HONOR, I WOULD OBJECT TO HER MAKING THE STATEMENT IN FRONT OF MISS -- MS. LEWIS: -- AND THE VIDEOGRAPHER ARRIVED AT 3:10. THE COURT: NOTED. OVERRULED. ALL RIGHT. I DON'T NEED MISS CLARK'S TESTIMONY AS A WITNESS. I SIMPLY NEED HER STATEMENT TO THE COURT AS TO HER RECOLLECTION WHEN SHE WAS THERE, AND MORE PERTINENTLY, WHEN SHE FOUND OUT THIS TAPE EXISTED. MS. LEWIS: I ASSUME MISS CLARK -- THE COURT: I ACCEPT THE REPRESENTATION OF ANY COUNSEL HERE AS OFFICERS OF THE COURT. MR. COCHRAN: THAT IS FINE. THE COURT: I DON'T NEED IT UNDER OATH FROM THE WITNESS STAND. GOOD MORNING, MISS CLARK. MS. CLARK: GOOD MORNING, YOUR HONOR. I THOUGHT I HAD A DAY OFF. YES. I CAN TELL THE COURT EXACTLY WHEN I ARRIVED AT ROCKINGHAM AND I WOULD LIKE TO ADDRESS THIS STATEMENT TO MR. LEVIN AS WELL, BUT I ARRIVED AT APPROXIMATELY -- AT ABOUT 12:30 OR QUARTER TO 1:00. I HAD EARLIER SPOKEN TO DETECTIVE VANNATTER WHO INDICATED HE WAS GOING TO SEEK A WARRANT. THE COURT: THIS IS THE FAMOUS HARVEY LEVIN MIS-TIME-STAMPED? MS. CLARK: EXACTLY. EXACTLY, YOUR HONOR. AND DETECTIVE VANNATTER HAD BRIEFLY TOLD ME WHAT HE HAD IN TERMS OF PROBABLE CAUSE AND I SAID IT SOUNDS LIKE, YOU KNOW, YOU'VE GOT IT. HE SAID HE WOULD PRESENT IT TO THE JUDGE AND HE ASKED ME TO MEET HIM AT ROCKINGHAM. I SAID THERE IS NO POINT IN MY GOING OUT THERE UNTIL YOU HAVE THE WARRANT SIGNED AND DELIVERED, PLEASE LET ME KNOW WHEN THAT IS DONE. HE CALLED AND HE TOLD ME THAT. THAT WAS AT ABOUT 10:45 I BELIEVE. I WAS WORKING ON ANOTHER CASE AND I DIDN'T LEAVE THE OFFICE UNTIL ABOUT 12:00, AND I ARRIVED I BELIEVE AT 12:30 OR QUARTER TO 1:00 AT ROCKINGHAM. I MET DETECTIVE LUPER THERE. THERE WERE VERY FEW PEOPLE THERE, IT WAS VERY QUIET, AND APPARENTLY THE DEFENDANT HAD ALREADY COME AND GONE BY THE TIME I GOT THERE. DETECTIVE LUPER WALKED ME AROUND A LITTLE BIT, I THINK ROBERTS DID, I THINK DETECTIVE FUHRMAN DID. ON THE 13TH I NEVER SAT OUTSIDE AT A TABLE WITH ANYBODY. I WAS THERE BRIEFLY. I MADE REQUESTS OF THEM CONCERNING WHAT TO PHOTOGRAPH AND IN WHAT SEQUENCE, AND THESE ARE STILL PHOTOGRAPHS, IN WHAT SEQUENCE TO PHOTOGRAPH SO THAT IT WOULD BE UNDERSTANDABLE AND CLEAR. AND I ASKED THEM TO MAKE SURE THAT THEY PICKED UP CERTAIN ITEMS IN THE SEARCH AND HE INDICATED TO ME, DETECTIVE LUPER, THAT THERE WAS NO SEARCH TEAM AVAILABLE AT THE TIME, THEY WERE IN A HOLDING PATTERN FOR AWHILE. I HAD OTHER WORK TO DO SO I DIDN'T WAIT FOR THE SEARCH TEAM, AND I LEFT ROCKINGHAM AT ABOUT FIVE MINUTES TO 2:00. I HAD TO GO BACK DOWN TO THE 10 FREEWAY GOING EAST, SO I TOOK BUNDY DOWN AND THE CRIME SCENE WAS ON MY WAY, AND AS IS MY HABIT, I ALWAYS VISIT CRIME SCENES TO GET A FEELING FOR THE SPACIAL CONNECTIONS OF EVERYTHING AND THE DIMENSIONS AND I STOPPED BY BUNDY ON MY WAY BACK TO THE OFFICE AT ABOUT TWO O'CLOCK. I MET WITH THE OFFICER WHO HAD THE PERIMETER AT THAT TIME. I DON'T REMEMBER HIS NAME, BUT THE TAPE WAS STILL UP AND HE INDICATED NO ONE WAS ALLOWED INSIDE, AND I SAID FINE, AND I LEFT VERY SHORTLY THEREAFTER. AND I THINK THE CRIME SCENE LOG REFLECTS THAT I LEFT BUNDY. I WAS AT BUNDY FROM 2:00 TO 2:15, THAT'S CORRECT, AND I LEFT BUNDY AT LEAST AT 2:15, IF NOT 2:10, WENT BACK TO THE OFFICE. AT NO TIME DID I SEE A VIDEOGRAPHER PRESENT AT ROCKINGHAM. I CAN ASSURE THE COURT THAT IF I HAD, I WOULD BE DELIGHTED AND I WOULD HAVE ASKED THEM TO DO ONE AT BUNDY AS WELL, BUT I DIDN'T KNOW THEY WERE DOING THAT. I DID NOT LEARN OF THAT VIDEOTAPE UNTIL A COUPLE DAYS AGO WHEN ALL OF THIS -- WHEN THE DEFENSE APPARENTLY INDICATED TO US THAT IT KNEW ABOUT A VIDEOTAPE, AND THEN I ASKED, AFTER HAVING HEARD FROM SOMEONE ELSE ABOUT IT, THAT WAS IN THE LAST FEW DAYS, VERY RECENT, SO I NEVER KNEW THEY HAD ONE AND I ASKED ABOUT IT. I ASKED WHY -- FOR WHAT PURPOSE THEY PERFORMED IT AND WHY WE DIDN'T KNOW AND IF THEY DID ONE AT ROCKINGHAM, WHY DIDN'T THEY DO ONE AT BUNDY? AND THE REASON FOR THAT THEY EXPLAINED -- THE COURT: I DON'T NEED TO KNOW THE REASON. MS. CLARK: YOU ALREADY KNOW. SO I LEARNED IT WAS FOR ADMINISTRATIVE PURPOSES AND THAT IS ALL I KNOW, SO I WENT TO ROCKINGHAM FIRST AND THEN I WENT TO BUNDY. AND THE CRIME SCENE LOG SHOWS WHEN I WAS AT BUNDY AND INDICATES VERY CLEARLY THAT I WAS NOT AROUND WHEN THE VIDEOGRAPHER WAS THERE. AND I SAW THE MAN COME IN TO TESTIFY. WAS THAT ON FRIDAY? I HAD NEVER SEEN HIM BEFORE IN MY LIFE, SO THAT WAS THE FIRST DAY I HAD EVER SEEN HIM.
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