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Ito slams O.J. team for hiding key tape

The Boston Herald

March 1, 1995 Wednesday SECOND EDITION

Ito slams O.J. team for hiding key tape

BYLINE: By Helen Kennedy

SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 001

LENGTH: 675 words

A 12-minute audiotape that the O.J. Simpson defense team first said didn’t exist - and then produced - touched off an acrimonious daylong debate that an-gered the judge and prompted prosecutors to call for sanctions.

Prosecutors accused the defense of hiding the tape - a July 29 recording in English of Simpson’s star witness Rosa Lopez telling a different story - because it is so damaging to their most crucial witness.

“This is the most egregious violation I’ve ever seen in my practice,” said prosecutor Marcia Clark, who was granted a delay to prepare the cross-examination.

The delay - which Judge Lance A. Ito took pains to blame on the defense - adds to the discomfort of the sequestered jurors, who sat in their hotel yester-day watching “The Flintstones” for the third time.

Also taking the brunt of the delay was Lopez herself, who told the judge she has been honest and made a pitiful plea to be allowed to go home to El Salvador.

“I’m very sick, sir,” said Lopez, who wore the same blue dress she appeared in the day before.

“I don’t eat during the day. I’m not sleeping very well. This is not my fault to work close to Mr. Simpson. It’s not my fault to have seen and to have heard,” she said. “I’m very tired. I want to go rest. I don’t want any more questions.”

But Ito told her to come back tomorrow morning and ordered Simpson’s lawyers to pay for her hotel room as part of their punishment.

In a calm, sure voice, Lopez testified Monday that she saw Simpson’s white Bronco parked at his home several times on the night of June 12, including about 10:15 p.m., when prosecutors say Simpson was two miles away murdering his ex-wife.

Clark charged yesterday that Lopez is being carefully “coached” by the de-fense.

She accused the defense of deliberately hiding a written statement and audio-tape opez made July 29 because both contain “glaring” inconsistencies with the Aug. 18 statement that was given to prosecutors.

For example:
On July 29, Lopez said another Brentwood housekeeper, Sylvia Guerra, had coffee at Lopez’s house June 12 and also saw Simpson’s Bronco. Clark said Guerra will testify that Lopez was lying. Guerra was not mentioned in the August state-ment or by Lopez on the stand.

On the July tape - but not in the written statement - Lopez also said she heard Simpson talking to another man at 10 p.m. That strong alibi testimony was also not repeated in the later statement or on the stand.

“We’re talking huge inconsistencies,” Clark said.

The July 29 statement was given to prosecutors Monday, when defense attorneys Johnnie Cochran Jr. and Carl Douglas blamed the lateness on a “harmless over-sight.”
Both strongly denied that any other notes or tapes existed.

“There are no notes that haven’t been turned over. There are no tape re-cordings,” Douglas said.

Cochran scornfully dismissed the prosecution complaints, saying: “Judge, they’re always crying and complaining.”

Ito - appearing incredulous - confronted Cochran with the transcript of Ito asking defense investigator Zvonco “Bill” Pavelic if there were “any other notes, reports or statements relating to Lopez.”
Pavelic said: “other than the two (typed) statements, no.”

But after Ito - at Clark’s urging - unwillingly placed Bill Pavelic under oath, Bill Pavelic admitted he had a tape of the July 29 interview.

Cochran tried to explain it by saying the judge’s original question was not specific enough. Ito shook his head and laughed in apparent disbelief.

Both sides have been punished by the judge for withholding materials, but Ito specifically warned Douglas last month to locate every tape and note and to make sure they were all turned over to prosecutors.

Douglas apparently dodged a perjury accusation when Bill Pavelic told Ito that Douglas never knew there was a tape.

The controversy over the tape produced another first for the Simpson trial: Clark lost her tongue.

“I find this unbelievable,” she said, sputtering into silence.

“I’m speechless,” she finally said, then she laughed: “I know that tells you something.”

LOAD-DATE: March 01, 1995

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH