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O.J. Alibi Witness Testifies

United Press International

March 2, 1995, Thursday, BC cycle

BYLINE: BY TERRI VERMEULEN
SECTION: Domestic News
LENGTH: 1094 words

DATELINE: LOS ANGELES, March 2

O.J. Simpson’s key alibi witness testified Thursday that she is not exactly sure what time she saw the football legend’s Ford Bronco outside his mansion the night his ex-wife and her friend were killed. Under cross-examination by prose-cutor Christopher Darden, defense witness Rosa Lopez said she told Simpson’s private investigator, Bill Pavelic, she had seen the Bronco ‘’after 10 p.m.,'’ and Pavelic suggested other times she might have seen the vehicle. The time frame is critical because prosecutors contend Simpson drove the Bronco to the home of his former wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, about 10:15 p.m., killed her and her friend, Ronald Goldman, and returned home in time to catch a late flight to Chicago. Simpson, 47, has pleaded ‘’absolutely, 100 percent innocent'’ to two counts of first-degree murder for the June 12, 1994 stabbing and slashing deaths. If convicted, the National Football League Hall-of- Famer could spend the rest of his life in prison without possibility of parole. Lopez’s testimony is inconsistent with lead defense attorney Johnnie Cochran’s opening statements to the jury, in which he told the panel that Lopez saw the white Bronco at 10:15 p.m. Darden pounced on the inconsistencies, asking Lopez whether Pavelic was ‘’the first one to suggest 10:15 or 10:20′’ was the time she had seen the Bronco. ‘’If that’s what he’s saying, that’s fine,'’ Lopez said. Under relent-less grilling, Lopez said she gave Pavelic times that she had seen the Bronco and that he suggested other times. ‘’You did not agree with all the times that Mr. Pavelic said, correct?'’ Darden asked Lopez. ‘’Maybe he didn’t understand me,'’ Lopez responded through a Spanish interpreter. Lopez, a Salvadoran native, spoke to Pavelic in English, but has said she prefers to speak Spanish. Earlier this week, prosecutors contended Lopez was ‘’coached into stating what the de-fense wanted to hear'’ during a tape-recorded interview with Pavelic. Deputy District Attorney Marcia Clark said Lopez was ‘’handed a script'’ before the July 29, 1994 interview and ‘’basically coached and told what to say through ever bend and turn.'’ In court Thursday, Darden accused Cochran of giving Lopez hand signals or cues as she testified — an accusation Cochran flatly denied. In an intense day of cross-examination, Lopez contradicted herself numerous times. When asked whether she had difficulty remembering dates and times, Lopez responded, ‘’If I don’t have it written down, how can I remember?'’ Moments later, Lopez refuted Darden’s suggestion that she would not be able to remember dates and times if she had not written them down. There were other contradic-tions involving visits to attorneys’ offices, unemployment forms, her address, her name and her age. Superior Court Judge Lance Ito is allowing Lopez to tes-tify out of the jury’s presence because she claimed she wanted to flee the coun-try because she is terrified by the media. Her videotaped testimony will be available to be shown to the jury during the defense’s case if she carries out her threat to leave for El Salvador. A hostile Lopez, who had been gently ques-tioned by Cochran, responded to many of Darden’s queries by answering, ‘’I don’t know,'’ ‘’I don’t remember'’ or ‘’If you say so.'’ Lopez said she did not remem-ber whether she told a former employer, ‘’O.J. Simpson is a great guy and I’ll testify to anything, anytime.'’ Darden also asked Lopez if she remembered her former employer, Sylvianne Walker, asking her if she believed Simpson committed the murders. ‘’And isn’t it true that you responded? ‘Oh no, senora. He had somebody do it for him.”’ Darden asked Lopez. ‘’No sir, I don’t remember hav-ing said that to the lady,'’ Lopez said. Lopez also denied that she was offered $5,000 to sell her story to the National Enquirer tabloid or to testify in Simp-son’s trial. Lopez also said she did not remember ever telling one of her friends, Sylvia Guerra, she could get paid $5,000 for saying she saw Simpson’s Bronco at the curb of his mansion the night of the killings. Prosecutors also grilled Lopez about why she did not inform police about seeing the Bronco the night of the killings, though there were dozens of police officers in front of the house the next day. ‘’If no one comes to me, I’m not going to go looking for somebody,'’ Lopez said. ‘’I am not going to go looking for the police to in-form them.'’ Lopez has maintained that police detective Mark Fuhrman came to her house the morning after the killings and told her that he would send investiga-tors back to interview her — something she contends never happened. Lopez ad-mitted she disliked Simpson’s ex-wife because Nicole Simpson once slapped the Simpson’s housekeeper, Michele Abourdram. ‘’We are friends, we are both house-keepers and we earn our living by the sweat of our brow,'’ Lopez said of Abourdram. Simpson’s legal team maintained outside court that Lopez, the only alibi witness mentioned in the defense’s opening statements, is a ‘’believable witness.'’ ‘’I think that she’s believable and credible on all of the important issues, and you can’t touch her on that,'’ Cochran told reporters. But legal experts said prosecutors were able to call serious question to Lopez’s credibil-ity. Southwestern University Law School professor Robert Pugsley said he be-lieves the prosecution made a ‘’major dent in the defense’s alibi'’ by showing Lopez was uncertain about what time she had seen Simpson’s Bronco. ‘’I think that Rosa Lopez’s effectiveness as an alibi witness for O. J. Simpson has been effectively demolished,'’ Pugsley said. ‘’There are too many inconsistencies, too many ‘’I don’t remembers'’ when it was convenient to do that.'’ ‘’They now know they have a serious problem on their hands. They promised this woman to the jurors in opening statements. I think today was a stinging defeat for the de-fense, and they know it.'’ In a development outside court, Simpson’s lawyers ap-pealed to the public to turn over photographs and videos of the murder scene during the first few hours of the investigation, saying they may ‘’be of great importance in reaching the truth.'’ The defense asked anyone with such material to call them and offered to buy any items that ‘’may be helpful.'’ The football legend’s legal team has accused police and the coroner’s office of bungling the investigation, contaminating evidence and failing to perform necessary tests.

LOAD-DATE: March 3, 1995

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH