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Lopez Finds Much Hard to Remember on Witness Stand

CNN

March 3, 1995

SHOW: NEWS 7:19 am ET

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BYLINE: ANNE McDERMOTT

SECTION: News; Domestic

LENGTH: 938 words

HIGHLIGHT: Rosa Lopez, a former housekeeper at the house next door to O.J. Simp-son’s, had a rough day on the witness stand yesterday as one prosecutor hammered away at her credibility and memory.

ANDREA ARCENEAUX, Anchor: Yet another day of testimony for a key defense wit-ness in the O.J. Simpson trial.

BOB CAIN, Anchor: We get an update and a look at the trial ahead from CNN corre-spondent Marc Watts, joining us now from Los Angeles.

MARC WATTS, Correspondent: Bob, Andrea, good morning. Ms. Lopez had hoped to be in El Salvador a week ago, but the defense witness will be back on the witness stand today in Los Angeles, undergoing more tough cross examination. Yesterday, prosecutor Christopher Darden hammered away at her testimony. CNN’s Anne McDer-mott has the story.

ANNE McDERMOTT, National Correspondent: Even Rosa Lopez seemed to sense that this was not going to be a good day for her.

CHRISTOPHER DARDEN, Deputy District Attorney: Are you glad to be here today?

ROSA LOPEZ, Defense Witness: No, sir.

ANNE McDERMOTT: And within minutes, prosecutor Christopher Darden was on the at-tack.

CHRISTOPHER DARDEN: Did you ever tell anyone that you hated Nicole?

ROSA LOPEZ: I didn’t say that I hated her, I said that I didn’t like her.

ANNE McDERMOTT: And that was because, she said, Nicole Brown Simpson slapped the Simpson housekeeper, Lopez’s friend. Darden also asked her about a conversation she had with a former employer shortly after Nicole Brown Simpson and a friend were killed.

CHRISTOPHER DARDEN: Isn’t it true that you told her, ‘O.J. Simpson is a great guy, and I’ll testify to anything, anytime.’

ROSA LOPEZ: I don’t remember.

ANNE McDERMOTT: Darden suggested that such a statement would be difficult to forget.

CHRISTOPHER DARDEN: Ms. Lopez this is supposed to be the murder case of the cen-tury-

ANNE McDERMOTT: Then there was another statement Lopez seemed to have no memory of.

CHRISTOPHER DARDEN: Isn’t it true that you told Sylvia Garrero [sp] that if she would say that she saw the Bronco, that she could also get paid $5000.

ROSA LOPEZ: I don’t remember having said that, sir.

ANNE McDERMOTT: Darden also attacked Lopez’s memory of when she saw O.J. Simp-son’s Bronco in front of his house. Earlier this housekeeper to Simpson’s next door neighbors agreed with a defense investigator that she saw the Bronco there about 10:15 or 10:20 at night, the time when prosecutors said Simpson was off killing his ex-wife and her friend. But under Darden’s questioning, she sug-gested the investigator, Bill Pavelic, got it wrong.

ROSA LOPEZ: All I said was that it was after 10:00.

CHRISTOPHER DARDEN: So you don’t know how long after 10:00.

ROSA LOPEZ: No, sir.

ANNE McDERMOTT: Darden asked her more questions about that interview with the investigator.

CHRISTOPHER DARDEN: And you did not agree with all the times that Mr. Bill Pavelic said, correct?

ROSA LOPEZ: Maybe he didn’t understand me.

ANNE McDERMOTT: Prosecutors have accused investigator Pavelic of coaching her, and Darden, at one point, also accused Simpson’s attorney, Johnnie Cochran, of doing the same thing in court. Darden gave two examples of this alleged activ-ity.

CHRISTOPHER DARDEN: You never saw Mr. Cochran make a motion like this, with his hands?

ROSA LOPEZ: No, sir.

CHRISTOPHER DARDEN: Did you ever see Mr. Cochran make a gesture like this, dur-ing the testimony?

ROSA LOPEZ: No, sir.

Judge LANCE ITO: Indicating a third base coach saying ’slide.’

ANNE McDERMOTT: Cochran angrily protested and Judge Lance Ito said he saw no evidence of wrong-doing. Meanwhile Darden hammered away at Lopez’s credibility. Didn’t she recall telling a television reporter she heard voices on the night of the killings? She said no, then was shown this video tape [video tape clip] - Lopez said she was saying she heard noises, not voices. At times, Darden ques-tioned Lopez calmly, sometimes angrily and sometimes even with a kind of hilar-ity. One such moment occurred when he asked Lopez what she talked about with the defense attorneys during a break.

ROSA LOPEZ: We talked about my always telling the truth, sir. That’s what I’m saying now sir.

CHRISTOPHER DARDEN: [guffaw - he laughs]

judge LANCE ITO: Mr. Darden, that was totally inappropriate-

CHRISTOPHER DARDEN: That was unavoidable and I apologize to the court.

Judge LANCE ITO: You’re admonished Mr. Darden, please.

ANNE McDERMOTT: Anne McDermott, CNN, Los Angeles.

MARC WATTS: The children of O.J. Simpson and Nicole Brown Simpson light candles each morning in front of a picture of their slain mother, that according to De-nise Brown, Nicole’s sister. Denise says she has assembled a shrine to her sis-ter which includes a large portrait in order to help Simpson’s children deal with the tragedy.

DENISE BROWN, Nicole Brown Simpson’s Sister: They know their mommy’s dead, you know. But we keep her alive, we have pictures all over the place, we light can-dles for her, we say our prayers every night, God Bless Mommy, you know, and God Bless Daddy.

MARC WATTS: The Simpson children, Sydney and Justin, ages nine and six, are staying with Denise Brown at her parents home in California. And our coverage of the O.J. Simpson trial begins a little earlier than usual today. We’ll start things up at 11:45 a.m. Eastern, 8:45 Pacific. Rosa Lopez returns to the wit-ness stand. And that’s going to do it for this hour from Los Angeles.

The preceding text has been professionally transcribed. However, although the text has been checked against an audio track, in order to meet rigid distri-bution and transmission deadlines, it may not have been proofread against tape.

LOAD-DATE: March 3, 1995

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

Transcript # 16-3

TYPE: Package