O.J. Team Loses Ruling On Socks Cochran Complains Ito’s Orders Preventing Defense For Simpson

The judge in the O.J. Simpson case Thursday barred a defense expert from testifying that Nicole Brown Simpson’s blood was planted on a sock taken from Simpson’s bedroom, unless further testing is done.

“He can say there’s a red something over there,” Superior Court Judge Lance Ito said, referring to noted criminalist Herbert MacDonell.

MacDonell was prepared to testify that blood on one of the socks soaked through to the interior of the other side, which the defense says could not have happened if Simpson was wearing the sock when the blood got on it. Ito said the test MacDonell did was not conclusive for human blood.

The ruling was the latest setback for Simpson’s lawyers, who recently were barred from introducing a theory that the murders of Simpson’s ex-wife and her friend Ronald Goldman were drug-related.

From the outset, Simpson’s lawyers have claimed he is the victim of a police conspiracy and a “rush to judgment” by detectives who ignored other leads in the case. Thursday, in a flurry of motions filed late in the day, they complained that Ito’s rulings were depriving Simpson of his right to present a defense.

“In view of this court’s ruling of July 13 (on the drug theory), the defendant is left crippled in his effort to rebut prosecution evidence that he and only he was motivated to commit these murders,” wrote defense lawyer Johnnie L. Cochran. “In a circumstantial evidence case such as this, this court’s erroneous and unfair ruling may well spell the difference when the case is finally sent to the jury for its consideration.”

Over the last week the prosecution and defense have clashed repeatedly over the defense witness list. Ito fined prosecutor Marcia Clark $250 Thursday for making a snide remark about a defense witness. “I warned you already,” Ito snapped. “The sanction is $250. Don’t leave court without writing a check.”

Besides MacDonell’s testimony, the prosecution also has asked Ito to bar defense experts who would testify that blood consistent with Simpson’s that was taken from his socks and from a rear gate at Nicole Simpson’s condominium showed traces of EDTA, a preservative used in a vial of blood Simpson gave to police.

The socks were the central issue in the testimony of Willie Ford, a police photographer who said he didn’t see them when he videotaped Simpson’s bedroom at 4:13 p.m. But he acknowledged that he did his work after evidence had been removed.

That was corroborated by Detective Adalberto Luper, who said he saw the socks earlier in the day and ordered them seized as evidence. The defense called Ford and Luper to bolster the theory that the socks were tampered with. But their testimony ended up being of more benefit to the prosecution.

Simpson’s housekeeper, Gigi Guarin, testified Thursday that Simpson was in a good mood when she spoke to him by phone at about 9 p.m. on the night of the murders, June 12, 1994, and that he often used his cellular phone when he was on his estate. Cellular phone records show Simpson called his girlfriend, Paula Barbieri, at 10:03 that night. The prosecution says Simpson made the call from his Bronco; the defense says he called from his home.