Call Stephen Valerie.

STEPHEN VALERIE, called as a witness on behalf of Defendants, was duly sworn and testified as follows:

You do solemnly swear that the testimony you may give in the cause now pending before this court shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?

I do.

Please be seated.

Would you please state and spell your name for the record.

Stephen Valerie, S-t-e-p-h-e-n V-a-l-e-r-i-e.

DIRECT EXAMINATION BY MR. LEONARD:

Good afternoon, Mr. Valerie.

Can you tell us where do you reside, sir?

I currently live in San Francisco.

And what do you for a living?

I'm a consultant with Arthur Andersen.

How long have you had that position?

About a year and a quarter.

Directing your attention to June 12, 1994, in particular around 11:30 that evening, where were you?

11:30, I would have been standing at a phone booth outside the American Airlines gate prior to boarding flight 667 -- flight 668.

Standing outside -- you were about to board flight 668 to Chicago?

Yeah, in the departure area. I was using a pay phone.

Did you see anyone you recognize?

No, not at that time.

Later on, when you got -- you entered the plane?

I entered the plane -- I asked the gate agent to signal me over at the last possible moment to enter the plane. I was making phone calls. And so I think it was possibly around 11:40 when they waved me over and I entered the plane then.

Now, when you entered the plane, where did you sit?

If you can -- if you need to, you can step down and refer to the diagram that's marked as --

MR. P. BAKER: 1180.

You can step down.

I think this is fine.

Or you can do it from there.

Right. Thanks.

The seat I originally was assigned, I believe, was 5B or something. When I entered the flight, Gary Adelson was sitting in that row, and I noticed that seats 4A and 4B were free, so since I was the last one on board, I already knew that -- or expected I would be the last one on board, I took the seat 4A, which is --

Is this 4A here?

Yes, it is.

Now, it indicates here that a fellow named Gary Adelson, on this diagram, was sitting next to you.

That's inaccurate. That's inaccurate. He was sitting in the seat right behind.

He was sitting right behind you, right here?

That's correct.

The other thing I want to point out about that diagram, the seats look like they're not parallel to each other, they look diagonal or shifted. That's not the case. They were actually pretty flush with one another, so the view I had --

Okay.

-- across the aisle was straight.

Now, after you entered the plane and sat down, did you see anybody that you recognized?

As I was preparing to sit down, I took my carry-on bag and was putting it in the overhead, I noticed some commotion at the front of the plane, and someone was about to board, and that person was who I recognized to be O.J. Simpson.

Okay.

You were -- you were seated at the time or actually you were standing up putting some bags away; is that right?

Right, when he entered the plane, and then I sat down, and then he came on board and dropped his bags on his seat for the moment, because he recognized Gary Adelson, and they shook hands at that moment, so he was standing right above me, if you will.

Were you able to get a pretty good look at him?

Yeah. Both then -- I mean I observed him.

I'm talking about at that point when you first saw him?

Sure. No, I looked at him, obviously, very enthusiastically, just for the fact that I recognized him from his sports fame and was wondering where he was going to sit, actually, at that moment.

Okay.

Describe his demeanor, what his appearance was when you saw him -- when you first saw him?

I remember him coming on, and I think he was pretty excited to catch the flight, obviously. We were pretty close to taking off.

He was jovial. He came on board, he greeted the crew, they pointed to his seat. He came back.

Like I said, next thing, Gary Adelson said, hey, O.J., or something, hey, how you doing. And they shook hands. There was mention of a golf game at that moment, that they'd see each other at, or something to that effect.

And then he took his garment bag and put that in the overhead compartment and he had his -- a black duffel bag or a black leather bag on the seat next to him. He then took his seat. And he took the window seat, which would have been 4D, and sat down. The bag remained on the seat.

Let me stop you right there.

Did you notice how he was dressed? Can you describe that for us?

Yes. He was wearing a dark button-down type of shirt, it wasn't denim, but it looked like a cotton, dark shirt with a white T-shirt underneath and had khaki cotton -- brushed cotton pants. He had leather loafers on. I won't say what country they're from. I don't know. But they were -- had -- I distinctly remember them. They were black or dark blue, they had mesh in the front, kind of a knit mesh in the front panel and -- leather shoes, and he was wearing no socks that evening.

Okay.

Now, where did Mr. Simpson see -- sit in relation to you, Mr. Valerie? And let me --

Do you want me to get up?

Yeah, if you could. It may be easier for the jury if you just point it out.

Step back just a little bit, sir, so everybody can see.

Right.

This diagram isn't factual. I mean I sat in one window seat, he sat in the other, and they were directly parallel to each other.

So he would -- as you were sitting facing towards the front of the plane, he was to your right?

That's right.

Across the aisle; is that right?

Correct. I was on -- looking forward, I was on the left-hand side; he was on the right-hand side.

So when you looked over at Mr. Simpson, you could see his -- the first thing you could see -- the closest thing you could see of him was his left shoulder, his left arm?

Correct.

And of course the rest of his body, too, you could see that?

Correct.

You can retake your seat.

I ask that he not lead, Your Honor.

All right.

(BY MR. LEONARD) Did you notice anything unusual at all about Mr. Simpson's appearance?

Unusual, no. I mean the only thing that might be unusual is that he seemed quite approachable that evening, and someone of his fame, I may think, would really not be looking around as much as he did, sort of smiling and just being seemingly pleasant in that case. It was the only unusual thing I may have noticed.

Did you -- did you get an opportunity to take a look at Mr. Simpson's hands?

Yes, I did.

Let me stop you for a second.

When you looked at Mr. Simpson's hands did you notice any bleeding, any cuts, anything like that on his hands?

Why were you looking at his hands?

I'll give you the long answer.

My knowledge of Mr. Simpson's professional career is pretty limited, and -- however, I did know he was a famous football player, and I was trying to find a way to maybe strike up a conversation with him, and so as I was looking over him in great detail, trying to find something about him that I could maybe talk about, I thought maybe he'd won a Super Bowl, and so I specifically looked at his hands, looking for a Super Bowl ring, and did not see one.

And that was the motivation for looking at his hands at this moment.

And when you did that, when you looked at his hands, you didn't see anything unusual; is that right, sir?

Right.

Now, at some point, were you -- why don't you tell us what you observed Mr. Simpson do in general during that flight, until you stopped observing him?

Okay.

We -- I guess he was still standing, and the flight attendant motioned for him to take a seat 'cause we were ready to -- to embark, and so he did that. And, like I said, his -- the black leather bag, smaller bag was on his seat, and he moved it underneath the seat, not in front of him, but in the seat next to him, underneath that seat.

We then took off, and it was relatively uneventful. I think he looked over and smiled on a couple of occasions. And once we took off -- actually, before we took off, he was asked if he wanted anything to drink, and he had asked for some water, but they actually didn't bring it until after we took off. A glass of ice water.

Did you see Mr. Simpson doing anything during the flight?

Sure. Can't really describe exactly when, but within the first half an hour after takeoff, he opened his bag -- he brought his bag up to the seat -- empty seat next to him, he opened it and pulled out a manila folder which had -- looked like a document in it, and -- as well as brought a book out of the bag and put that on the seat next to him, then put the bag back underneath the seat.

Then he -- you know -- at some point afterwards, he opened up that document. And that's probably what I remember most about any actions he had on board. He was reading this eight and a half by eleven loose-leaf document which was on white paper, and the typing on it was double-spaced, so it appeared like it was some sort of contract is what I thought it looked like, some legal document. And he proceeded to read that. I think -- I think he even had a pen in his hand and maybe was making notations.

Now, at some point after you made those observations, you fell asleep; is that right?

That's correct.

And then at some point, you obviously woke up and -- you know, you might want to lean back a little bit 'cause you might --

You might want to stop leading also. Objection.

You're leading a little bit.

Only trying to get through it, Your Honor.

I know. Appreciate it.

Thank you.

Yeah, that bothers him.

(BY MR. LEONARD) After you woke up at some point, what happened next, after you woke up?

Basically -- the flight was about a three and a half hour flight. I was awake for about the first hour and that's when I noticed most of the things that I have described, and will describe to you this afternoon.

But I did, on occasion, wake up intermittently throughout the flight and just noticed little details.

Again, he seemed to look over a couple times. I mean I thought I -- I think I was possibly staring, possibly more than I would have for any other passenger. He would kind of glance over and he smiled and didn't seem too worried about my observations.

And he read that document. He had it out, from my memory, most of the time throughout the flight. I never saw him read the other book that was out.

Okay.

Now, directing your attention to after you woke up, you ultimately deplaned, is that -- or you exited the plane?

That's right. We arrived in Chicago at what's been said to me about 4:30, 5:00 in the morning. I did -- wasn't paying attention. I know it was quite early.

At that point did you observe Mr. Simpson?

Yeah. We --

Okay.

What did you observe at that point about Mr. Simpson? For instance, did you have any exchange with him, just tell us what your interaction was, if any, with Mr. Simpson at any point when you were exiting the plane?

Sure. Well, we both got up and grabbed our belongings.

And I guess generally I noticed he looked pretty groggy. As well as I did. I noticed his eyes were red, at least compared to how he looked when I noticed him when he got on board.

I probably didn't look any better.

We got up, moved to the aisle, and he was ahead of me, and we got to the front by the main exit door in the front of the plane, and he was standing in front of me.

His right shoulder had his duffle -- his garment bag over his shoulder, and his left hand had his black leather bag, and it was thrown over -- sort of thrown over his shoulder.

He was facing diagonally, waiting to exit the plane, so I had sometime to look at him at that moment.

And I then made my only comments to him of the evening. I said, you better be careful, someone might think you're going to be doing another Hertz commercial. And he kind of, you know, grinned at that moment and said, well, I happen to be here in Chicago with Hertz anyway, or something like that.

And at that moment the door flew open and we both exited, like everyone else, pretty quickly off that plane.

And that's the last you saw of Mr. Simpson?

I had some observations as well, out in the -- in the Chicago terminal. We both exited. He was met by a gentleman. At the time, I didn't know who he was or where he was from. But he had kind of strawberry blond hair, larger gentleman, he was also wearing khaki pants and a button-down shirt. And they exchanged -- they shook hands there. And we all walked out of the -- walked down the Chicago terminal.

And the last I saw of him, he went toward baggage claim.

I was connecting to a flight to Washington, D.C.

That was the last I saw of him.

Now, you said earlier something about that you were surprised at the way Mr. Simpson was acting.

You had never met Mr. Simpson before, right?

That's correct; never had.

Okay.

And you said that you had -- you had been staring at Mr. Simpson?

Yeah. I was, again, trying to get some connection to him, whether that be, you know, a ring or a brand of clothing that I may wear, just something where I could strike up a conversation with him. And he -- in those observations, he certainly looked over and smiled over and, you know, seemed approachable.

You never got the courage to walk up to him until you walked out of the plane?

Nothing further. Thank you.

CROSS-EXAMINATION BY MR. PETROCELLI: