Plaintiff's attorney Tom Lambert sought to use a paper by defense DNA expert Dr. Gerdes — presented at the Promega Conference — that contained a parenthetical stating 'Mr. Simpson acknowledged he cut himself.' Judge Fujisaki excluded the article as an exhibit but allowed Lambert to question Gerdes about the underlying hypothesis without the jury present first. Examination revealed Gerdes sourced the cut claim from criminal trial testimony, not directly from Simpson, and that defense attorney Bill Thompson had reviewed the article before publication.
# 1 THE COURT: Okay. Approach the bench.
# 2 (The following proceedings were held at the bench, with the reporter.) # 3 MR. LAMBERT: This is a specific article on the test results in this case. I want to ask him what he said right there.
# 4 (Court reads document proffered by Mr. Lambert.) # 5 MR. BLASIER: Which part?
# 6 MR. LAMBERT: Right here (indicating), where Mr. Simpson acknowledged he cut himself.
# 7 THE COURT: What do you want to offer this for?
# 8 MR. LAMBERT: I want to ask him if this is the basis for his conclusion as to how the contamination on the second day of collection, that the only way it could have been, is if it was actually his blood.
# 9 MR. BLASIER: This came out with --
# 10 THE COURT: Wait. I can't understand what he's saying, first. So let me try to understand what he's saying. Then I'll hear from you, okay?
# 11 (Pause for Court to read document.) # 12 THE COURT: Okay. With are you saying?
# 13 MR. LAMBERT: He's now saying that on the second day of collection, it's possible that some contamination took place between evidence collected at Rockingham and that found in the Bronco.
I want to ask him if the basis for that, as he states here, is that the reason that that fits his theory, is that the evidence collected at Rockingham was, in fact, from Mr. Simpson.
# 14 MR. BLASIER: It's a hearsay statement. We couldn't do this with Dr. Weir, when I tried to use some of his article from the Simpson case. We weren't allowed to do it.
# 15 THE COURT: What was it about Dr. Weir?
# 16 MR. BLASIER: He wrote an article about the Simpson case. You wouldn't let me read excerpts from it.
# 17 THE COURT: What was it that he wrote that warranted you to use that?
# 18 MR. BLASIER: It was the article that he had written where he talked about tape 31, as a matter of fact, and gave the wrong --
# 19 THE COURT: What did he say?
# 20 MR. BLASIER: You wouldn't let me read it.
# 21 MR. LAMBERT: You cross-examined him.
# 22 THE COURT: Will you stop it?
# 24 MR. BLASIER: I cross-examined him. You can cross.
# 25 THE COURT: Try to answer my question. I'm trying to get some information from you.
What is it that I prevented you from asking Dr. Weir?
# 26 MR. BLASIER: I wanted to read -- like Mr. Lambert wants to do -- I wanted to read from an article that he had written.
# 27 THE COURT: Tell me what it is so I can understand your point.
# 28 MR. BLASIER: It was a statement that he had in his paper about item 31.
# 29 THE COURT: And did he -- what did he say in the paper?
# 30 MR. BLASIER: He gave statistics about item 31 that were later determined to be wrong.
# 32 MR. BLASIER: He stated his analysis there of how, gee, the defense should have done it this way; it would have gotten much more favorable results.
I was not allowed to do -- I was allowed to cross on it, but I wasn't allowed to read the article.
# 33 THE COURT: Okay. And you want -- you want to ask him about this highlighted part?
# 34 MR. LAMBERT: Yeah. Where he acknowledged that he cut himself.
# 35 THE COURT: That who acknowledged it? Simpson?
# 36 MR. LAMBERT: That's a good question. I'll ask this guy.
# 37 THE COURT: No, I'm not going to allow that.
# 38 MR. LAMBERT: What if Simpson told him?
# 39 MR. PETROCELLI: If it's an admission --
# 40 MR. BLASIER: We'll make an out-of-the-presence jury --
# 41 MR. LAMBERT: I'm entitled to ask him if he cut himself from Mr. Simpson.
# 42 MR. BLASIER: Do it without the jury.
# 43 THE COURT: You can do it outside the presence of the jury, but I'm not going to let you do that in front of the jury.
# 44 MR. LAMBERT: Okay. Maybe I should ask him where he got this piece of information.
# 47 MR. BLASIER: Outside the presence of the jury.
# 48 (The following proceedings were held in open court, in the presence of the jury.) # 49 THE COURT: Okay.
Jurors, you want to step out in the back? Take them back into the hallway or into my chambers.
Don't let them read anything on my desk.
# 51 THE COURT: The jury has left the courtroom.
# 52 (The following proceedings were held in open court, outside the presence of the jury.) # 53 Q: (BY MR. LAMBERT) This is a portion of your paper from the Promega Conference.
When you say, on the next morning here you're, talking about June the 15th, correct Doctor?
# 55 Q: This is the second day of Collin Yamauchi's work?
# 57 Q: Right.
And that's when evidence from Rockingham was processed that we just talked about?
# 59 Q: And here you say in parentheticals, "where Mr. Simpson acknowledged he cut himself," right?
# 61 Q: Mr. Simpson told you that?
# 62 A: That was my understanding from the testimony. He didn't tell me that.
KEY QUOTE # 63 Q: From Mr. Simpson's own testimony, you heard that?
# 64 A: From the testimony of the criminal trial.
# 65 Q: What testimony was that, that led you to believe that he cut himself?
# 66 A: I can't recall specifically. I can't recall where I saw it.
# 67 Q: Did this article -- before you presented it at Promega, it was reviewed by Mr. Simpson's lawyers?
# 68 A: It was reviewed by one of their lawyers, yes.
KEY QUOTE # 70 A: No, Bill Thompson.
# 71 Q: Bill Thompson.
So Bill Thompson reviewed this article. He didn't tell to you take that parenthetical out?
# 72 MR. BLASIER: Objection. Irrelevant.
# 73 THE COURT: Sustained.
# 74 A: He doesn't say anything about that.
# 75 MR. BLASIER: It's sustained.
# 76 Q: (BY MR. LAMBERT) You're sure you didn't hear that information directly from Mr. Simpson, that he cut himself?
# 78 Q: You're sure you didn't hear that directly from Mr. Simpson, that he cut himself?
# 79 A: Yes. I never spoke to Mr. Simpson.
# 80 MR. LAMBERT: That's all I have on that subject, Your Honor.
# 81 MR. BLASIER: So you never got that information from Mr. Simpson, did you?
# 83 THE COURT: Same thing he just asked.
# 84 MR. BLASIER: You don't know where that came from, do you?
# 85 THE WITNESS: That's correct; I don't.
# 86 MR. BLASIER: Thanks.
# 87 THE COURT: Okay. You want to argue it, go ahead.
# 88 MR. LAMBERT: Well, Your Honor, what I want to use it for is the purpose of trying to clarify that his purpose, or his idea as to how contamination could have taken place on that second day of collection has to do with the evidence at Rockingham, one containing Mr. Simpson's blood. That's the underlying hypothesis.
# 89 THE COURT: Why don't you ask him?
# 90 MR. LAMBERT: Can I do it with the jury?
# 91 THE COURT: No. Ask him now.
# 92 MR. LAMBERT: I don't think I want to let him practice too much, Your Honor.
KEY QUOTE # 93 Q: (BY MR. LAMBERT) Isn't it, in fact, the hypothesis, Dr. Gerdes?
# 94 A: Well, it's not specifically that it's Mr. Simpson's, but that particular item has a lot of DNA, and has the type that's consistent with Mr. Simpson.
# 95 Q: Right. That particular item that's got an RFLP result, it's directly indicative of being Mr. Simpson?
# 97 Q: Therefore, that is likely his blood. You're saying that could have been the cause of this other?
# 98 A: Most likely the same type; so, yes.
# 99 MR. LAMBERT: That would be the examination, Your Honor.
# 100 THE COURT: Okay.
Bring the jury back in.
You may examine in the manner that you have just done.
# 101 MR. LAMBERT: Thank you. Can I use the exhibit?
# 104 MR. LAMBERT: Okay. I'll do it without the exhibit.
# 105 (Jurors resume their respective seats.)