📄 Scheduling: next week's witnesses — Friday, November 15, 1996
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C:\DEPT103\CIVIL\1996\NOV\15\SCHEDULING-NEXT-WEEK-S-WITNESS.DOC
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▲ Day 16 of 57

Scheduling: next week's witnesses

Date: Friday, November 15, 1996 • Utterances: 26
Petrocelli outlines the witness schedule for the following week, flagging that OJ Simpson is expected to testify by Friday but is currently involved in a custody proceeding in Orange County. The parties debate whether to go dark Monday afternoon so Baker and Kelly can travel to Orange County to request an adjournment from that judge to secure Simpson's availability here.
1 (REGINA D. CHAVEZ, OFFICIAL REPORTER)
2 (The following proceedings were held in open court outside the presence of the jury:)
3 MR. PETROCELLI:

Your Honor, we wanted to go over scheduling.

4 THE COURT:

Okay.

5 MR. PETROCELLI:

The -- we gave Your Honor, and the defense, a list of witnesses for next week. They include Mr. Simpson. We anticipate that he would have to take the stand on Friday, if the other witness go according to plan.

Mr. Kelly and Mr. Baker had a conversation where apparently there was going to be resistance on the defense making Mr. Simpson available here.

As a courtesy, Mr. Kelly and Mr. Baker are going to go down and talk to the judge in Orange County. They'd like to do that on Monday to see if Mr. Simpson can be excused from that proceeding for a couple of days to testify here; or just generally, talk to the judge about it.

But in any event, I just want to make it clear for the record that we're not a party to that proceeding. We've asked Mr. Simpson to be here and to testify, and I have given advance notice and, I guess, we can take it up with Your Honor if we have a problem.

But we're expecting to see Mr. Simpson in this courtroom some time near the end of next week and maybe a day or so on to the following week.

Now, I will also add that next Friday is dark, I'm told, in the Orange County proceeding. In any event, so that Friday may not present a problem.

The next week we have two court days, Monday and Tuesday, I think, Mr. Simpson in our case. You know he will be on the stand for a couple of days, thereabouts. And then after Mr. Simpson, we have a handful of other witnesses, but they're quite short in duration. And we think the trial, our side of the case, will wrap up not long thereafter.

6 THE COURT:

Well, how about the other witnesses that you have on this list for next week?

How long are they going to be?

7 MR. PETROCELLI:

Well, all of them are going to be fairly short, except Colin Yamauchi, I'd say, is about a half-a-day witness, and Bill Bodziak is about a half-day witness, sort of like what we had with Dr. Cotton and Dr. Douglas Deedrick.

And the other witnesses that follow Bodziak and Yamauchi are shorter. Some of them are very short. Okay. Kato Kaelin and Alan Park, I would say, are also about half-day witnesses as well.

So I think that if all those witnesses go according to plan, we'll end up coming to Friday, perhaps, and not having any witnesses except for Mr. Simpson.

But it may turn out that those other witnesses take up the whole week. In any event, I wanted to alert the Court to the problem.

8 THE COURT:

Okay.

9 MR. PETROCELLI:

In addition, Monday afternoon, Mr. Baker and Mr. Kelly wanted to go down and talk to the Orange County judge. And I wanted to know what the Court's plan was to hold session on Monday or to maybe kick the trial over until Tuesday morning to accommodate their desire to go see the judge.

I'm not going -- we don't have any standing in that case. I just what a clarification whether we're supposed to be here Monday and have trial or not.

MR. P. BAKER: Our point is, Your Honor, it's already been discussed with you, he's been available for four weeks. They put themselves behind this eight ball, and the point is, if we want to be dark Monday afternoon, we can continue with Yamauchi. We don't need to take a down day on Monday and it was my chief belief as of an hour ago that Mr. Bodziak was available Monday afternoon. I guess he's not available Monday afternoon but I would just ask that we be able to do Yamauchi until he's finished on Monday.

Bob Baker has to go down in the afternoon. We can cover the fort here for a couple hours. I don't think we need to be dark on Monday.

10 MR. KELLY:

Well, in all fairness to the younger Mr. Baker, I've spoken to his father.

What we had discussed was perhaps coming in the morning, taking care of whatever miscellaneous matters we had in the late morning, heading down there, being dark later in the morning and in the afternoon so we could start right on schedule Tuesday and go right through with witnesses.

As Mr. Petrocelli indicated, that if we worked it that way, that it's anticipated that we would be getting to Mr. Simpson on Friday, which is a dark day down in the Orange County proceeding.

But Mr. Baker indicated that he was going to possibly oppose our application for an adjournment and he wanted to be down there with me when the application was made. He agreed that we'd head down there, subject to your approval, late Monday morning, Judge.

11 THE COURT:

How long is that matter supposed to be?

MR. P. BAKER: What I understand, Mr. Petrocelli may know better than I, I'm not very familiar on family law.

12 THE COURT:

I don't mean the Monday session, I think -- how long is that proceeding?

MR. P. BAKER: A week and a half.

13 MR. KELLY:

My understanding is it may be as long as a month. Mr. Simpson was the first witness down there. He already completed with his testimony. The Court is dark this Friday. It's my understanding there are a couple of independent experts set to testify the following Monday and Tuesday -- Tuesday, which I think arguably really doesn't require Mr. Simpson's presence down there. Just like up here, he hasn't been present on many occasions.

MR. P. BAKER: Judge, that custody battle is very important. They've had four weeks to call him. Now, you've said and ruled that it's up to the Orange County judge. If the Orange County judge makes that determination, then we'd be certainly -- we'd certainly abide by it. But there's no reason to have him pulled out of there if the Orange County judge doesn't find that it's proper.

We brought this up two weeks ago with the court, that he was available and ready to testify and they knew it.

14 MR. KELLY:

Judge, we made -- we indicated we weren't -- at that time we indicated that we were going to make, at least -- so it's two weeks that the guardianship was going on the week of the 4th and the 11th, and those weeks have come and gone.

He's been down there. If he has his whole week down there once again, and we're just trying to, after three weeks of that case, put the defense on notice, indicate that we've come to our order of proof where we intend to call him and workout an accommodation between this court and the court down there.

15 THE COURT:

What's the name of the judge down there?

MR. P. BAKER: I don't know.

16 MR. KELLY:

I don't have that on me.

17 MR. PETROCELLI:

Can you get it for the judge, John?

18 MR. KELLY:

Sure. I can get a call, and -- you want me to make a call? I can make a call right from the courtroom.

AUDIENCE MEMBER MANUEL MEDRANO: You know, I know the name of the judge, if you like. Nancy Wiebon Stock, Superior Court.

19 MR. KELLY:

Wiebon Stock, Superior Court, Orange County.

AUDIENCE MEMBER MANUEL MEDRANO: W-I-E-B-E-N --

20 MR. PETROCELLI:

W-I-E-B-O-N S-T-O-C-K.

21 THE COURT:

The Court will make an inquiry.

22 MR. KELLY:

Judge, they're not in session today by the way, I'd suspect she'd still be there.

23 THE COURT:

She only works four days a week?

KEY QUOTE
24 MR. KELLY:

No. No.

25 (Pause in the proceedings.)
26 (The following proceedings were held in open court outside the presence of the jury.)

Temperature

procedural

Key Quotes (4)

Daniel Petrocelli
we're expecting to see Mr. Simpson in this courtroom some time near the end of next week and maybe a day or so on to the following week
Signals that Simpson's testimony is imminent and the plaintiffs are actively managing the logistics to make it happen.
P. Baker
They've had four weeks to call him. Now, you've said and ruled that it's up to the Orange County judge.
Defense pushes back, arguing plaintiffs created this scheduling conflict themselves and the Orange County court's authority is controlling.
Audience Member Manuel Medrano
You know, I know the name of the judge, if you like. Nancy Wiebon Stock, Superior Court.
An audience member volunteers the name of the Orange County judge when neither counsel could produce it — an unusual and slightly comic moment.
Hiroshi Fujisaki
She only works four days a week?
Dry quip from the judge after Kelly notes the Orange County court is not in session that day.

Notable Exchanges (2)

P. BakerJohn Kelly
Competing accounts of the Monday scheduling plan — Baker wants to keep trial running with Yamauchi while he travels in the afternoon; Kelly describes an arrangement where both he and Baker go dark late morning to travel together to Orange County.
strategic
Daniel PetrocelliHiroshi FujisakiAudience Member Manuel Medrano
Neither Petrocelli, Kelly, nor Baker could name the Orange County judge; an audience member spontaneously provided the name and even spelled it out for the record.
light

Light Moments (2)

Manuel Medrano
An audience member named Manuel Medrano volunteers the Orange County judge's name — 'Nancy Wiebon Stock' — after all counsel admitted they didn't know it, then helps spell it for the court reporter.
Hiroshi Fujisaki
After Kelly notes the Orange County court isn't in session that day, Fujisaki deadpans: 'She only works four days a week?'

Witness Demeanor

(Pause in the proceedings.)

Objections

None recorded
Proceeding 8288 • 26 utterances
Civil Trial
Department 103
⚖️ Start
📂 NOV 15, 1996 📄 Scheduling: next week's witnes
NOV 15, 1996 KRT DvH TD