Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.

Good morning.

As you know by now, my name is Bob Baker. And it's my privilege, and indeed an honor, to represent Orenthal James Simpson.

O.J. Simpson was born on January 9, 1947 in San Francisco. He was the third child of two boys and two girls born to his mother and father.

During his years in grammar school and junior high school, the family moved a lot because they were transferred from one federal housing project to the next. And it was during that period of time that O.J. Simpson met his life-long friend and companion, Al Cowlings.

He then, during that period of time when he was in grammar school and junior high school, ran track and played baseball. And they didn't have any football teams in those schools in those days. And when he transferred to Galileo High School or matriculated there, he became a great football player, even in high school.

And he continued to run track and he from Galileo High School, went to San Francisco Junior College.

At San Francisco Junior College, O.J. Simpson smashed every junior college record in the book known for running backs.

And he then left after two years at San Francisco Junior College and went to USC. That was in 1967. And in 1967, he immediately started as a tailback for the University of Southern California and led that team to the national championships.

He also in that year ran the four by 100 relay, and along with his teammate at USC, set a world record.

He continued at USC. In 1968 -- well, let me go back just a second.

1967, first semester, he goes home to San Francisco and marries Maguerite, his high-school sweetheart. And there are two children born of that union. There's Arnelle, who was born on December 4, 1968. That happened to be the day that O.J. Simpson was named and received the Heisman Trophy for being the most outstanding football player in the United States in 1968.

After he his senior year at USC, he went on to the Buffalo Bills. He became the first player in the National Football League history, in the history of pro football, to run the ball for over 2,000 yards. He was the most valuable player three times, all pro seven times, and two years before his retirement in 1977, he was traded from the Buffalo Bills to his home town of San Francisco 49ers. He spent two years with the 49ers, and he retired in 1979. And at the time O.J. Simpson retired from football, ladies and gentlemen, he was a sports hero. He was a celebrity; he was a personality. Make no mistake about it.

When O.J. retired, it was an event, because the greatest football player ever to carry the ball was retiring before he had lost his ability to run a football. And O.J. Simpson went to the podium on the day of the ceremony that he retired and he said, "Fame is a vapor, popularity is an accident money takes wings, only one thing, only one thing endures, and that is character." And he walked away.

He never carried a football again. O.J. Simpson was not an athlete who tried to renegotiate a contract; he never spit in the face of an umpire. He never, ever told a fan he didn't have time for an autograph.

O.J. Simpson was the sports hero that went on after his career as a football player to become a spokesman for Chevrolet, a spokesman for Hertz, do ABC Television on Monday Night Football games, NBC commentator on pro football games, and indeed movie roles, and movies:  Naked Gun series, Roots, and various other things.

And nobody, nobody, had a bad word about O.J. Simpson because he treated everybody as a human being.

I want to go back for just a moment.

In 1977, he met Nicole. After O.J. Simpson had separated from his first wife, Maguerite, he and Nicole became an item. They redecorated the house that he had bought on Rockingham, 360 North Rockingham, where he still lives to this day.

And she was there with him. And she helped decorate it. And they were an amazing couple, because they had fame -- they didn't have the constraints that most young people have, that is, money. They had plenty. O.J. was making good money in those days with NBC by then, and his representing Hertz, as well as his movie roles.

Now, they were married on February 2 of 1985. And later in that year, in the fall, Arnelle was born.

Now, you've heard about some incidents through Mr. Kelly, and I want to tell you what I believe the evidence will really show about those incidents.

Mark Fuhrman gave a report in 1989 about the 1985 incident. He said it was 1985. He said O.J. Simpson was sitting on a car, and there was a baseball bat that was leaning next to the house. And he said that although he had never written a report in 1985, he said it was indelibly impressed in his mind, and he remembered it. And he remembered it because my client, O.J. Simpson was a celebrity. But he said Mr. Simpson was agitated, not out of control. There were no bruises; there was nothing that would indicate that there was any altercation with Nicole.

And he never mentions the fact in his 1989 report, going back to 1985, that if the incident had occurred in 1989, Nicole was about eight months pregnant.

In any event, ladies and gentlemen, that report -- and you'll hear the evidence -- by Mark Fuhrman was written in 1989, so that they could charge my client, O.J. Simpson, with misdemeanor spousal abuse in 1989. They needed a second incident to do it. So Mark Fuhrman volunteered, and he wrote that report about something he says occurred in 1985.

They had a life. And you will hear the bad; you'll hear the ugly; and you'll hear it from litigants and you'll hear from Mr. Simpson. And he'll take the witness stand. And he is ready, willing, and able. And he'll take it anytime they want. They have the right, and they can call him to this stand anytime they want. And he's here. And he will tell you about these incidents.

And he will tell you that in January of 1989 -- now, mind you, between '85 and '89, they have two children of this marriage. Sydney Brooke is born in 1985, and Justin is born in 1987.

And they live a life that was and is unique to most people. Because besides the estate that Mr. Simpson has on Rockingham, he, at that time, had a condominium in New York.

What would occur is, that they would live in New York through football season because Mr. Simpson would have to go to Miami, to New York, to Buffalo for the Sunday football games. So they lived in New York in the fall of the year and usually past Christmastime, and then move back and lived in Rockingham until the next fall. And their life was a terrific one. They loved each other; they traveled immensely together. They were together and had a love that few people have known.

They both had very strong personalities.

And Nicole, you will hear, was one who liked to get her way. And she was a very strong personality in the relationship. And I'm going get into that more in a moment about who was pursuing whom.

But let me suggest to you that on January 1, 1989, the second incident that Mr. Kelly was talking about, and so dramatically more trying to -- you let me tell you what the evidence will really show relative to that incident.

That incident occurred, ladies and gentlemen, at about 3 o'clock in the morning, when both Mr. Simpson and Nicole Brown Simpson had had far too much to drink at a New Year's Eve party that they both attended and had a great time at.

They got in a dispute and OJ wanted Nicole out of his room. He didn't want her in there; she wanted to be in there. He pushed her out the door; he locked the door. She got the key, opened the door, came back in the door.

A wrestling ensued. He got her out the door. The door is locked again. And she falls. And you'll hear from the maid that she falls.

Now, I'm not here to suggest to you that Mr. Simpson never touched her that night. I'm not here to suggest to you that she didn't touch Mr. Simpson that night.

That was a physical encounter that O.J. Simpson was appalled about. It should have never happened. He will admit that to you from this witness stand. He takes full responsibility now; he took full responsibility then.

But I want to tell you what didn't happen. It didn't occur that O.J. Simpson went downstairs and was told by Officer Farrell that he was going to be arrested.

You will hear from O.J. and the maid who was there, that Officer Farrell, who has a very interesting past -- and we'll relate it to you once he gets on the witness stand -- was totally abusive to O.J. Simpson. And Michelle, the housekeeper, suggested to O.J., who was getting upset because Officer Farrell -- the first words out of his mouth were, "I think you two need a divorce." That's what he told O.J. Simpson. And that upset O.J. immensely. He said to him, "I thought you were here to quiet the situation down."

And there were more words between Officer Farrell, who is mentioned in the Christopher Commission report -- and we'll bring that up to you at the time he sits right here.

O.J. then went back into the house. He did not speed away from the police officers at 30 to 35 miles an hour. He couldn't even get out of his driveway at 30 to 35 miles an hour.

He left to get away from the situation where he was getting upset.

And he came back that day.

And by the way, he didn't go to the Rose Bowl that day. In fact, the Rose Bowl wasn't even played that day. As you know, when the Rose Bowl falls on a Sunday -- January 1 falls on a Sunday, the Rose Bowl is moved. And I'm sure you'll find that the Rose Bowl was played on January 2. And you will also hear that it wasn't Al Cowlings who suggested to Michelle -- pardon me, to Nicole -- that she go to the hospital: It was Al and O.J.

O.J. wanted -- she had a headache. She thought it was a hangover. O.J. said, "You've got to go to the hospital. You've got to be sure to go to the hospital." And it was through O.J.'s urging, as well as Al Cowlings'.

And obviously, after this altercation there was a distance between Nicole and O.J. And O.J. said, "I want Al to take you; I don't want you to have to be concerned about anything else. I want Al to take you to the hospital." And that's what happened.

Now, when O.J. and Nicole had married in 1985, O.J. was a wealthy man.  And they had signed what is commonly referred to -- and you've heard about them -- prenuptial agreements. Basically, each kept their own property. And that prenuptial agreement would preclude, if they ever split up, Nicole getting half of O.J.'s property, which was significant.

He was so distraught and upset by the fact that he had gotten physical with Nicole, he had his attorney and friend, Skip Taft, draw up a legal document. And that legal document said -- and was signed and given to Nicole; she didn't ask for it -- it said, if O.J. Simpson ever touches you again in anger, strikes you, does anything of the sort, the prenuptial agreement is null and void.

He was worth about $10 million at the time. That document, in and of itself, was worth $5 million.

And he gave that to Nicole, not only to say he was sorry, but to say he was responsible.

And, ladies and gentlemen, as Mr. Kelly suggested to you, from that day forward, O.J. Simpson never ever touched Nicole in anger again, ever.

And I want to go on a little bit relative to the relationship and what happened.

In 1991, as I suggested, O.J. would go back to the east coast and he would do his thing for NBC and the football.

And in 1991, he went back, and Nicole didn't want to go with him and didn't go with him. She had Sydney in school and she didn't want to go back, so she didn't. When O.J. came back from New York, she said she wanted a divorce.

Pardon me. I take that back. She said she wanted to separate.

O.J. didn't want to separate. He was in love with her, make no mistake about it. He didn't want to split up his family, but she insisted. And he said basically, if we are going to separate, we ought to get a divorce and get on with our lives. If we go back together, we can stop the divorce proceedings, whatever.

And so divorce papers were filed, I believe, in February of 1992.

Now, these two adults did not have an acrimonious relationship. You will hear testimony that O.J. Simpson did not stalk, did not run after Nicole, but went on with his life. You will hear testimony, ladies and gentlemen, that O.J. Simpson became, and was Nicole's confidant.

Nicole had been with O.J. since she was 18; and she was, at this point in 1992, kind of exercising her wings. And she had many boyfriends and men loved her. She was gorgeous, and they loved to be with her. And she was with a lot of them. And she had boyfriend problems. And when she had boyfriend problems, she went to O.J. Simpson. When she had -- well, let me tell you how much of a confidant O.J. Simpson was to Nicole.

In the summer of 1992, she became pregnant by one of her boyfriends. And she turned to O.J. Simpson for moral support. She told two people in the world; she did not tell her mother; she did not tell her sisters. She told her best friend Cora Fischman, and she told O.J. Simpson. And then she decided to terminate what was apparently an unwanted pregnancy. That was how deep the relationship was in terms of being a confidant.

She would call O.J. Simpson wherever he was, in town, out of town, when she had a problem. When she had an accident in her Ferrari under rather dubious circumstances. The first person she called and found on the east coast was O.J. Simpson.

Now, O.J. had gone on with his life, ladies and gentlemen. And in May of 1992, he started dating Paula Barbieri. The divorce was final, I believe, in October of 1992.

Now, to try to keep this in some sort of chronological sequence, it was December of '92 that Nicole is in Aspen with her then boyfriend, and meets Kato Kaelin. She invites Kato Kaelin and others to a party that she has at her house on Gretna Green in January of 1993.

In January of 1993, Kato Kaelin comes to the party, and he asked to move into the back house that exists at Gretna Green, and Nicole allows him to do that. And he moves in there and pays four, five hundred dollars rent -- he doesn't really recall how much -- and he becomes a confidant, more of a friend, I guess. He babysits the kids; he talks to Nicole. He talks to her friend, Cora Fischman. He has coffee with them. And he becomes a friend with O.J. because O.J. is over there frequently, visiting his children. And he is in the Gretna Green house for the year of 1993 to 1994.

Now, in 1994, Nicole moves from the Gretna Green house to a condo that she owned at 875 South Bundy, where the murders took place.

Now, I want to go back just a little bit and bring you up to speed on how she acquired that condominium.

O.J. Simpson, after they were married wanted Nicole to have a source of income so that she could have her own money and she wouldn't have to worry about being financially dependent on him. He wanted her to have that level of independence.

When he was playing football in San Francisco, he had purchased a condominium that he owned free and clear. He gave her that condominium. It was worth $500,000, and he gave it to her. It was rented out, and she received the rental income.

She subsequently sold the condominium in San Francisco and purchased the condo at 875 South Bundy, which she also rented out and got the income from that.

And what happened is -- and you'll hear from people who know this far, far better than I -- what happened is that she used a section of the Internal Revenue Service to transfer the property from San Francisco to the Bundy property, so she didn't have to pay taxes on the appreciation.

And to continue to not pay taxes on that differential between the value of the condominium in San Francisco and the value of the condominium in San Francisco (sic), under the Internal Revenue law, it had to continue to be rental property. Well, in any event -- and I'll come back to that. In any event, 1993, 1994, Kato lives at Gretna Green and the relationship between O.J. and Nicole can best be described in a letter that Nicole wrote to O.J. and had hand-delivered to him in March of 1993.

Now, you've heard all about O.J. pursuing Nicole Brown Simpson.

In fact, the exact opposite is true. Nicole wrote a letter in March of 1993, and she said to O.J., "I wasn't sure why it was about me . . ." talking about their relationship, "so I just blamed you. I was the one who was controlling." She wrote, "I never stopped loving you. I stopped liking myself and lost total confidence in my relationship with you." She said, "I want to put our family back together." She said, "I want to be with you. I love you I cherish you, and I want to make you smile. O.J., I want to come home again. I want all of us to be together again. We can move wherever you want. We can stay here. I just never want to leave your side again."

She signed the letter, ladies and gentlemen, "I love you forever and always."

She was pursuing O.J. Simpson with that letter. She sent tapes of family movies. She would come over to his house day and night. She sent cookies to his house. She would show up at Riveria Country Club, where O.J. Simpson would go to play golf.

In fact, ladies and gentlemen, she followed him all the way down to the tip of Baja, Mexico, Cabo San Lucas, where he loved to go play golf. And she pursued him -- and she pursued him and in May of 1993. O.J. agreed to try to reconcile, but he put some conditions on the reconciliation: That they try it for a year, and have a -- after a year, they would see if it, in fact, would work. If it did, Nicole and the kids would move back to Rockingham, because O.J. did not want the kids uprooted if it didn't work out.

And so in May of 1993, they commenced a reconciliation.

Is this a good place, Your Honor?