Thank you very much, your Honor. Your Honor heard this morning from Miss Clark about ethical responsibilities and why they had to pursue this remedy and approach you like a doctor would a patient who had a malignancy and say that we may have to go for a complete recusal. That was behind your back. That was done in front of Judge Reid after they knew you had sent it out for a limited purpose. But the true reason of why they sought your recusal came out in an honest and frank discussion by Mr. Darden today in chambers. Mr. Cochran was present, Dean Uelmen was present, I was present, Miss Clark was present, and Mr. Darden was present. We wanted to be on the record. They wanted to be off the record. You allowed it to be off the record. We find in hindsight that was unfortunate. Mr. Darden sat next to you at your desk and--sat adjacent to you at your desk.

Everybody sits on the other side.

Be a better term.

Yes.

More accurate term. And said, "You seem to be in a better mood today, your Honor." And--

That is because I had all the transcripts packed up and ready to go.

That's right. And you pointed that out to him and you said you were ready for your vacation, which is long overdue and well deserved. He then, however, got to the heart of the matter. He said, "Judge, I haven't vented in a long time and I would like to vent. We think you have been unfair with us. We think you have been unfair to the Prosecution. It started with Mr. Kelberg. You cut Mr. Kelberg off. You allowed Mr. Cochran six days of cross-examination and you would not allow Mr. Kelberg cross-examination. You embarrassed Mr. Kelberg. You ridiculed him in front of the jury and we don't like that. You also continued to do that the next day with Miss Clark. You cut her off. You vilified her in front of the jury. We don't like that." And that was the reason that they had threatened this recusal against you. And Mr. Cochran, with control, became so indignant, as did I and as did Dean Uelmen, that we literally stormed out of your chambers, and for that we apologize, but it was not an affront to you, but rather that we were so set--we were so taken back by what amounted to prosecutorial extortion of the judiciary that we felt that it had to be addressed and had to be corrected immediately. Mr. Cochran made certain comments that what the Prosecution did warranted being referred to the state bar for unethical conduct, and that is going to be our intention for an investigation as to whether or not they have attempted to obstruct justice in chambers by putting you in an uncomfortable and untenable position that you have been unfair personally to Miss Clark and unfair personally to Mr. Kelberg. We find that reprehensible. And we are going to have this record clear and make sure that a complete and thorough investigation takes place as to what took place in your chambers this morning. But fortunately for Mr. Darden, he did tell the truth. He told you what the reasons were. He told you why they were unhappy. This was payback time and we have seen it before. Mr. Bosco told us about it from the witness stand and now we see it--we haAngeles it with Dr. Golden, that if they don't go along with their theory, they will come in and destroy him. And the same thing was attempted with you. And we want the record to reflect it. We want the record to reflect absolute and unequivocal and joint feelings that this is unethical conduct at its highest and that we will pursue all remedies that the law allows. May I just have one moment?

The implicit message was we are sending you a message, and in fact I related this to your Honor as I was walking out of the courtroom--out of your chambers--and I said they want to play with their ball on their field with their referee, and as soon as you disagree with their decision, you are out. And they were sending you a message, a loud and clear message that after you've tolled long and hard for a year on this case, that you could be out overnight, and they were going to tell you they were unhappy. Miss Clark put it on the record the day before, I'm very unhappy with you, Judge. I have never been treated worse by any Judge or any court. We all know that is not the case. We all know that at times you do get exasperated, but I think you have shown great patience to all of us, but you have come down hard on members of the Defense team and you have come down hard on members of the Prosecution team and many times we have all acknowledged that was well-deserved and told too late. But to come into your Honor's chambers and to invade the sanctity of judicial independence and let them know in the middle of a trial, at the end of a trial, that they are displeased with you and the way they are being treated, is unethical conduct. Thank you.

Thank you, counsel. Mr. Darden.

Your Honor, I'm so offended at Mr. Shapiro's remarks, remarks that I am sure that are being fed to him by Mr. Cochran, but I'm so offended by those remarks that I would rather not stand at the podium at which he stood a few moments ago. For a year now these Defense attorneys have been holding over your head the issue of Captain York and Detective Fuhrman. It is extortion. It has been a year long extortion attempt by the Defense to get you to allow as much racist and irrelevant and inflammatory incidents into trial as possible. They have known about Detective Fuhrman. They have been talking to a retired police officer named Mr. Evans all year. They knew about encounters supposedly had between Captain York and Detective Fuhrman. They knew all about that. But rather than just confront all of that and tell you and tell us and tell all of us about some of the issues concerning Detective Fuhrman, they decided to wait until the end of the case. When they talk about unethical conduct, I think it is unethical to present a defense that is based completely on mistruths, lies and deception, and that is what they have done throughout this case. I think it is unethical for counsel to hold press conferences in this courtroom and downstairs on the first floor and tease the public and tease the media by throwing them bits and pieces of the contents of these tapes, arousing the public, arousing a certain element of certain parts of the public and inflaming their passions in an attempt to exert political pressure over you and in attempt to pressure you to admit into this case the Fuhrman tapes, tapes that are largely, if not completely, irrelevant to the issues at hand.

The issue here is Kim Goldman, Patti Goldman, Fred Goldman and the Brown family. The issue here is whether this Defendant killed Nicole Brown or Ron Goldman or not. The issue here isn't my ethics. The issue here isn't racism and the issue here isn't Detective Fuhrman and it isn't their egos or how much money they can make or how many talk shows they can appear on. This case is a circus and they made it a circus and I know that you have tried to do everything you can to prevent that and so have we. Now, if Mr. Shapiro and Mr. Cochran want to refer me to the state bar, fine, because when this case is over I'm going to be referring Defense attorneys to the United States Attorney's office. And he chuckles now, but will he be chuckling later on? It won't be so funny later on. They don't know everything that I know. You know, back in February you and I had, for lack of a better term, a run-in. I think it was February. And I apologized to this Court for my conduct. And I am not above apologizing, your Honor. I have no apology to offer to this Court or to the Defense for my comments this morning. When we were here back in February, and after my apology, I asked your permission to speak with you on those occasions when I felt that there were issues that you and I should talk about, you know, that I be allowed to vent on occasion, and I think the Defense made a similar request of you at some point, whether it was on the record or not, because I know that we have all gone into chambers off the record and complained. They complained about the fine you gave them for the discovery violation off the record. They complained about the fines you gave Mr. Neufeld off the record. They complained about the manner in which they were treated by you or they complained about rulings off the record. We raise the issue of bias because we are compelled to do so under the rules of ethics that apply to attorneys, because we are Prosecutors and because the code of civil procedure requires us to do that. I'm sure the Court noticed that Miss Clark read from prepared--from a prepared statement this morning. When I went into chambers this morning, I went into chambers to vent, to complain to you that I did not appreciate the manner which Mr. Kelberg and Miss Clark was treated before this jury by the Court. I feel like I have that right. I mean, if I don't have that right, Judge, just tell me. If I am out of line, just tell me. Just tell me to sit down and shut up, as the Court has in the past, and I have done just that, but the Court granted me that privilege. But I wanted to complain about that. I wanted to complain about them and their press conferences in this courtroom. I have sat here and listened and endured that for the last twelve months. I shouldn't have to. The public shouldn't have to. This is a court of law. I wanted to inform the Court of our position on the recusal issue. I wanted to discuss with the Court how it is that we were going to handle not only the Fuhrman tapes, but the witnesses that relate to Fuhrman as well. Is there--if there is an issue of bias as it relates to Detective Fuhrman, is there also an issue of bias that we have to deal with as it relates to who might also impeach Detective Fuhrman? I came into chambers to try and hammer out some of the issues that are confronting us so that we can continue with this trial, convict this Defendant, and so that I can get on with my life. And if there is something wrong with that or unethical about that, well, I'm sorry. The manner in which I was treated by Mr. Shapiro and Mr. Cochran this morning, it was that type of conduct that I was there to try and prevent, Judge. I wanted to complain to the Court about the constant run-ins and confrontations between the Prosecution and the Defense. What I was extending to the Court and Defense counsel this morning was an olive branch, but what I got in return was something else. I have always acted in an ethical manner before this Court and before every other court, I would like to think, and I think I have a reputation for being fair, even as a Prosecutor. I think I have that reputation in all communities within this county, Judge. And if they want to refer me to the state bar, hey, they can line up behind all the LAPD officers that I investigated and prosecuted for perjury and for planting evidence and for lying and cheating. They can take a number. Yesterday when we went to Department 100 I saw something that I hadn't seen in a long time, Judge, and I wanted to bring this to your attention. I saw Judge Bascue shut Mr. Cochran off. Mr. Cochran made a few remarks, Judge Bascue told him he wasn't interested in that. At the completion of those remarks he said to Mr. Cochran "Submitted?" Mr. Cochran said "Yes." The next time Mr. Cochran attempted to rise again and address the same issue over and over again, as he is prone to do, the Judge cut him off.

All right. Mr. Darden, would you wind it up.

I would like to see that happen over the next month if possible at all, Judge. And that is another issue I wanted to bring to your attention. I'm sure that I did not offend the Court, and so the record is clear, at no time did I tell your Honor that the reason we raised the recusal issue was because we were dissatisfied with the Court's treatment of our lawyers; isn't that correct? I thank you for your time, your Honor.

All right. No, I have given both sides the opportunity to vent their positions and to make their record.

Your Honor, just brief, and Mr. Cochran was personally attacked, and I would--

Well, counsel--

I would like the Court to at least let Mr. Cochran respond for himself.

No, counsel, this is an extraneous issue. If you feel you need to take remedies beyond this Court, you are entitled to do so. Discussions between counsel in chambers oftentimes off the record, oftentimes venting, both sides, and you know, I try to go right down the middle here, and the fact that we've got people on both sides--I mean, Mr. Neufeld, my recollection was Friday, that he was outraged at the way I cut him off at the end of the day and he wanted to make a record and he was angry. Same thing happened to the Prosecution. But at some point in time these things have to come to a conclusion and at some point in time we have to recognize the fact that we have a jury that is way overdue as far as the time that they were told that they would have committed. I am very concerned about the durability of this jury as they sit, and my primary interest at this juncture is to get this matter to the jury for them to decide. And on Friday I told counsel on both sides in no uncertain terms on the record that the extraneous stuff needs to be closed down early, that we need to concentrate on the facts and circumstances of this case and that we need to proceed to a judgment by this jury in this case. All right. Counsel, I have the jury over at the hotel because I had no idea what was going to transpire this morning. It is now 10:30. My proposal is that we come back at one o'clock and start with Michele Kestler. And I apologize to her for having canceled all of her medical appointments.