📄 Fuhrman tapes discussion — Monday, August 21, 1995
Address:
C:\DEPT103\CRIMINAL\1995\AUG\21\FUHRMAN-TAPES-DISCUSSION.DOC
TRIAL
▲ Day 139 of 167

Fuhrman tapes discussion

Date: Monday, August 21, 1995 • Utterances: 17
Cochran apologizes to the judge for the disorganized state of the Fuhrman/McKinny tapes materials and explains the plan to deliver a cleaned-up, verbatim transcript keyed to an offer of proof by 5pm that day, with remaining audio cleanup finished by the next morning. The judge expresses frustration that he spent the weekend trying to review incoherent tapes and couldn't correlate the transcript with the offer of proof, and notes he'll now have to use court time for what he had hoped to finish on his own.
1 MR. COCHRAN:

Yes, I will, your Honor.

2 THE COURT:

Tell me what to expect.

3 MR. COCHRAN:

Let me tell you what to expect. I apologize to the Court. As the Court knows, I was out of town. Did your Honor receive a redacted copy of the original tapes turned over by Messers. Schwartz and Regwan? Is that correct? And I understand that your Honor was not given the first 48 pages; is that correct?

4 THE COURT:

Apparently something was given to me this morning.

5 MR. COCHRAN:

I brought that down for you this morning, and let me see if I can explain the confusion and tell you where we are and how we straightened it out. Of course the Court is aware that we overoptimistically said we would be able to get you a verbatim word for word transcript of this pretty quickly. That is now finished and by the end of the day Mr. Douglas will walk through those doors with hopefully a redacted verbatim transcript and an offer of proof that is key to our transcript. With regard to Miss McKinny's transcript, some of the pages are off. We had discovered this in North Carolina. Also, as the Court is aware, the first tapes have been--the first tape had been taped over and she had--the first 48 pages apparently you hadn't been given, and I discovered that last night when I returned and I gave those to your Honor's clerk this morning.

6 THE COURT:

Well, I spent several hours this weekend. At first it was so incoherent I couldn't figure out what was going on, but I figured since time was of the essence I ought to at least try to make some sense of it.

7 MR. COCHRAN:

Sure, sure.

8 THE COURT:

After going through your offer of proof and trying to correlate it with the tape and the transcript, I couldn't do it, and I don't think it is my obligation going through twelve hours of tape looking for particular excerpts.

9 MR. COCHRAN:

It certainly isn't. These items are on the tapes and it is important that you be able to hear them. And I have asked today Messers. Jerry Uelmen, Bailey, Douglas, are keying the offer of proof to the tapes and to the first transcript, of course, which is not on tape which she did, and you will have them by five o'clock. In addition to that, you are aware that we have cleaned up all but three of the tapes for background noise and I understand that by ten o'clock tomorrow morning the remaining three will be cleaned up, so you will have those, so you will have the--everything.

10 THE COURT:

I will have clean cassettes and a coherent transcript and an offer of proof that is keyed to the--

11 MR. COCHRAN:

Key to our verbatim transcript.

12 THE COURT:

All right.

13 MR. COCHRAN:

By five o'clock and the remaining three transcripts will be here by ten o'clock tomorrow morning. Okay. And I apologize that the Court had to go through anything that caused you any problems because you got a flavor for it, but we want it to be so that you will understand exactly where they are keyed directly in and we will have it. And while we are about that, I would like to find out, just for a matter of scheduling witnesses, how you plan to do that. Let's assume that you have that--the offer of proof and the transcripts and everything in it, you will have our brief--we filed a brief regarding the admissibility of that this morning. What would be your Honor's pleasure? When will we get to the 402 hearing, given that schedule that I just laid out?

14 THE COURT:

Well, see, that is the dilemma, because I had hoped to spend this weekend doing all of that, reviewing the tapes and comparing it and then hearing argument and considering the Prosecution's objections, because I didn't want to lose the jury time.

15 MR. COCHRAN:

Sure.

16 THE COURT:

But now it appears I'm going to have to use court time and my own after hours time to do this.

17 MR. COCHRAN:

All right. We will be ready as much as we can to have witnesses to fill in at least until you reach the point where you say, okay, let's do this.

Temperature

procedural

Key Quotes (3)

Lance A. Ito
At first it was so incoherent I couldn't figure out what was going on, but I figured since time was of the essence I ought to at least try to make some sense of it.
Reveals the judge personally spent significant weekend hours on the tapes and found them unworkable — underscoring how poorly the defense managed the initial production.
Lance A. Ito
I don't think it is my obligation going through twelve hours of tape looking for particular excerpts.
The judge sets a firm expectation: it is counsel's job to key the evidence to an offer of proof, not his.
Johnnie Cochran
I discovered that last night when I returned and I gave those to your Honor's clerk this morning.
Cochran acknowledges the first 48 pages were missing from what was submitted — a significant production gap in a high-stakes evidentiary dispute.

Evidence (3)

Informal
McKinny tapes (Fuhrman recordings) — approximately 12 hours of audio, background noise being cleaned up
discussed; production status explained
Informal
Verbatim transcript of the McKinny tapes, keyed to offer of proof
promised for delivery by 5pm
Informal
First 48 pages of transcript, previously missing from judge's copy
delivered to clerk that morning

Notable Exchanges (2)

Johnnie CochranLance A. Ito
Cochran walks the judge through the cascade of production problems — missing pages, a taped-over first tape, noise on recordings — and lays out a remediation timeline. The judge responds with measured but clear irritation that he wasted weekend hours on unusable materials.
apologetic/mildly tense
Johnnie CochranLance A. Ito
Cochran asks the judge when the 402 admissibility hearing can be scheduled; the judge responds that the delay has now cost him weekend time and he'll have to absorb it in court hours and after-hours work.
strategic/logistical

Objections

None recorded
Proceeding 7957 • 17 utterances
Criminal Trial
Department 103
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📂 AUG 21, 1995 📄 Fuhrman tapes discussion
AUG 21, 1995 KRT DvH TD