All right. Back on the record in the Simpson matter. All parties are again present. All right. Counsel, I'm going to sustain the 352 objection to going into the facts and circumstances that would have led Officer Don Thompson to arrest Mr. Simpson, were that his independent determination. I will allow one question of Officer Thompson; did he disagree with the direction to detain Mr. Simpson and place him in handcuffs at that time. That's the only question I'll allow in that vein. All right. Let's have the jury, please. And, Mr. Cochran and Mr. Darden, I want to see both of you in my chambers when we conclude this afternoon.
Did your Honor want to reschedule the sanctions motion that was scheduled for 1:00 clock?
I kind of thought he might have been here to examine Mr. Meraz or else I would have said something to him earlier. And I apologize. So I didn't know. With respect to that, your Honor, and I do apologize to counsel, but we were going to ask that we take this up on Friday if that's all right with the Court. I do not know what other plans there are, but this motion has became much bigger than I thought.
It's simply that, as I think Mr. Douglas has told you before, it was our intention to put Professor Herbert MacDonell on the witness stand tomorrow. The discovery is now complete, and he is here in Los Angeles and we intended to have him testify tomorrow, and I think that was the reason why you originally scheduled the sanction motion for 1:00 o'clock this afternoon.
I just want to day that, so if you want to do it at 5:00 or 5:30 or whatever, that's acceptable as well.
The problem with that, your Honor, is that we had no opportunity to evaluate the legal issues raised by the late discovery dropped on us by Defense counsel. There was apparently an examination conducted back in April. The report of that examination was given to us just a few days ago. I can't think of any legal or--excuse me. I can't think of any forensic or scientific reason why you would want to delay a report for three months.
Mr. MacDonell--I don't know that he's doctor--is blood spatter, their blood spatter expert.
And the reason that we--we had to evaluate the reports that he submitted, and when we determined that the reports--
No. I just want to know what he's going to testify to. All right. We'll take it up at 5:00.
Well, your Honor, the problem is that we have briefs to file on this. It goes to not just discovery sanctions, but goes to preclusion of the testimony completely because it's irrelevant under 352. These are substantial legal arguments. It's not a discovery issue, just a discovery issue. That's the tip of the iceberg. There's much more to this.
We have briefs to give to the Court. They will be ready in half an hour, but I thought that the Court might want more time than that.
All right. Let's have the jurors, please. Do you have Officer Thompson available somewhere?
I will allow one question of Officer Thompson; did he disagree with the direction to detain Mr. Simpson and place him in handcuffs at that time. That's the only question I'll allow in that vein.
I can't think of any forensic or scientific reason why you would want to delay a report for three months.
It goes to not just discovery sanctions, but goes to preclusion of the testimony completely because it's irrelevant under 352. These are substantial legal arguments. It's not a discovery issue, just a discovery issue. That's the tip of the iceberg.