📄 Witness scheduling — Thursday, July 20, 1995
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C:\DEPT103\CRIMINAL\1995\JUL\20\WITNESS-SCHEDULING.DOC
TRIAL
▲ Day 119 of 167

Witness scheduling

Date: Thursday, July 20, 1995 • Utterances: 47
A brief end-of-day administrative session focused entirely on scheduling. Cheri Lewis had lost her voice, prompting the court to postpone the collateral impeachment witness hearing and the Fuhrman hearing. The bulk of the discussion concerned witness sequencing — specifically fitting Dr. Rieders (who had a medical appointment and was leaving the country by Wednesday) and Professor MacDonell into the coming week's schedule.
1 MR. COCHRAN:

Your Honor--

2 MS. LEWIS:

Your Honor may have noticed I have lost my voice today. The hearing with regard to the collateral impeachment witnesses? It's a fairly lengthy hearing from what Mr. Cochran said. At any rate, that's currently scheduled for 1:30 tomorrow. Is there now a possibility that that might get shifted around?

3 THE COURT:

Possibility.

4 MS. LEWIS:

If we have the--

5 THE COURT:

Here's the deal. If we--my concern is this. The Prosecution has asked for additional time to prepare for the doctor.

6 MS. LEWIS:

Rieders.

7 THE COURT:

Dr. Rieders. I would like them to have that time. I would like, if there's a possibility that we could put--which hearing do we still have left, Mrs. Robertson? Is that the limitation on cross-examination or something to that effect?

8 THE CLERK:

And Brady issue.

9 THE COURT:

Sorry?

10 THE CLERK:

And--

11 MS. LEWIS:

Mark Fuhrman hearing.

12 THE COURT:

All right. If we take the 240 hearing off calendar, then my inclination would be to put that motion over as well.

13 MS. LEWIS:

Given my lack of voice today and lack of voice possibly tomorrow, I would appreciate it actually.

14 THE COURT:

Mr. Cochran.

15 MR. COCHRAN:

If I might shed some light on that. With regard to the Fuhrman hearing, that might be a good idea. I don't anticipate that witnesses regarding that will be called until probably sometime the week of the 31st. So we have time at any rate.

16 THE COURT:

Okay.

17 MR. COCHRAN:

Miss Cheri Lewis can get her voice back and that will work out with everybody.

KEY QUOTE
18 MS. LEWIS:

If I can rely on that, that's great.

19 THE COURT:

All right. Mr. Douglas.

20 MR. DOUGLAS:

Good afternoon again, your Honor. As the Court will recall, on Friday the 7th, we had a hearing on the introduction of Prosecution exhibits, and there were some Prosecution exhibits that they were withdrawing that we wanted to introduce and there were--there was also the stated intention or the desire for the Defense at this point to move into evidence many of our exhibits as well.

I raised at the time the problem of--the preference that the Defense do that earlier rather than at the end of the case so that if there was some foundation or other problem interfering with the introduction of certain pieces of evidence, we would then have adequate time to close any holes, if you will, that may have been open. I would like to use some time perhaps Monday, if not tomorrow, if the Court pleases so that we may then move into evidence our exhibits as well as those which were withdrawn so that there's not the problem--

21 THE COURT:

Have you prepared yet an index of all your exhibits? I take it yes?

22 MR. DOUGLAS:

I have an ongoing exhibit list, yes, your Honor, and I seek to introduce each of my exhibits.

23 THE COURT:

All right. Why don't you prepare a copy for the Court and for opposing counsel and submit it to them. Maybe we can organize it so that--I agree with you that perhaps we ought to do that sooner than later. But given the multiplicity of all of these things, I think that we both, you, me and the Prosecution, need to be able to organize our thoughts on that because obviously there will be a lot of these that we agree are admissible and probably, as with the Prosecution, wind up having to dispute perhaps a dozen or so.

24 MR. DOUGLAS:

And I would include in those requests those exhibits which the Prosecution withdrew which I noted my intention to move to introduce.

25 THE COURT:

When will you be able to prepare and submit that to the Court?

26 MR. DOUGLAS:

Your Honor, I will have that prepared in the morning.

27 THE COURT:

Okay.

28 MR. DOUGLAS:

Thank you.

29 MR. COCHRAN:

May I say one other thing about witnesses so we're clear?

30 THE COURT:

Sure.

31 MR. COCHRAN:

As the Court recalls, we're trying to fraction out a remedy whereby Miss Clark will be ready on these two witnesses because they are our next two witnesses. I think the Court is aware of that. We did as much scrambling as we could this afternoon to fill up the day with other witnesses and I don't have other witnesses at this point. So at this point, we have no witnesses to call tomorrow and we would like to allow them to have whatever time they feel they need, the rest of the day tomorrow.

32 THE COURT:

Given Dr. Rieders' other commitments, I would like to have Miss Clark have as much time as possible today, tomorrow and over the weekend to prepare for Monday. So I agree with that. But let's take our recess at this point. We'll find out if we have a hearing at 8:30.

33 MR. NEUFELD:

Your Honor, my schedule--you also mentioned earlier--remember we tentatively scheduled Professor MacDonell for Monday? Should I back him up to Wednesday in light of what happened with Rieders and Martz? He's gone back--he flew back east. Instead of having to come back Sunday, can I have him come back--

34 THE COURT:

Here's the thing. We're going to come back on Monday and the Prosecution still has available to them a motion to continue based upon what was presented to them if they're still not ready. You may want to put MacDonell on before you put on--

35 MR. NEUFELD:

Except for the problem, which is--I think Mr. Blasier informed you about, which is Dr. Rieders' medical appointment Wednesday. He's leaving the country. So it has to be then. So that would postpone MacDonell then to Wednesday.

36 THE COURT:

The problem is all these out-of-town people. What I would suggest you do--

37 MR. COCHRAN:

One last thing, your Honor. The Court is aware, Mr. Blasier made Dr. Rieders available to Lisa Kahn this afternoon.

38 THE COURT:

Yes. This is the second time I heard it.

39 MR. COCHRAN:

I just want to make sure the Court heard. We've done everything we can do in this connection.

40 THE COURT:

Yes.

41 MR. BLASIER:

It was always my intention to call Dr. Rieders first. He needs to get out of here Tuesday. I'll call him first and certainly intend to call roger Martz as well. So we're not sandbagging.

KEY QUOTE
42 THE COURT:

All right. Okay. We'll stand in recess. And, Mr. Goldberg, you'll let us know?

43 MR. GOLDBERG:

You want me to let the Court know as well?

44 THE COURT:

Yes.

45 MR. GOLDBERG:

Thank you.

46 THE COURT:

We'll stand in recess.

47 (At 5:45 P.M. an adjournment was taken until, Monday, July 24, 1995, 9:00 A.M.)

Temperature

routine

Key Quotes (4)

Johnnie Cochran
I don't anticipate that witnesses regarding that will be called until probably sometime the week of the 31st. So we have time at any rate.
Cochran signals the Fuhrman hearing witnesses are not imminent, giving cover to postpone without drama.
Johnnie Cochran
Miss Cheri Lewis can get her voice back and that will work out with everybody.
A rare collegial moment — Cochran being gracious toward opposing counsel.
Robert Blasier
It was always my intention to call Dr. Rieders first. He needs to get out of here Tuesday. I'll call him first and certainly intend to call Roger Martz as well. So we're not sandbagging.
Blasier preemptively defends the Defense against any perception of strategic delay with the expert witnesses.
Carl Douglas
I raised at the time the problem of--the preference that the Defense do that earlier rather than at the end of the case so that if there was some foundation or other problem interfering with the introduction of certain pieces of evidence, we would then have adequate time to close any holes, if you will, that may have been open.
Douglas articulates a practical litigation concern about getting Defense exhibits admitted early enough to address any foundation problems.

Evidence (1)

Informal
Defense exhibit list — ongoing index of all Defense exhibits sought to be introduced, including Prosecution exhibits that were withdrawn
discussed; Douglas to submit index to court and opposing counsel by morning

Notable Exchanges (2)

Peter NeufeldLance A. Ito
Neufeld raises the domino problem: Dr. Rieders' medical appointment Wednesday and departure from the country forces MacDonell to be pushed to Wednesday as well, compressing the schedule.
strategic
Johnnie CochranLance A. Ito
Cochran notes — twice, to Ito's mild amusement — that Blasier had made Dr. Rieders available to prosecution's Lisa Kahn that afternoon, emphasizing the Defense was not obstructing prosecution preparation.
cooperative

Light Moments (2)

Johnnie Cochran
Cochran jokes that postponing the hearing will let Cheri Lewis get her voice back, framing a scheduling accommodation as a personal favor to opposing counsel.
Lance A. Ito
After Cochran mentions making Rieders available to the prosecution a second time, Ito dryly notes: 'Yes. This is the second time I heard it.'

Objections

None recorded
Proceeding 6942 • 47 utterances
Criminal Trial
Department 103
⚖️ Start
📂 JUL 20, 1995 📄 Witness scheduling
JUL 20, 1995 KRT DvH TD