All right. Back on the record in the Simpson matter. Mr. Simpson is again present before the Court with his counsel, Mr. Shapiro, Mr. Cochran, Mr. Neufeld, Mr. Douglas. The People are represented by Mr. Kelberg, Mr. Lynch. Also present, Mr. Darden. The jury is not present. Good morning. Mr. Neufeld, Mrs. Robertson told me that you had an issue you wanted to advise the Court of.
Yesterday I learned of a revised schedule from the District Attorney's office in which they said that after Dr. Lakshmanan there were going to be some witnesses involving gloves and shoes and then they intended to call Bruce Weir and the other DNA witnesses. Umm, you may recall, your Honor, that bruise Weir's name came up when the decision was made by the Prosecution not to rely on Dr. Cotton for certain frequencies, but instead to have that articulated by Dr. Weir. At that time Dr. William Thompson came into Court and expressed on the record our objection to what appeared to be a preliminary report of Dr. Weir's suggesting that he was going to testify about likelihood ratios, and our objection was based in part on the fact that there was no legal precedent for using likelihood ratios in a criminal case anywhere in the State of California, and perhaps anywhere in the United States, as well as other grounds. And at that point Mr. Clarke said we don't intend to use the likelihood ratios in that report, there is a lot of other data there that we intend to rely on to express frequencies. Well, we received another preliminary report from Dr. Weir last week which again relies heavily on this use of likelihood ratios. Dr. Thompson said at that time that if they intend to try and offer likelihood ratios or to offer anything different than what the Court's order required, which was simply an aggregation of frequencies in mixtures, that we would of course demand a 402 hearing on that particular issue, which had nothing to do with the DNA Kelly-Frye hearing, it just has to do with the manner in which evidence can be expressed to the jury. If they intend to call Dr. Weir and if they intend to utilize these likelihood ratios, then we need to sort of schedule this 402 hearing. We would call witnesses in opposition at that hearing just on that one issue of the likelihood ratios. So I'm simply asking for two things: One, perhaps someone from their office can come down either at the break, the lunch break, or the beginning of the afternoon session so just both of us can talk to the Court and get some head's up on, if that is their intent, so that we can schedule that at 1:30.
Your Honor, may I suggest actually if Mr. Neufeld has limited interest in hearing about forensic pathology, that Mr. Clarke and/or Mr. Harmon may well be upstairs on the 18th floor at this time, or shortly from this time, and it might be beneficial if in some fashion he can wander up to the 18th floor or I assume he has the office number for both Mr. Clarke and Mr. Harmon.
Good morning, your Honor. Your Honor, with regard to the scheduling, the Prosecution yesterday did delete one witness from their list and we understand they have changed the order. What I'm asking now is whether or not from the Prosecution we can get a list, certain as possible, for the conclusion of the case, because we have lawyers who are all over the United States, and rather than have a delay in the trial--
Okay, and I appreciate that, and so that in order to be ready, your Honor, we need to know who is coming up next and have some kind of certainty with regard to that, so the lawyers can return in enough time to make sure they are ready.
Let me make inquiry of Miss Clark and Mr. Darden since they have the overall responsibility for this. Good morning, counsel.
Good morning, your Honor. Yes, I informed counsel yesterday that we are closer to the end than we thought we were, and we are--I inquired of Mr. Harmon and Mr. Clarke yesterday as to when the last probe would be pulled off 117, and I have to solidify that before I can give counsel a totally accurate picture. But I have told counsel so far that after the Coroner--actually, maybe I told Mr. Douglas, I'm sorry.
That after the Coroners it would be either shoes or gloves, and they know what chain of witnesses that is, and following that we believe we can proceed with the rest of DNA and Dr. Weir, and EDTA, and then perhaps the Airtouch representative concerning cell phone records, and a couple of other miscellaneous witnesses that I have to solidify, and then hair and trace, so that is roughly the scenario. There are certain things, obviously from what the Court has heard, that we have to solidify and I think that I will be able to do that by the end of the day. I would ask the Court to order, in return for this revised witness order and list, that the Defense be required to turn over the discovery that we have been requesting for months now. We have no expert reports, we have no valid witness statements. We have these little notes scribbled that are basically hieroglyphics. And we are asking the Court to order the Defense to comply in spirit, and not just in form, with 1054 and the Court's discovery orders, because we have received nothing in response to the Court's orders.
Yes. Now, the witnesses I told you there were some that we have to solidify, regard domestic violence and we are not sure which, or you know, how many exactly we are going to call, but the Court knows which ones they are potentially, and so does the Defense, and we have to firm up exactly which ones those would be, so that--it won't take very long.
Just scheduling wise, when do you anticipate putting those on? Before or after DNA, before or after the cell phone records?
Around the cell phone records. Before or after the cell phone records, that is the feeling, and there are four or five of those witnesses, but they are brief.
One last thing, your Honor, is I presume that that--what Miss Clark has just indicated will be solidified by the end of the day and we would like to be able to go with that and we will rely upon that and we would like to make sure we have all the discovery also for these upcoming witnesses. We are concerned about whether or not we have all the discovery for Bodziak and certainly with regard to any information on the tickets, on that, and we want to make sure we have all the discovery and make sure there is no delay.
They have everything we have. We can't give them what we don't have. As soon as we have information, they will have it without any delay at all because everyone is interested in the expeditious end to this trial, so it will be literally within the time frame that we learn that we have a witness we are going to be calling, it will be minutes before we are on the phone to counsel, I can promise you that.
All right. As soon as we finish with the Coroner's testimony I would like to take a five minute recess and launch into the next witness.
All right. All right. Let's have the jurors, Deputy Magnera. I'm sorry, Mr. Kelberg.
there was no legal precedent for using likelihood ratios in a criminal case anywhere in the State of California, and perhaps anywhere in the United States
We have no expert reports, we have no valid witness statements. We have these little notes scribbled that are basically hieroglyphics.
There will be no delay.
it will be literally within the time frame that we learn that we have a witness we are going to be calling, it will be minutes before we are on the phone to counsel