Simpson Lawyers Move to Suppress Evidence : Slayings: Initial search of defendant’s estate challenged. Police analysts study newly seized material.

With police analysts scouring a new pile of material seized from O.J. Simpson’s Brentwood mansion, prosecutors and defense attorneys spent Wednesday laying final plans for what promises to be the most closely watched preliminary hearing ever.

Late Wednesday afternoon, Simpson’s lawyers took the only official action of the day, filing a motion that could radically alter the shape of the upcoming hearing. Their motion, the latest in a series of almost daily challenges mounted by Simpson’s highly touted legal team, seeks to suppress all evidence seized from the football great’s home on the day after the murders.

According to the motion, detectives searched the grounds of Simpson’s home after scaling the fence and ejecting the occupants early in the morning of June 13. In the process, according to the motion, the police improperly viewed the premises without a warrant, which was not obtained until nearly six hours later.

The motion further contends that the warrant itself was obtained under false pretenses because police asserted that Simpson had left town unexpectedly, though detectives were allegedly aware he was on “a planned business trip.”

If the judge agrees, a number of pieces of evidence important to the prosecution case would be dropped from the hearing, including a work glove that matches one found at the murder scene. And even if the motion is denied, it may force prosecutors to explain what evidence they had to justify that search--a tactical move that could give the defense a glimpse of information that might not ordinarily be presented during the preliminary hearing.

The motion would not affect items carted off from Simpson’s house Tuesday, however. According to law enforcement sources, the newly seized material consists largely of drainpipes, sink traps and other pieces of plumbing. Authorities suspect that Simpson washed himself and his clothing on the night of the murders, and the plumbing will be tested to determine whether it contains fibers or blood samples linking him to the slayings of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Lyle Goldman.

Armed with a new warrant, police also were hunting for the murder weapon--a long knife that a tipster told them might have been buried in a sandbox on Simpson’s property. Sources said the hunt came up empty but police have not abandoned their search for the weapon.

The Tuesday searches were conducted less than 48 hours before two of the most highly regarded prosecutors in the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office, Marcia Clark and William Hodgman, are scheduled to begin presenting their case in public for the first time. The hearing will be broadcast live around the world.

“It’s going to be a drama like no other,” said Barry Levin, a criminal defense attorney and former LAPD officer. “It’s going to be gripping.”

Wednesday, Clark and Hodgman were ensconced Downtown, avoiding reporters as they prepared for the hearing. The two prosecutors have been putting in long hours since Simpson was taken into custody June 17 after he led police on a low-speed pursuit across Orange County and into Brentwood before eventually surrendering to a police SWAT team.

Clark joined police on their search Tuesday evening, prepping for the hearing by familiarizing herself with Simpson’s home and the grounds around it, sources said.

Meanwhile, Simpson’s attorneys, led by Los Angeles lawyer Robert L. Shapiro and including some of the country’s best-known legal talent, gathered to plot strategy for a hearing they had aggressively sought. Shapiro has said he may use the preliminary hearing to present Simpson’s defense, a highly unusual, high-risk gambit that could set his client free without a trial but could expose the defense strategy and make it more difficult to fight the charges if Simpson is bound over for trial.

Despite saying he is considering that strategy, Shapiro could still choose a more traditional course, questioning prosecution witnesses but declining to put on a case of his own at this stage.

With the lawyers out of sight for most of the day, reporters and camera crews from around the country descended on the Downtown Criminal Courts building, clamoring for the few available seats to cover the hearing.

Only 10 people from the general public will be given seats to view the preliminary hearing, which is being held in a high-security courtroom. Eighteen seats will be set aside for family members of the victims and 25 seats will be filled by news media representatives. The defense will be given five spectator seats and the prosecution will be given two.

During the past two weeks, reporters have deluged the district attorney’s office and the LAPD with phone calls and requests for interviews. At times, the LAPD’s press relations office has been so overwhelmed that even the addition of several extra officers could not handle the hundreds of calls an hour pouring into the Police Department from people around the world.

The district attorney’s staff has been similarly deluged, as hundreds of callers from faraway places every day offer suggestions on the case. Among them are many self-described psychics and others with tips on where to look for the elusive murder weapon.

With such attention focused on the case, letters commending and condemning the decision to arrest and prosecute Simpson have poured in to Los Angeles authorities from around the globe. Simpson himself has received so much mail--about 3,500 letters a day--that the Sheriff’s Department set up a special post office box for him.

Although Simpson was first said to be deeply depressed and under a suicide watch, Sheriff Sherman Block said Wednesday that his condition appeared to have improved.

“He is no longer under what we call a suicide watch, and this is based upon the recommendation of the mental health professionals who are assigned to the jail,” Block said. “From all the reports I’ve received, he is what we would call a model inmate. In his dealings with the deputies, he’s very courteous, he doesn’t make demands.”

Simpson is housed in a high-security wing of the jail and originally had a noteworthy neighbor, Erik Menendez. But Block said Wednesday that Simpson was moved to another cell so that the two famous inmates could not overhear each other’s telephone conversations and talks with doctors.

Despite the crush of media, official representatives of the LAPD and the district attorney’s office have for the most part declined to comment on evidence in the case, leaving many to speculate about just what evidence led authorities to arrest and charge Simpson for the grisly double murder committed late at night on June 12.

Today, however, prosecutors will begin unveiling their case for the first time, laying out a combination of witnesses and forensic evidence that they believe will be enough to convince a judge that Simpson should stand trial.

Although only portions of the evidence so far have been publicly confirmed, much of it consists of items recovered from the scene of the crime and from Simpson’s property and possessions.

There is a matching pair of gloves--one recovered at the crime scene, the other at the football Hall of Famer’s home. There are blood samples from the area where Nicole Simpson and Goldman were slain, more blood from Simpson’s Ford Bronco and still more from the driveway outside his home. Prosecutors will attempt to use results of blood tests to show that Simpson was at the scene of the crime.

The prosecution may call police to explain their investigation and expert witnesses to discuss the significance of the test results. Shapiro may counter with experts of his own. Other witnesses, including friends, relatives and associates of Simpson and the two victims, are under subpoena and could be put on the stand as well.

Exactly what evidence will be considered, however, remains another open question. If Simpson’s lawyers convince the judge that the initial search of Simpson’s home was improper, items such as one of the matching pair of gloves--the one found outside the celebrity’s home--could disappear from the list of evidence admissible in the hearing.

Harland W. Braun, a noted criminal defense attorney, said motions to suppress evidence seized under search warrants are rarely granted, but he added that in a case of this magnitude, lawyers need to press for every advantage.

“The stakes are very high,” Braun said. “You have to make a motion for almost anything that’s arguable.”

With tension surrounding the case building and the long-awaited hearing just hours away, television networks prepared to carry the event live to the nation, and virtually all those associated with the case braced to stand at the center of a riveting moment of courtroom drama. Even in a city whose recent history has been defined by a series of high-profile trials, the Simpson case has riveted public attention to a degree that astonishes even those who have been in the center of the storm before.

“It’s incredible,” said Braun, one of the lawyers in the federal trial of the four LAPD officers charged in the beating of Rodney G. King. “There’s a weird fascination with this case unlike anything I’ve ever seen.”

Times staff writers Kenneth Reich, Henry Weinstein and Tina Daunt contributed to this report.