Simpson Murder Case : Officers Cheer as Judge Upholds Detectives’ Search

For several days, the much-maligned Los Angeles Police Department was under the national spotlight once again, this time for conducting a controversial search of O.J. Simpson’s estate after his ex-wife and her friend were slain.

But on Thursday came sweet vindication, when Municipal Judge Kathleen Kennedy-Powell upheld the actions of the detectives who let themselves onto Simpson’s Brentwood property after the murders. There were cheers at the LAPD’s Downtown Parker Center headquarters and quiet gulps of relief at police stations from San Pedro to the San Fernando Valley, where officers were practically glued to their TVs and radios.

“In a police officer’s position these days, it’s damned if you do and damned if you don’t,” said robbery-homicide Detective Jim Barry. The 30-year veteran works alongside those in the Simpson case whose efforts were challenged in court by Simpson’s attorneys. And like them, he said, he routinely has to defend his evidence-gathering efforts under the withering cross-examination of defense lawyers.

“You get judged on a situation that happens in a matter of minutes, by people with law books and a week or two of hindsight,” he said. “It’s not fair.”

Barry’s sensitivity on that point is not uncommon within the department, which has endured criticism over the Rodney G. King beating, its response to the Los Angeles riots and a divisive and prolonged labor negotiation. In recent days, officers have had to sit by as high-profile attorneys publicly impugned the integrity and professionalism of the detectives who arrived at Simpson’s compound and searched part of the premises before obtaining a search warrant.

Had the judge agreed with defense lawyers that a bloodstained glove and other evidence were illegally obtained, police said, it might have been the biggest humiliation yet for the department.

Instead, police got a nice, nationally televised “atta boy.”

“We had all the confidence that those detectives knew what they were doing,” Barry said as he and his partner discussed the case over a couple of Bob’s Big Boy hamburgers. “But you just don’t know in these courts--you can’t take anything to the bank. Nothing’s a gimme.”

That holds true not only in the court of law but also in the court of public opinion--and some officers had been bracing for another setback in both.

After the ruling, the official LAPD comment was terse. “We knew we were doing the right thing when we did it,” Lt. John Dunkin said. “Nothing that happened in court was unexpected.”

Others were more ebullient.

“We’re all heartened by it. It validates our collective efforts,” said Sgt. Bob Brounsten of the West Los Angeles Division, the station whose officers were the first at the scene and led the way to Simpson’s house. Brounsten and his officers intently watched the televised proceedings, rooting for their colleagues on the witness stand as defense attorneys tried to trip them up.