Prosecutors Get Reports on Mystery Envelope : Simpson case: Sources say contents are described as a Stiletto knife and a receipt.

After two months of waiting for a look inside a mysterious envelope presented during O.J. Simpson’s preliminary hearing, prosecutors got the next best thing Thursday: Superior Court Judge Lance A. Ito released to them copies of reports that describe the envelope’s contents in detail.

Ito did not make the reports public, but defense sources have long said the envelope contains a knife identical to one that prosecutors displayed in court during the preliminary hearing. The Times reported that on July 3, and sources confirmed Thursday that the reports turned over to prosecutors describe a 15-inch Stiletto knife, along with a receipt for its purchase from a Downtown store, Ross Cutlery.

One of those reports was prepared by a specially appointed retired judge who examined the items when they were presented to him. Another was prepared by a court-appointed expert who also attended that examination. Prosecutors did not receive a third report on the knife, one explaining how it came into the possession of the court-appointed special master.

Although prosecutors have eagerly sought to discover what is inside the envelope, the value of the knife as evidence is difficult to assess. That is in part because prosecutors have not made clear whether they intend to argue that a knife such as the one Simpson allegedly bought May 3 actually was used in the slashing deaths of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Lyle Goldman.

In other developments Thursday:

* Two related defense motions filed earlier this week were made public for the first time. One seeks dismissal of the charges against Simpson based on the evidence presented during his preliminary hearing. The other argues that evidence seized in several searches of Simpson’s home and car should be excluded from the case because police acted improperly in conducting those searches.

* A witness called to appear at a grand jury investigating Simpson’s friend Al Cowlings refused to testify and was held in contempt of court. He is appealing that order.

* Ito said he expected to announce today any limitations that he may put on lawyers and others involved in the case. Initially, Ito had circulated a broad gag order that also would have required all motions to be filed under seal, but after hearing some criticism of that proposal he agreed to consider the matter further.

The motions released Thursday lay the groundwork for the next major battles in the case. Starting Sept. 19, defense attorneys are expected to argue that police acted improperly in searching Simpson’s property and that the case against him should be dismissed because insufficient evidence was presented during the preliminary hearing to warrant holding him for trial.

Legal experts give the motion to dismiss the case little chance of succeeding, but the motion unveiled Thursday explains the defense reasoning, most of which relies on its contention that Municipal Judge Kathleen Kennedy-Powell allowed improperly seized evidence to be introduced against Simpson during the preliminary hearing.

If those items--especially a bloody glove found outside Simpson’s home--are excluded, there is not enough evidence left to warrant Simpson facing murder charges, defense attorneys argued.

That argument dovetails with the defense contention that searches of Simpson’s home and car were unlawful and therefore any evidence yielded by them should not be used against the former football star. As they did during the preliminary hearing, Simpson’s lawyers argued in the second motion released Thursday that police improperly entered his Brentwood estate before dawn on June 13.

Los Angeles police detectives say they went to Simpson’s home to tell him of his ex-wife’s death, to inform him that his children were being held at a nearby police station, and to make sure that no other people were injured or in danger at his house. When they received no response after ringing the bell for several minutes, one of the officers leaped the fence and all four of them went onto the grounds without a warrant.

Defense attorneys maintain that the real reason was to search for evidence against Simpson and that the warrantless search early that morning was therefore illegal. Moreover, they maintain that Detective Philip L. Vannatter lied in obtaining two subsequent warrants.

“Orenthal James Simpson unequivocally insists that he is absolutely 100% not guilty of the crimes of which he has been accused,” the motion by Simpson’s legal team states. “At the same time, he insists that his guilt or innocence be determined on the basis of evidence that was lawfully acquired.”

The issue of the warrantless search--which turned up a bloody glove, among other things--was argued during Simpson’s preliminary hearing. Because the judge at that time found no fault with the officers’ conduct, defense attorneys have an uphill battle before Ito.

But the motion released Thursday says that Simpson’s lawyers expect to offer additional evidence “relating to the credibility of the LAPD detectives who engaged in the warrantless entry and search.” In addition, the newly released motion attacks subsequently obtained search warrants on several grounds.

*

Attached to the motions are property reports showing the evidence seized under those warrants. They include hairs and fibers recovered from Simpson’s Ford Bronco, clothing taken from Simpson’s home and copies of videotapes from a film that Simpson had recently finished shooting. That film, “Frogmen,” includes a scene in which Simpson holds a knife to a young woman’s throat.

In an unusual development Thursday, the attorney for the man who was found in contempt said his client had refused to testify because he was fearful for his life.

“He’s not afraid of anyone involved in the case, but others,” lawyer Robert Rentzer said.

His client gave prosecutors information “remotely related” to the Simpson case, on the condition that his identity would be concealed. He has no information about Cowlings or anyone else in the case, the lawyer said.