NEWS ANALYSIS : Striking Candor Emerges in Closed-Door Session : Courts: A certain amount of posturing also is evident as lawyers discuss jury selection and bail. At one point, Shapiro rebukes Simpson and threatens to quit.

O.J. Simpson is going broke.

Would-be jurors are “lying” to earn a seat on “The Case of the Century.”

Police Department “scuttlebutt” has it that the judge held a secret meeting with prosecutors.

Lawyers speak differently when the microphones are turned off, as those comments--contained in newly released transcripts of a closed-door session in the Simpson murder case--clearly show.

From cynical remarks by both sides about the potential jurors to a sharp rebuke from a lawyer to his client, the transcripts of the hearing in Superior Court Judge Lance A. Ito’s courtroom show lawyers in the murder case speaking with what appears to be unusual candor.

A certain amount of posturing also was evident, however, and one legal expert suggested that some fancy choreography may have been at work--despite the appearance of spontaneity.

During the closed-door session Wednesday, things got off to a hush-hush start when defense attorney Johnnie L. Cochran Jr. made sure the in-courtroom microphones were turned off before he began to tell Ito about rumors of the alleged secret meeting between the judge and prosecutors. After Cochran described what he heard from an old Los Angeles Police Department friend, prosecutors denied that the meeting had taken place and Ito called the speculation “preposterous.”

Still, Steve Brill, editor of American Lawyer and founder of Court TV, said that a closed-door meeting was the right place to float such a report.

“If you hear about a rumor, that’s the place to do it--in chambers,” Brill said. “You would have to have your head examined to say it in open court.

“There always a mix of communications, public and private, in any trial,” Brill said. “But in this case the difference is much sharper because there is such an intense light shined on everything.”

Perhaps the most unguarded portion of the meeting came when attorneys on both sides voiced strong doubts about the honesty of the jury pool being considered for the case.

Defense lawyer Robert L. Shapiro started it, saying: “We have 300 people begging to be on the case of the century and will give you (Ito) any answer they want, unfortunately.”

Then prosecutor Marcia Clark upped the ante: “Many if not most are lying to the detriment of the People because they’re sitting there as the fans of this defendant, saying, ‘We want to get on this jury because we want to turn a blind eye to your evidence and a deaf ear to the testimony so we can acquit this man no matter what.’ ”

Moments later, Clark told Ito she would like to subject the potential jurors to polygraph examinations.

Legal analysts said such comments were highly unusual.

Defense lawyer Barry Levin said the remarks about prospective jurors were the sort of comments attorneys might might make in private while having a drink, but certainly not in public. “All lawyers know prospective jurors lie,” Levin said.

“They will lie to get off a jury and in this instance they’ll lie to get on a jury. It’s a reality that no one will admit in public,” Levin said.

Much of the closed hearing Wednesday was a preview of a later public hearing on the defense’s unsuccessful move to persuade Ito to release Simpson on bail and to grant a one-year continuance in the case. This effort led to perhaps the most dramatic moment of the closed session as Simpson pleaded with Ito to let him out on bail to be with his two motherless children.

However, as Simpson started to discuss his state of mind during the now infamous low-speed chase before he surrendered, Shapiro suddenly broke in.

The lawyer--who normally is seen whispering with his client, his arm around Simpson’s shoulder--declared sharply: “Mr. Simpson, I am telling you that I will not allow you to speak and I will resign as your lawyer if you continue to do so.”

Simpson immediately replied “thank you” and said nothing more, according to the transcripts, which were unsealed Friday.

While arguing that Simpson should be released on bail, Shapiro claimed that his wealthy client’s resources are dwindling rapidly. “I don’t believe he’s going to walk out, get on an airplane and go somewhere. His funds are virtually depleted, as everyone knows, because of two things that have been done. Trusts have been set up for his children and expenses for experts and lawyers and investigators to clear his good name.”

Defense lawyer Leslie Abramson said she was “astonished” at how sharply Shapiro talked to his client.

But defense lawyer Gerald L. Chaleff said: “I see why Bob stopped him. He started to talk about the evidence.”

Even for a case that has been high-pitched from the beginning, the tone of the hearing was particularly hyperbolic. Both sides reviled the media in terms even stronger than usual. At one point, Clark quoted a celebrity’s comment that he “wouldn’t allow his dog to urinate” on tabloid scandal sheets.

At another point, Cochran told the judge that this was the first time in his 31 years as a lawyer that he felt his client could not get a fair trial.

Los Angeles defense lawyer Harland W. Braun said the tone of some of the remarks indicated that “they were lulled into a sense of comfort and privacy, forgetting that legally there is no such thing as a private session.”

In fact, the defense originally asked for the session to held in private. At the end of the proceeding, prosecutor William Hodgman asked for the record to be sealed, but Shapiro said he strenuously opposed the request.

Braun said that clash indicated that defense lawyers felt that it was to their advantage to get the record before the public. In fact, he suggested that the defense team may have choreographed part of the session.

“The defense really won by getting this thing out,” Braun said. “You get O.J. declaring his innocence and the prosecutor saying the jurors are liars.”