Ito Slightly Eases Curbs on Jurors’ Access to News : Simpson case: Panelists are allowed to read edited copies of newspapers and view most entertainment programming on TV. Defense team complains about defendant’s food and the addition of a black prosecutor.

Superior Court Judge Lance A. Ito slightly relaxed the restrictions on jurors in the O.J. Simpson murder trial Tuesday, allowing them to read edited copies of newspapers and giving them the go-ahead to turn their television sets back on after a long blackout.

In a detailed written order crafted by Ito after he and attorneys for the two sides reviewed jurors’ comments about their television viewing habits, the judge spelled out what his painstakingly selected jurors may watch while they await the beginning of their service in the Simpson case. It could be two months or more before their duties begin--Ito said in court Tuesday that he does not expect opening statements before mid-January.

Since Oct. 18, the judge had required that prospective jurors in the Simpson case avoid all news media and stay out of bookstores in order to avoid any information about the trial, in which the football great faces charges that he murdered his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Lyle Goldman. Simpson has pleaded not guilty to those charges.

Tuesday’s loosening of those restrictions affects the 12 jurors sworn in last week as well eight prospective jurors left over from the first panel of prospects and roughly 75 from a second panel who have yet to be interviewed as possible alternates.

Among other developments Tuesday:

* Simpson’s lawyers raised questions about the latest addition to the prosecution team, highly regarded Deputy Dist. Atty. Christopher A. Darden, who led the grand jury investigation into Al Cowlings, a close friend of Simpson arrested with him June 17. Darden was added to the prosecution team Monday after the Cowlings investigation was concluded, and he is the first African American to play a leading role in the prosecution effort. Johnnie L. Cochran Jr., one of Simpson’s lead attorneys, praised Darden’s skills as a lawyer but suggested that he was put on the prosecution team because a predominantly black jury has been chosen for the case.

* Robert L. Shapiro, Simpson’s other lead lawyer, said his client is losing weight because he is getting inadequate food while in custody. On days that he appears in court, Simpson, like other jail inmates, does not get a hot lunch or dinner, and it is taking a toll on his health, Shapiro said.

* Ito warned jurors and prospective alternate jurors that he continues to weigh the possibility of sequestering them while the trial is under way. In response to a question from one panelist, however, he pledged to give them as much warning as possible and advised them to pack three days’ worth of belongings in case they need to be sequestered without advance notice: “We’re not just going to kidnap you and take you off to Motel 6,” he said.

Under Tuesday’s new order regarding access to the media, a host of shows remain off-limits, but jurors are allowed to cautiously wade back into the world of entertainment. Movie channels, home shopping, sports and cartoons all made Ito’s approved viewing list, as did most entertainment programming, provided that jurors vow to turn off their sets or leave the room during news breaks.

Banned programs range from tabloid television shows such as “Hard Copy” and “Inside Edition” to news stalwarts such as “60 Minutes.” Talk shows remain off limits, as does at least one comedy program, “Dennis Miller Live on HBO.” Miller has occasionally spoofed the Simpson case.

In an effort to allow jurors to stay abreast of current events, Ito’s staff will supply the panelists with edited copies of their favorite newspapers so they can read without stumbling upon news about the case. They got their first batch of papers Tuesday. The only drawback: It takes court personnel a day to edit and clip the papers, so jurors will get their news a day late.

Despite the new, more relaxed rules, radio remains strictly off-limits: “It’s too hard to turn it off when you’re driving,” Ito explained.

The judge has gone to great lengths to permit jurors to re-establish some contact with world events even as he tries to shelter them from news about the case or its participants. He reluctantly forbade the panelists to watch Tuesday night election returns, for instance, but gave out the home number for one of his clerks and told jurors they could call her for updates until midnight.

Once opening statements begin and the jury is in place, a number of other accommodations may ease the burden on jurors. A company that records books on tape has agreed to supply its products to the jurors free of charge, and a videotape distributor has said it will lend tapes of movies for the panelists to watch, Ito said.

As jury selection resumed in the case Tuesday--the parties now are seeking 15 alternates to supplement the 12 jurors sworn in last week--every one of the nine jury prospects considered was dismissed. Some were released from further service for unspecified causes, presumably based on their answers to the detailed, 79-page questionnaire that every jury prospect filled out in late September.

Others were excused after the lawyers on both sides agreed that they would not make appropriate jurors or alternates in the Simpson trial.

“I think it’s just a coincidence,” Jo-Ellan Dimitrius, a jury consultant working with Simpson’s team, said of the parade of excused jurors Tuesday. “Hopefully it’s not a pattern.”

Questioning began Tuesday with a 31-year-old South-Central Los Angeles man who was interviewed about his knowledge of and opinions about the case. Like many of the other jury prospects, the man said he had heard a widely disseminated 911 tape in which Nicole Simpson called for help and a man she identified as her ex-husband could be heard yelling in the background.

The prospective juror said Tuesday that he thought “something bad” was happening on the tape and concluded that Simpson might have been beating his ex-wife.

Hearing that remark, Simpson, who has attended every session in the drawn-out jury selection process, turned to one of his lawyers and said: “I wasn’t beating her.”

Another prospective juror was dismissed after she steadfastly insisted that she believes in Simpson’s innocence.

“Why would a person forfeit all this to take a life?” that panelist, a 51-year-old South-Central woman asked. “Why would he take a life? I haven’t bought into it. I won’t buy into it. Right now my feelings are he’s not guilty.”

Outside court, Simpson’s lawyers complained that their client is losing weight and suffering health problems because he is not receiving adequate food. On days that Simpson appears in court, he is given a sandwich or two for lunch, and similar fare for dinner.

“It’s got one slice of black bread, one slice of white bread, with one slice of mystery meat inside,” Shapiro said, adding that the food is not enough to keep up Simpson’s weight. The former football star has suffered from several ailments during the nearly five months that he has been in custody, including an intestinal disorder.

Fidel Gonzales, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, said Simpson has received the same food as all other inmates.

“He gets no preferential treatment, no special treatment of any kind,” said Gonzales, noting the department transports thousands of prisoners to and from court every day. “It’s impossible to arrange for all of them to have hot meals on those days that they’re in court.”

Simpson’s attorneys said they met with Ito and sheriff’s representatives Tuesday and believe they have reached an accommodation that will allow the defendant to receive better food in the future.

Defense lawyers also took a swipe Tuesday at the latest move by the Simpson prosecution team to bolster its ranks as trial approaches.

Monday, after concluding the case against Cowlings, the district attorney’s office transferred Darden, the 38-year-old lead prosecutor from that investigation, to the Simpson case.

Tuesday, Cochran described Darden as a fine lawyer, but suggested that he was added to the team at least in part because he is black. “I don’t think he should be on this case. . . . All of a sudden he shows up over here,” Cochran said. “Why is that, now that we have eight African Americans (on the jury)? . . . I think it’s wrong.”

Cochran, who is also black, added that he objected to Darden’s appointment because Darden had played such an important role in the Cowlings investigation. Simpson’s lawyers have long complained that the grand jury probe of Cowlings actually was a veiled effort to dig up potentially damaging information about Simpson, and they maintained Tuesday that Darden’s addition to the Simpson prosecution effort confirmed their fears.

In a brief statement, the district attorney’s office denied the defense complaints regarding Darden.

“Chris Darden joined the Simpson prosecution team,” the statement said, “because of Gil Garcetti, Bill Hodgman and Marcia Clark’s respect for his abilities as a trial lawyer, just as Hank Goldberg recently joined the team because of his prosecutorial skills.”