Simpson Team Plans to Curtail Comment : Trial: Shapiro says he will stop daily media briefings in effort to end feud with victims’ families.

Seeking to end a bitter war of words with the families of murder victims Ronald Lyle Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson, a lawyer for O.J. Simpson said Thursday that the defense team will curtail public comments and asked others close to the case to join him in taking “the high road.”

As he arrived for court Thursday morning, attorney Robert L. Shapiro said: “In the spirit of trying to accomplish what we all want, we will take the high road. We no longer will be talking to the press on a daily basis. We will comment when we think it’s necessary. We hope everyone else will take the high road with us.”

Lou Brown, Nicole Brown Simpson’s father, said his family welcomes Shapiro’s suggestion and pledged to abide by it as long as the defense does so. He and Goldman’s father had said Wednesday that their recent comments have been prompted largely by their frustration with the defense team’s tactics.

“We welcome his offer, if you will, his throwing out the white flag, a truce, that he will refrain from some of the things that have ticked us in the past, and we will respect that and, hopefully, we will never see any more of it,” Brown said. “Then if we do, all bets are off. That, of course, would include (comments from) any of his defense team.”

The statements by the two men came after several days of public feuding between Simpson’s defense team and the families of the two people slashed and stabbed to death June 12. Family members have become increasingly assertive in recent days, publicly stating that they believe Simpson is guilty despite his not guilty plea and his attorneys’ fierce protestations of the football Hall of Famer’s innocence.

On Wednesday, Shapiro and Simpson attorney Johnnie L. Cochran Jr. accused the district attorney’s office of orchestrating the verbal attacks on Simpson, a claim that was denied by the victims’ fathers and by prosecutors. After the families reacted angrily to that accusation, Shapiro sought to defuse the situation.

On Thursday, Shapiro reiterated his sympathy for the Goldman and Brown families and said both sides had contributed to the “media madness” that has enveloped the Simpson case.

“It’s time for a change,” Shapiro said, adding that defense attorneys will only speak to reporters outside the courthouse when events demand some response.

Denise Brown, Nicole’s outspoken sister, appeared on a television show Thursday night and reiterated many of the charges she has leveled against Simpson in recent days. But Lou Brown stressed that the program had been taped before Shapiro suggested that both sides scale back public comments.

“Can’t do anything about that,” Brown said of his daughter’s latest appearance. “We don’t control canceling the show. That’s the last one.”

*

Inside court, meanwhile, selection of alternate jurors continued to sputter, in part because of the families’ recent media onslaught: Three of five panelists interviewed Thursday said they had seen or heard of the comments by the victims’ families implicating Simpson in the killings.

One, a 40-year-old mail carrier from Whittier, said he had heard a radio report referring to Goldman’s father. Another said he had heard Denise Brown say that her sister’s life had been threatened by Simpson.

Both of those prospects were excused. In fact, several hours of jury selection Thursday yielded just one potential alternate juror, and even her status was in doubt. That woman, a 54-year-old South-Central resident, said she recently had gained custody of five young grandchildren but nevertheless insisted that she could serve on the Simpson jury without a hardship.

Judge Lance A. Ito seemed skeptical of that pledge, asking the woman to think about whether she could afford to be sequestered if he takes that step to protect the Simpson panel from receiving information about the case. Ito asked the woman to return to court next week after having pondered the possible hardship that a long sequestration might impose.

The judge and lawyers in the case have been trying to complete their one-on-one questioning of prospective alternate jurors so that an anticipated DNA hearing can begin Dec. 12 as scheduled. As the pace of jury selection has slowed this week, it has raised questions about whether that hearing may be delayed.

A tussle between Ito and a counterpart in New York has further jeopardized the schedule.

On Wednesday, Ito ordered one of Simpson’s DNA lawyers, Peter Neufeld, to be in Los Angeles on Dec. 12 so that the hearing can begin on time. But Neufeld is under a court order imposed by New York Supreme Court Judge Harold Rothwax to appear for a trial there.

In the New York case, Neufeld had been scheduled to start Thursday, but Rothwax instead directed the attorney to start Monday.

“You are, as you say, in a difficult position, but it’s a difficult position of your own making,” Rothwax told Neufeld. “If I had been told early that you wouldn’t be available, then maybe we could have done something.”

Rothwax was unmoved by Ito’s decision to order Neufeld to be in Los Angeles on Dec. 12, calling his colleague’s order inexplicable and accusing Ito of trying to impede the New York case. Rothwax said his order “precedes Judge Ito’s order, and my order has priority.”

Neufeld’s lawyer, William Kunstler--a nationally known civil rights attorney who, ironically, has been highly critical of Shapiro’s handling of the Simpson case--said he will ask a federal judge to overturn Rothwax’s decision so that Neufeld can appear on Simpson’s behalf in December.

Kunstler said he will ask a federal court today to impose a temporary restraining order on Rothwax’s demand that Neufeld appear for that trial. That filing will include Ito’s order as an exhibit, Kunstler said, adding that Simpson’s right to effective assistance of counsel is being impaired by Rothwax’s insistence that Neufeld appear for the New York trial.

*

While lawyers argued that issue on two coasts, they also gathered briefly in Ito’s courtroom to sort out a set of questions involving Simpson’s confinement at the Men’s Central Jail. Some of those issues are being argued in a set of sealed motions, which prompted Ito to tour the jail earlier this week.

Neither side will say what those issues involve, but Simpson’s attorneys in the past have raised a number of concerns about the conditions of their client’s incarceration. Ito said he will hold a hearing Thursday on the issue.

In addition, Simpson’s lawyers met with Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department officials in private Thursday to discuss visitation arrangements. After that meeting, they informed Ito that they had resolved that issue.

Jury selection in the Simpson case resumes today. So far, 38 possible alternate jurors have been identified. Ito is hoping to have at least 46 by early next week so that at least 15 will remain after both sides exercise peremptory challenges.