Simpson Prosecutors Seek Files From Women’s Shelter : Trial: Nicole Brown Simpson may have received counseling at the Santa Monica facility, which is fighting the request to turn records over to the district attorney.

Prosecutors in the O.J. Simpson case are seeking records from a Santa Monica battered women’s shelter where they believe Nicole Brown Simpson may have received counseling in the late 1980s, according to documents unsealed Friday.

Armed with a signed waiver of confidentiality from Lou Brown, the murder victim’s father, government lawyers are seeking “any and all files, records, audiotapes or videotapes or other (materials) in the possession or control of the Sojourn Domestic Violence Shelter,” one of the documents said.

Brown said Friday that he did not know whether his daughter had visited the shelter or used its services, but that he would favor release to prosecutors of any records that the organization might have regarding his daughter.

“I am the executor of the estate, and if they have information, it couldn’t be prejudicial to my daughter,” he said. “She’s dead.”

The request marks the latest sign of the prosecution’s aggressive efforts to ferret out evidence that O.J. Simpson battered Nicole Simpson during or after their marriage. Simpson has pleaded not guilty to the June 12 murders of Nicole Simpson and Ronald Lyle Goldman.

Shelter officials are fighting the prosecution’s request out of concern about the volume of material they may be required to sift through and about the precedent that releasing files might set. Friday, a lawyer for the shelter declined to comment on whether Nicole Simpson sought counseling from the shelter staff.

But Assemblywoman Sheila James Kuehl (D-Santa Monica), who formerly headed the shelter’s board of directors, said this fall that Nicole Simpson had sought help from the center’s hot line at least once during the late 1980s.

Simpson pleaded no contest to battering his wife in 1989. As part of his sentence, he donated $500 to the Sojourn shelter.

According to sources, the government team in the Simpson case has amassed information concerning about 22 allegations involving abuse by O.J. Simpson of Nicole Simpson. In some cases, multiple witnesses may be describing the same alleged incident, sources said, adding that some are based on remarks attributed to Nicole Simpson by people prosecutors have interviewed.

Defense lawyers are expected to object to the admission of the domestic abuse allegations on a number of grounds, primarily by arguing that they are irrelevant to the murder charges and are potentially highly inflammatory. They also may oppose introduction of remarks that Nicole Simpson allegedly made on the grounds that hearing them from other witnesses is unreliable hearsay evidence.

Superior Court Judge Lance A. Ito has set a hearing for next week to decide how much of the domestic abuse allegations, if any, jurors should hear.

If Sojourn has files relating to Nicole Simpson, it could bolster the prosecution case by adding to the number of instances of alleged abuse or by providing additional detail about her relationship with O.J. Simpson. His attorneys deny that he abused Nicole Simpson.

Ito set a hearing for Monday to decide whether to force the shelter to turn over the records.

Times staff writer Ralph Frammolino contributed to this story.