Boring Details--or Riveting Mystery?

The Republicans’ 100 days was back on CNN & Co. Tuesday morning and CBS is dismantling its tower at Camp O.J.

Those actions by the two television networks may reflect a feeling that public interest is cooling now that the O.J. Simpson trial is moving into its most important phase, the introduction of scientific testimony.

This testimony can be rough going. It’s hard to explain and to understand, even for attorneys. This means tough times for reporters covering the trial, and for most of the trial lawyers, too. Daily journalists and criminal lawyers are action junkies. If something’s not hot, forget it.

We journalists like our news fast and hard. So do the criminal lawyers with whom we swap information. The Simpson trial is becoming like reading a mystery novel at the beach.

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The scientific aspect of this particular murder mystery began unfolding Monday with scenes that would be worthy of a movie or a novel.

One of the most memorable was when Los Angeles Police Department criminalist Dennis Fung, using a fearsome-looking pocketknife, cut open a cardboard box, pulled out a wrinkled paper bag and from it removed one of the major stars of the trial--the famous bloody leather glove found or planted by Los Angeles Police Detective Mark Fuhrman in O.J.’s yard, depending whether you believe the prosecution or the defense.

I was struck by how commonplace the wrappings looked, considering the importance of what they had contained. The box appeared best suited for storing old clothes in the garage and the paper bag looked as though it had been saved from the market for taking out the garbage.

The glove is part of a bloody trail that leads to Simpson’s mansion from the condo where his former wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Lyle Goldman were stabbed to death last June.

So much has been written about this trail of blood that it was surprising to see how faint it was in pictures shown the jury by criminalist Fung and Deputy Dist. Atty. Hank Goldberg on Monday and Tuesday.

The trail consists of drops of blood discovered on the walkway and gate of Nicole Simpson’s patio, in O.J. Simpson’s Bronco and finally through the front doorway of his residence. Among the stains on the Bronco were flecks of blood on the inside door handle, the instrument panel, the steering wheel and

the floor mat on the driver’s side. There were four on the center console.

The drops are tiny. Fung said he and his assistant, Andrea Mazzola, had to remove them without damage so their DNA could be tested in a laboratory. The stains are moistened with distilled water to free them, and then carefully placed in a plastic bag.

Fung’s handling of this delicate but simple operation began to undergo dissection Tuesday afternoon by the defense team. Deputy Dist. Atty. Goldberg had led Fung through his routine in a painstaking step-by-step fashion. Tuesday, defense attorney Barry Scheck broke it down even more, forcing Fung to admit that he let the inexperienced Mazzola do a substantial part of evidence gathering. This is contrary to what Fung told the grand jury and what he said at the preliminary hearing.

The questioning of Fung and other prosecution scientific evidence witnesses will be lengthy, said Santa Monica attorney Paul Mones, who writes on such matters. Scheck, he said, will want to know “when he got the distilled water, where did you get it from, how did you know it was distilled? Are you aware of such and such text? What was the air temperature, the ground temperature? The defense could conceivably go in and challenge every blood spot.”

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What the jurors heard the last two days was some of the scientific evidence, and this will be crucial in shaping their decision. And the jury, far from being bored, seemed most interested, according to my colleague, Andrea Ford, who was in the courtroom. Several, she said, took copious notes.

What bores many reporters and lawyers--the insiders--may fascinate the jurors and even a substantial number of the public. Remember, millions of people love puzzles, baseball statistics, difficult card games, horse race handicapping, computer games and the intricacies of a murder mystery.