THE O.J. SIMPSON MURDER TRIAL : D.A. Employee Sues Prosecutor Darden

A Los Angeles County district attorney’s office employee filed suit Monday against a lead prosecutor in the O.J. Simpson case and several office investigators, alleging that they intimidated her in an effort to get negative information about Simpson’s relationship with his first wife.

Pamela O. Mills asks for $12 million in damages in the suit filed in Los Angeles federal court, contending that her civil rights were violated by Deputy Dist. Atty. Christopher Darden and the investigators when they tried to force her to disclose alleged mistreatment of Marquerite Simpson Thomas by Simpson. They erroneously believed that she was a friend of the former football star’s first wife, the suit says.

According to the suit, an unnamed investigator confronted her with “a concocted and false story” that included the following details: She had been a schoolmate of Thomas’, had attended baby showers for all three of Simpson’s children, had provided support to Thomas during her divorce from Simpson and had “personal knowledge that, during the Simpsons’ marriage, Mr. Simpson would beat his wife, lock her in a closet and go out to procure prostitutes.”

When Mills denied knowing Thomas, she was “ridiculed and castigated” by an investigator, the suit says, adding that the investigator acted at Darden’s direction. Under threat of going to jail, Mills submitted to a polygraph examination, the suit says.

Mills is identified in the suit as a 15-year employee of the district attorney’s office. A directory of employees shows that she works in the office’s Bureau of Investigations in Downey.

Darden was unavailable for comment, but a spokeswoman for the office said: “We are confident that all aspects of the investigation are being handled properly and professionally.”