Prosecution Won’t Call Golden to Stand

Prosecutors announced Monday that the deputy medical examiner who performed the autopsies on Ronald Lyle Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson--and who made a series of much-discussed mistakes--will not be called as a government witness in the trial of O.J. Simpson.

The announcement came just hours before mourners and family members held candlelight vigils for both victims, who were slashed and stabbed to death a year ago Monday.

“Over the weekend, and in consultation with my colleagues, I have decided that we will not call Dr. [Irwin] Golden,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Brian Kelberg said outside the jury’s presence. “We didn’t feel that the jury needed to have two or three days of wasted testimony, in our judgment, because all of the evidence that he could provide is provided by the witness now testifying. So we want to get the case to the jury, and that is why we have made that decision.”

Members of the defense team were skeptical, suggesting outside court that the real reason was to minimize Golden’s time on the witness stand. Golden’s testimony during last summer’s preliminary hearing was widely ridiculed and subjected to a much-praised cross-examination by Robert L. Shapiro, one of Simpson’s lead attorneys.

In court, Shapiro responded to the prosecution announcement by immediately saying that the defense wanted the medical examiner to be made available to testify in early July, when the Simpson team hopes to begin presenting its case. Simpson has pleaded not guilty.

The announcement about Golden came on the first anniversary of the double murder. The day was marked by three vigils--two hosted by the families of the victims and another by the National Organization for Women. Prosecutors, whose bond with the victims’ families has deepened as the case has progressed, attended all three vigils.

A steady stream of people passed in front of Nicole Brown Simpson’s condominium on Bundy Drive, some of them laying flowers and remembrance cards near the site where the two bodies were discovered.

Others gathered Monday evening outside the Mezzaluna restaurant, where Nicole Simpson ate dinner the night she was killed and where Goldman worked as a waiter.

“It’s almost like we knew them, after watching them on TV for a year,” said Heather Baron, a West Los Angeles resident who stood outside Nicole Simpson’s condo with her husband, Jack.

On palm trees lining Bundy, someone had tacked a series of signs that read simply: “Guilty.”

At Orange County’s Salt Creek Beach Park, near the Brown family home in Dana Point, more than 1,000 people gathered to pay their respects Monday night.

“It’s not only for Nicole, it’s not only for Ron, it’s for all victims,” said Doreen Whitcomb, a volunteer with the Nicole Brown Simpson Charitable Foundation. “We’re just speaking out against violence.”

In the Ventura County community of Oak Park, where Goldman once lived, a memorial at a local park attracted about 500 people, including family members and Los Angeles Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti.

“We may not all be neighbors, but we are all part of the human community,” Goldman’s sister, Kim, told the throng.

“We have been overwhelmed with the sense of community we have experienced. People all over the country have just been so good to us. For every one violent person, there are 20,000 who care. And I can see it in your faces. My brother would have been honored to have been a part of this.”

The anniversary was marked in yet another way: The estate of Nicole Simpson, whose family once expressed disbelief that O.J. Simpson could have committed the killings, on Monday filed a wrongful death claim against him.

“On or about June 12, 1994, Orenthal James Simpson . . . planned and prepared to assault, batter and murder Nicole Brown Simpson and did thereafter brutally and with malice aforethought, stalk, attack and repeatedly stab and beat decedent, Nicole Brown Simpson,” according to the suit. Similar suits have been filed by Goldman’s mother and father.

Court was not in session Monday morning because Dr. Lakshmanan Sathyavagiswaran, the chief county coroner, was attending a conference in Santa Barbara. Ito filled the time by overseeing sessions in which reporters were allowed to view the autopsy photographs.

Ito, dressed in shirt-sleeves rather than the customary black robe, sat near Kelberg during the sessions, held in a courtroom down the hall from Ito’s court. Dozens of reporters, their voices hushed and respectful, quickly pored over the 58 photographs mounted on eight large, blue evidence boards. Some reporters came close to the boards, staring at them from just a few feet away; others hovered near the edges of the courtroom or sat on the benches as the deputies monitored the time and eventually cleared the room.

Coroner Describes Wounds

When court resumed Monday afternoon, Sathyavagiswaran continued in the same vein that has characterized his testimony for more than a week: He found fault with his underling’s performance, but repeatedly insisted that none of those mistakes undermined the findings of the coroner’s office on the “big ticket items,” such as the time and manner of the deaths of Goldman and Nicole Simpson.

Sathyavagiswaran’s testimony--delivered coolly and bolstered by shocking autopsy photographs as well as by the coroner’s willingness to criticize some elements of the performance of his own staff--has helped the prosecution focus on the horrific nature of the June 12 killings. It also has given jurors a detailed picture of how the attacks could have been carried out by a single, motivated assailant armed with a single-edged knife.

On Monday, most of the coroner’s account was dominated by a painstaking review of cuts and abrasions to Goldman’s head, neck and hands.

According to the coroner, some of the abrasions could have been caused during a fierce fight between Goldman and his attacker, a battle the coroner testified last week could have unfolded in a minute or less as Goldman was backed into a small area, trapped and then stabbed more than two dozen times, his strength quickly giving way as he flailed his hands and arms.

Injuries to Goldman’s hands also bolstered the theory that he at least briefly put up a fight, the coroner added, demonstrating with a ruler the overhand knife thrusts that he said Goldman vainly attempted to ward off.

One set of injuries, Sathyavagiswaran said, “favor my opinion that he probably kept his hand open rather than clenched.”

That testimony supports the prosecution contention that Goldman did not hit his attacker with a closed fist, potentially an important piece in the government case. Simpson’s lawyers have argued that the fact that Simpson was not found to be bruised shortly after the murders is evidence that he could not have been involved in a brutal altercation.

Jurors, stunned by the initial display of the photographs last week, sat more patiently for Monday’s session and seemed to take special note of the testimony regarding the bruises to Goldman’s hands, which had been mentioned during opening statements.

Nevertheless, some flinched and looked away as new pictures were displayed. Goldman’s sister, Kim, stood up and left the courtroom when one photograph of her brother’s hand was displayed in such a way that she could see it.

Simpson spent almost the entire court day whispering to his lawyers and largely ignoring the testimony. When the courtroom camera panned in his direction, one of his lawyers, usually Carl Douglas, would sit forward to block the camera view of his client.

Book Gets Green Light

Across the street from the Simpson trial, a Los Angeles federal judge rebuffed Dist. Atty. Garcetti’s attempt to prevent publication of a book written by former juror Michael Knox. In an unusual move, Ito filed a declaration in support of Garcetti’s motion.

Garcetti contended that publication of the book could endanger the identity and security of the remaining Simpson jurors, a contention that was denied by attorneys for Knox and his publisher, Dove Audio Inc.

In a declaration he signed June 1, Ito said it had come to his attention through the Sheriff’s Department that Knox “may intend to disclose the identity of the anonymous jury members as well as the name and location of the hotel where the jury is presently sequestered.”

Ito’s declaration states that on June 1, he served Knox with a court order “prohibiting the disclosure of the identity of any members of the jury panel or the name and location of the hotel.”

The following day, Ito met in chambers with Knox, Dove President Michael Viner and Pierce O’Donnell, the company’s attorney. At the time, Viner and O’Donnell said they had assured Ito that they had no intention of disclosing the identities of any jurors or where they are staying.

Nonetheless, Assistant County Counsel Richard E. Townsend, representing Garcetti, attempted to persuade U.S. District Judge Manuel L. Real to reverse his May 22 decision paving the way for Dove to publish Knox’s memoir about his jury service. At the earlier hearing, Real ruled that a new state law prohibiting jurors from writing about their experiences for profit until 90 days after a trial has concluded, is unconstitutional as applied to jurors who have been dismissed from a jury.

Townsend contended that if the remaining jurors learn that Knox has been paid to write a book it may tempt them to write their own books. Townsend emphasized that another juror, Francine Florio-Bunten, was dismissed from the panel last month amid reports that she had been exploring a book deal. She and her husband have vigorously denied those charges. Ito has said only that he excused her for “good cause.”

Real spurned Townsend’s request, saying that the county had offered no evidence that Knox’s book would harm the jurors or the trial process.

“The jury is sequestered,” Real said. “They will not be able to read the book. How will it affect them?”

The judge said that if the book does identify any jurors--in violation of the court order protecting their anonymity--Ito could take action, including holding Knox in contempt.

After Townsend concluded, O’Donnell walked toward the lectern to begin his argument. Before he started, however, Judge Real asked him: “Have you heard of Satchel Paige?” a reference to a legendary baseball pitcher who coined several maxims including, “Don’t look back. Something might be gaining on you.”

O’Donnell immediately responded: “I’ll sit down.” Real then turned down all Townsend’s requests. Outside court, Townsend said he would ask the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to issue a stay.

At a brief press conference on the courthouse steps, Knox said he was relieved by the judge’s action: “I was a member of the jury system here and part of a historical event. The book is going to reveal quite a bit of information that has not been revealed.”

Times staff writers Jack Cheevers, Peter King and Andrea Ford and correspondents Susan Steinberg, Jeff Bean and Frank Manning contributed to this article.

* MEMORIAL VIGIL: About 1,000 people gather in an O.C. park to remember victims of violence. B1