Lawyers, Books and Money Spice Up Court Sidebars

Just as the circus has its sideshows, so the Simpson trial has its sidebars.

A transcript of one released Wednesday throws new light on a pair of this week’s continuing dramas. One has to do with the jurors’ choice of literature, in this case John Grisham’s best-selling novel “The Rainmaker,” which includes an incident of domestic violence.

During a bench conference on the matter Tuesday, Superior Court Judge Lance A. Ito said to defense attorney Johnnie L. Cochran Jr.: “I thought about the book, you know, this Grisham book. It’s a work of fiction.”

Cochran responded: “Judge, it may be a work of fiction, but would you allow us overnight to look at it, allow us--I have not read it.”

Ito agreed. But prosecutor Christopher A. Darden interjected: “You may recall earlier in the trial, when one of the jurors was reading ‘Makes You Want To Holler,’ which was a book about African Americans who had gone to prison and suffered in a manner we wouldn’t want to discuss obviously. But it is fiction.”

“ ‘Makes You Want to Holler’ isn’t fiction,” Cochran retorted.

“That book was deemed OK for the jurors,” Darden said.

“Makes You Want to Holler” is an angry but critically praised memoir by writer Nathan McCall, who spent three years in prison for robbery before earning a college degree in journalism. He is now a reporter for the Washington Post.

Literary issues having been disposed of, Ito turned to questions of deportment and finance. The judge criticized Cochran and Darden for violating courtroom etiquette:

“You guys have guys going in and out of the courtroom all the time letting these swinging doors swing,” Ito complained. “That’s not protocol. You know, you grab the doors.”

Earlier in the session, Ito demanded that defense lawyer Peter Neufeld pay a $100 sanction that the judge had imposed on him last week. “Where’s Neufeld’s money?” Ito asked Cochran.

Cochran responded: “He was just telling me he didn’t have any checks. I’m going to pay it. May I pay it now?”

After the judge granted permission, Cochran took out several bills, prompting prosecutor Marcia Clark to remark: “He must think he’s Mr. Darden--whipping out all that cash.”