Screenwriter’s Lawyer Says She Won’t Give City Fuhrman Tapes

The attorney for an aspiring screenwriter said Thursday that she will not turn over audiotapes of her interviews with former LAPD Detective Mark Fuhrman to the city of Los Angeles, which is seeking the tapes as part of an internal Police Department investigation.

If more copies of the tapes are made, Laura Hart McKinny fears that further information from them will be leaked to the media, dissipating the value of a screenplay she wrote based in part on her interviews with Fuhrman, a key witness in the O.J. Simpson murder trial, said her attorney, Matthew H. Schwartz of Century City.

The Times and several other news organizations have written stories based on segments of the tapes, quoting Fuhrman as saying he and other officers beat suspects after a 1978 shooting of two police officers.

The potentially explosive tapes have become a central issue in Simpson’s case. His attorneys have said in court that Fuhrman uses the word nigger 40 times on the tapes and talks about abusing and framing suspects.

Simpson’s lawyers obtained the tapes this month after winning a court battle. They hope to use the tapes to impeach Fuhrman’s credibility. On the witness stand, the detective--who reported finding a bloody glove on Simpson’s estate after the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Lyle Goldman--denied using the racial epithet during the past 10 years, the period in which the tapes were made.

“After careful deliberation, Laura has decided to maintain her position--to continue to offer unlimited access to her transcripts and tapes under our supervision to the respective city officials and to Mr. Fuhrman’s attorney,” Schwartz said. “However, she is reluctant to authorize any additional copying of these materials. The prospect of making other copies threatens to harm the marketability of her screenplay.”

Schwartz said McKinny “recognizes that there is a great importance for the Police Commission and the city attorney to investigate what is perceived to be an inflammatory problem for the community. However, she believes that this can be achieved without making further copies.”