Ito Defends Televising of Simpson Trial : Media: The public benefited, he tells journalism student in an interview aired on cable TV show.

Superior Court Judge Lance A. Ito gave what is believed to be his first interview since the end of the O.J. Simpson murder trial to a college journalism student, and he defended his decision to allow Simpson’s trial to be televised.

In a five-minute segment videotaped Friday at the Downtown Criminal Courts Building, Ito told Cal State Northridge senior Gayle Gomer that the public benefited from viewing the trial on television.

“My gut reaction . . . is that the American public got to see for themselves, every day, all day, how this trial progressed . . . and the American public was able to make up their own mind whether or not this verdict was a just verdict or not,” Ito said.

“So I think there’s a lot of value in the public being able to see how the judicial system works,” he added, explaining that cameras remove the “filtering effect” of reporters’ biases and opinions.

Ito would answer only three questions from Gomer. Responding to Gomer’s first two questions, he discussed the impact of courtroom cameras. For her final question, Gomer asked Ito if he thought the Simpson verdict would have been different if the trial had not been televised.

“I can’t speculate on that,” was his off-camera reply, according to Gomer.

The journalism student was preparing a story on cameras in the courtroom when Ito agreed last week to give the interview.

It was broadcast on Cablevision, a cable-TV system in the west San Fernando Valley, Monday night during “Valley View,” a weekly half-hour news program produced by CSUN students.

Gomer, 21, described the sometimes prickly judge as “very nice” and noted that he asked her not to release the interview to other media.

“I told him it would be for Channel 29 in the San Fernando Valley,” she said. “I hope he understood that Channel 29 is cable.”

Superior Court spokeswoman Susan Yan said Monday that Ito agreed to Gomer’s interview request because it was a “class project” and because his remarks would not be “commercialized.”

“Basically he was just helping her out,” Yan said.

For Gomer, who will graduate in December, it was a brush with the so-called Trial of the Century, an experience that left the Long Island native a little numb.

“I know I should be happy, but I’m really worried” about the judge’s reaction, she said, explaining she feared that commercial television stations would tape the segment and rebroadcast it.

“If that happens, I’ll be very upset,” she said. “I just want to make sure he knows we didn’t disobey his order.”

In its 6 p.m. newscast Monday, KNBC-TV Channel 4 aired a segment noting that Gomer had interviewed Ito. But the station used none of the taped interview and did not disclose the judge’s remarks. CNN quoted the interview, briefly summarizing what Ito said.