THE SIMPSON DEPOSITION

In wide-ranging testimony in the wrongful death lawsuits against him, O.J. Simpson responded for the first time under oath to questions put to him by attorney Daniel Petrocelli, who is representing the father of murder victim Ronald L. Goldman. The initial phase of the deposition was conducted from Jan. 22 to Jan. 26. It is scheduled to resume Feb. 19, with further questions from Petrocelli and from lawyers representing Goldman’s mother, Sharon Rufo, and the estate of the late Nicole Brown Simpson. Here are some excerpts:

ON NICOLE BROWN SIMPSON

Q: [Right after the killings] were you feeling you were being attacked in the sense that you believed the press was pointing the finger at you as the person who killed Nicole?

A: My pain was for Nicole more than what they [the media] were doing. That was just all a part of it.

Q: The loss of Nicole?

A: Yes.

Q: You loved her?

A: Very much.

Q: And you loved her on June 12?

A: I loved her. Yeah. I didn’t want to live with her, but I loved her, yes.

Q: How was she acting differently [in the months before the killings]?

A: Well, she was just not herself. She was a different person every time I talked to her. When I was in Puerto Rico, she seemed to be having a nervous breakdown; she even said she was, and I suspected it was drinking. I had hoped it wasn’t pills or drugs, which I knew her friends were involved in, and I was hoping and still hope to this day that she wasn’t involved in that.

Q: And how did these problems manifest themselves in her behavior toward you?

A: She was erratic. She was--from day to day I didn’t know who she was. Then it didn’t matter to me because I got out of the relationship.

ON RON GOLDMAN

Q: Did you ever meet Ron Goldman?

A: Not that I know of.

Q: Did you ever see Ron Goldman?

A: Not that I know of.

Q: Did you ever hear Ron Goldman’s name mentioned prior to his death?

A: No, not that I know of.

Q: Did the name Ron Goldman mean anything to you prior to his death?

A: No.

THE NIGHT OF THE MURDERS

Q: From what location in your Rockingham property did you hit those golf balls?

A: My front yard.

Q: What time was it when you did that?

A: I believe it was around or a little after 10 o’clock.

Q: What fixes that time in your mind?

A: Nothing in particular, except that I knew I was back from having a burger, and then I just know when I got upstairs--it wasn’t but 15 or 20 after 10 by the time I got upstairs, so I knew it had to--and other than turning lights out in my house, I can’t imagine--I don’t recall doing anything else before I got upstairs.

Q: Do you know if any of those golf balls that you said you were chipping around the yard were ever retrieved by anybody?

A: I believe so, yes.

Q: Who retrieved them?

A: I believe LAPD.

Q: Did you ever request that they be brought to court?

A: No.

PHONE CALLS IN CHICAGO

Q. Tell me about the first call you got from--after you woke up.

A: The police called. . . . They asked who I was. He--I don’t know if he prefaced it. He said my kids were all right. ‘First let me tell you your kids are all right.’ And I think he said he had bad news for me, or words to that effect, and he said, ‘Your wife was murdered’--may have said ‘killed’--’last night’ or ‘Your wife was killed.’ He may not have said ‘last night.’ But ‘Your wife was murdered’ or ‘Your wife was killed--had been killed.’ And I got up, sat up, and I tried to make sense of it, and I asked what--you know, essentially what did he mean. I didn’t get it. It was just hard to digest. And he started telling me that there was nothing he could tell me. ‘We’re trying to find out’ and he gave me a whole line of they didn’t know anything.

Q: What did you do after that call?

A: I started getting dressed. I may have called [assistant] Cathy [Randa] immediately to get me a flight out. . . . I started getting dressed, and I started calling airlines myself, too.

I started trying to get dressed, and I started going back and forth to the phone. . . . I called Nicole’s house, I believe.

Q: Who answered?

A: I believe I spoke to a police officer.

Q: Did you ask what had happened to Nicole?

A: Everyone that I spoke to, I asked that, and they all kept saying that . . . they didn’t know, they were investigating, and there was nothing they could tell me.

Q: Did you call Louis Brown?

A: I may have.

Q: You called his home?

A: Yes.

Q: Who answered?

A: Denise Brown.

Q: What did she say?

A: She started screaming.

Q: Screaming at you?

A: Yes.

Q: What was she saying?

A: I don’t know. She was just yelling.

Q: Was she saying, ‘You killed her?’

A: I didn’t hear that.

Q: Was she saying words to the effect that you were responsible for Nicole’s death?

A: She might have.

Q: What did you say to her?

A: She hung up.

Q: Why would you call Kato Kaelin within an hour of finding out that your wife has been murdered?

A: Because he was at my home. He had talked about some noises the night before. He was at my home.

Q: When he talked about those noises, you were concerned that he might know something about the murder?

A: What he might have found. I don’t know.

Q: What was the purpose of the numerous calls . . . to [attorney Skip] Taft and Randa?

A: Someone was just murdered, as far as I knew, and I was hurting. Maybe they were just trying to--I think we might have prayed a little bit. We--I don’t know.

THE POLICE INTERVIEW

A: They were just reading me the rights, ‘You have the right to have an attorney present’ and whatever, and my--’and you understand that?’ And I said, ‘Well, you guys tell me I can have an attorney present.’ And they stopped the tape and started, ‘Oh come on O.J. Look, if you want them in here--we’re just trying to rush this thing so you can go back home. Can we get you anything? Do you want a Coke? Do you want to talk? You don’t really have to talk.’

I said, ‘Hey, guys, I’ll answer whatever questions you want.’

They got me a Coke, you know, everybody settled down again, and then they started over again.

Q: Did you agree to talk with him without your lawyer?

A: Yes.

Q: Did they say to you, ‘We want to rush this thing’?

A: Well, they said that, you know, ‘You look tired. You want to go home, I know, and we want to get you out of here,’ words to that effect, yes.

EXPLAINING THE BLOOD

Q: What did you tell [police] about the cuts on your hand or cut on your hand?

A: That I cut my hand in Chicago.

Q: What else did you tell them?

A: That I saw some blood before I left, and once again this is ‘may have,’ but I assumed I had cut my hand then.

Q: What did you tell them about how you cut your hand before you went to Chicago?

A: I don’t think I told them anything because I don’t know how.

Q: And you told them you didn’t know how you cut it?

A: I told them I saw blood, and I didn’t have any specific memory of cutting my hand, and I never saw a cut.

Q: Did they say to you, ‘We found blood on your driveway?’

A: Yes.

Q: Were you shocked to hear that there was blood in your house and on your driveway?

A: I don’t know if I heard if they said that. I don’t know if I heard that. I was in shock that Nicole was murdered. I don’t think any of the rest of this would have shocked me.

‘WEIRD THOUGHTS’

Q: What kind of thoughts did you mean when you told them that you had had weird thoughts about Nicole?

A: I don’t know at that particular time if there was anything specific in my head, but from time to time you do have thoughts, yes.

Q: Now, one of those weird thoughts that you had in mind when you said that to [LAPD detectives] Vannatter and Lange was the thought of killing Nicole. Right?

A: No, that’s not correct.

Q: And your point in telling them that you were having weird thoughts was that the weird thoughts might somehow come out in the lie detector test. Right?

A: My point was I didn’t understand a lie detector test, and once I had a better understanding, which I did, I would be happy to do one.

Q: Did you do one?

A: We offered one.

Q: Excuse me?

A: We offered it to the prosecution, yes.

Q: And what did they say?

A: They declined.

Q: You didn’t take a test on the 13th. Right?

A: Correct.

Q: And you didn’t want to then. Correct?

A: I had to talk to my lawyers about it. And then they didn’t want me to either.

Q: You were concerned that the weird thoughts that you have had about Nicole might somehow affect your polygraph test. Correct?

A: Yes.

Q: Now, these weird thoughts that you had had about Nicole, they were weird thoughts about violence. Correct?

A: In a sense, one, yes . . . I kinda at one point thought it would have been nice if [Simpson’s housekeeper] Michelle, when Nicole punched her . . . if Michelle would have punched her back.

Q: Is that the only thought of violence that came up when you said you were having weird thoughts about Nicole concerning violence?

A: I don’t know if it was violence. Something happened in January, and I at one point thought it might have done her some good if she would have been injured during this incident, or caught.

Q: [You] told me so far about Nicole striking [the] maid. I want to know. . . .

A: About Nicole striking a human being, a person. I don’t look at them as maids. As a person, she struck a small woman in my house. I thought it was wrong, and at the time I had thoughts that I had wished the lady would hit her back.

Q: Is what you’re saying is that you thought the maid had killed Nicole?

A: That’s ridiculous. . . . I don’t think--that person is such a kind person--that this person could harm anybody. I don’t think this person could be physical with anybody, and I don’t think this person should have been subjected to being punched in her face in my house.

Q: That’s a despicable act, isn’t it?

A: Yes, it was.

Q: Something you would never do. Correct?

A: I would not do that, yes.

Q: Never did. Correct?

A: Never punched anyone, other than when I was a teenager, in their face, yes.

ON DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

Q: And you never hurt your wife, either. Correct?

A: No. I hurt my wife, yes.

A: Yes.

Q: Did you ever bruise her?

A: Yes.

Q: Did you ever make her black and blue?

A: Yes, I saw her bruised, and I felt responsible for those bruises. If it came from me or if it came from when she fell outside, in any event, I was responsible for it.

Q: You made her face black and blue, didn’t you?

A: If her face was black and blue the next day or two days later, I was responsible for it. No matter how it happened that day, I was the person responsible for it.

Q: And you cut her lip, didn’t you?

A: That’s incorrect.

Q: What did you do to her?

A: I rassled her.

Q: What does that mean?

A: That means I had my hands on her, and I was trying to force her out of my bedroom. We rassled. . . . I know she was outside. She fell when she was outside.

Q: You had your fingers around her throat. Correct?

A: I could have touched her neck, yes.

Q: And you made marks on her throat, didn’t you?

A: I didn’t see them, but I’m told there were.

Q: You were in such a rage that you don’t remember what you did. Is that right?

A: I remember exactly what I did.

Q: You were enraged when you had this act of violence toward her, weren’t you?

A: I don’t know if that’s totally true, but I was angry, yes.

Q: OK. When she came back, did she strike you?

A: Yes.

Q: You didn’t see her coming?

A: I might have seen her coming.

Q: Where did she hit you?

A: I don’t know. She was just--it was just a swing, kind of. I was on the bed, and it was just a thing that she did. . . . At that point I was just trying to get her out of the room, and she was--Nicole is Nicole. She didn’t want to be put out of the room.

Q: How did you actually get her from the bed out of the room?

A: I grabbed her and I kind of rassled her and I kind of pulled her. I may have at that point had her around her waist sort of, and I believe I was behind her at that time, because I didn’t have much problem getting her out of the room.

Q: In your entire relationship with Nicole and the entire time that you knew Nicole, you never once hit her with your fist. Is that true?

A: Never once did I ever hit her with my fist, ever.

Q: You never once slapped her with your hand.

A: Never once have I ever slapped Nicole.

Q: Never once did you strangle her.

A: Never.

Q: Never once did you choke her.

A: Never.

Q: Never once did you beat her.

A: Never.

Q: Never once did you physically hurt her.

A: Never.

Q: And if Nicole said you did those things to her, she would not be telling the truth.

A: Correct.

Q: She would write notes to herself or journal entries about your beating her when that didn’t occur?

A: Yes, that’s correct.

Q: Why would she do such things?

A: Because she wanted me to tear up my prenuptial agreement, and I gather her lawyers and her came up with that as a scheme.

Q: So you are saying Nicole would in effect have tried to defraud you?

A: Not under oath she wouldn’t, because she refused to testify to that under oath, which she told me.

Q: So she told you that she made up all these incidents of battery by you just for the purpose of voiding your prenuptial agreement with her at the behest of her lawyers?

A: But you must understand, they never used it. She would never let them use it. It was sort of a threat, but it never went anywhere.

Q: But in carrying out this fraud, you believe that she went so far as to write down on paper a number of incidents that you believe she made up out of whole cloth?

A: Yes.

THE BRONCO CHASE

Q: Whose idea was it to leave?

A: Mine.

Q: Why did you leave?

A: Because I wanted to go to Nicole’s grave.

Q: And did you go to her grave?

A: Yes. Well, we never made it there because there was a police car blocking the entrance.

Q: Were you planning to kill yourself in the back of the car?

A: I don’t know what I was doing. I was--I don’t know what I was thinking.

Q: At any time when you were in the passenger seat of the front of the Bronco, did you ever have your gun out of the bag?

A: No.

Q: And when you were in the back of the car, did you have your gun out?

A: Yes.

Q: Do you remember anything you said to [Al Cowlings]?

A: “Take me to my mother.”

Q: What was your purpose in taking the gun out of the bag and putting it in your hand?

A: Using it.

Q: To kill yourself?

A: Yes.

Q: Did you ever cock the gun?

A: No.

Q: Why did you want to kill yourself during the time when you took the gun out?

A: I was feeling a lot of pain, and I wanted it to stop.

Q: And what was the cause of that pain?

A: Losing Nicole. . . . Just everything that happened that week: Losing Nicole, part of it. Just it was a tough week. . . .

They were talking about--implying that I possibly could have taken a human being’s life. That was different than anything I’ve ever experienced in my life.

Q: But you believed you were innocent. Right?

A: I don’t believe nothing. I am innocent.

Q: Then you were confident that you would be acquitted, right?

A: I didn’t think I’d be arrested until then, and by then I was in so much pain for Nicole, I wasn’t thinking about the police at that point. Those weren’t things--being arrested was not something that was on my mind at that time.

‘SUICIDE’ NOTE

Q: Is this letter entirely in your handwriting?

A: Yes, I believe so.

Q: Are all of the cross-outs in your handwriting?

A: Probably, yes . . . I know I was in a hurry and there were a lot of things that I spelled poorly, that didn’t come out quite the way I wanted to say it, and I just resaid it.

Q: When you made the decision to write this note, were you still planning to turn yourself in?

A: I don’t know. I don’t really think so.

Q: When you wrote this note, you were expressing thoughts consistent with the idea that you would kill yourself. Right?

A: Yeah. Yeah.

Q: And you wrote it on the morning of the 17th?

A: Yes.

Q: Did anybody assist you in writing it?

A: No.

Q: What did you do with it when you finished writing it?

A: I either gave it to Bob [Kardashian] or A.C. [Cowlings]. I don’t recall what I did.

Q: What was your purpose in giving it to them?

A: It was just some thoughts I wanted to share with some people. I thought that if I had harmed myself in any way, that they would read it to my friends.

Q: Such as if you killed yourself?

A: Yes.