Resnick Testifies Emotionally in Simpson Case

Amid a circus-like atmosphere, the latest chapter in a still unfolding drama played out Saturday in Midtown Manhattan as Faye D. Resnick, author of a controversial memoir about O.J. Simpson’s slain ex-wife, testified in an emotional closed-door session.

“She spoke about very difficult issues and painful recollections,” said Daniel M. Petrocelli, attorney for the father of Ronald Lyle Goldman, who, along with Nicole Brown Simpson, was slain June 12, 1994.

Petrocelli questioned Resnick for more than three hours. “She was extremely responsive, straightforward and sincere,” the lawyer said in a telephone interview.

“She has some very powerful evidence to offer in getting to the bottom of this case,” Petrocelli said, referring to three civil wrongful death lawsuits filed against the former football star stemming from the murders. Simpson was acquitted of murder charges by a Los Angeles jury in October.

“There was a lot of detail, and it was very good in shedding a significant amount of light on the relationship between O.J. and Nicole. . . . I think [her testimony] is significant in leading up to the ultimate act,” Petrocelli said.

Resnick was mobbed by a throng of reporters and photographers both before and after the deposition.

Wearing a white cloche and a white dress, Resnick did not speak to the press and zoomed away in a car in the late afternoon, chased by 11 cameramen from local stations and television networks.

In a telephone interview Saturday night, Resnick said she was exhausted from the process. “It’s bigger than all of us and it’s very difficult to try and be composed through it all,” she said.

“Oh my God, it was overwhelming. It’s unbelievable, just unbelievable what Nicole went through. And I have to relive it for her and try to explain who she really was and what she really went through because I don’t think anyone has a clue how incredible this woman was and what a devastating life she led,” Resnick said.

Both Petrocelli, who represents Goldman’s father, Fred, and Resnick’s New York lawyer, Leonard M. Marks, said Resnick broke down as she described specific instances of domestic abuse that Nicole Simpson told her about.

“I think she did a fantastic job,” said Marks, a former member of the Watergate special prosecutor’s staff whose law practice is dominated by entertainment clients, such as Billy Joel, Andrew Lloyd Webber and David Bowie.

“There were virtually no objections to any of the questions that were asked. She gave great details to all the questions that were presented to her,” Marks said.

Pressed for specifics, he responded: “Mostly the conversations that she had with Nicole and with O.J. and what was said to her on each of these occasions, what she observed and what she heard.”

Did Resnick say that Nicole Simpson told her Simpson beat her, Marks was asked?

“At length, yes,” he responded.

Simpson denied in late January, during his yet-to-be-completed deposition, that he struck his ex-wife with his fist, slapped her with his hand, strangled, choked or beat her. But he did take responsibility for a 1989 incident that left her badly bruised and resulted in his pleading no contest to misdemeanor charges of spousal battery.

Michael A. Brewer, the attorney for Ronald Goldman’s mother, Sharon Rufo, said Petrocelli’s questioning of Resnick had to be halted on three or four occasions: “She asked for it to be stopped because she got to a point where she was recounting very painful testimony.”

Brewer said that Resnick had a “remarkable memory” and that she described the former Heisman Trophy winner as having a very short temper. “We think that’s very significant because again that may explain some of his actions on June 12th and the motivations behind those actions.”

Brewer acknowledged that Resnick did not say she ever saw Simpson strike his ex-wife. Rather, she was describing incidents that Nicole Simpson related to her, he said.

Brewer stressed that unlike in the criminal trial where Simpson did not testify, he will have to take the stand in the civil case and undergo hostile questioning. In fact, Brewer said, “the defendant in the case can be the very first witness called by the plaintiffs. . . . So he can’t simply sit back and allow other witnesses or his attorneys to state his position.”

Resnick’s deposition was conducted in New York because she had left Los Angeles, fearing for her life, she said. Her friends said she has placed her daughter in the custody of her former husband.

“There have been death threats,” said Marks, who declined to elaborate. “She has agreed voluntarily to testify before both sides before she leaves.”

Petrocelli, of Los Angeles’ Mitchell, Silberberg & Knupp, is scheduled to resume questioning Resnick at 10 a.m. New York time today. Then she is expected to face questioning from Daniel Leonard, a law partner of F. Lee Bailey, who was one of Simpson’s attorneys in the criminal trial and recently became involved in the civil case.

Leonard made no comment at the end of Saturday’s proceedings. None of Simpson’s Los Angeles-based attorneys was present for the deposition, according to other lawyers who were there.

And an anticipated face-to-face confrontation between Resnick and Simpson did not materialize. The Hall of Famer did not show up for the session, as had been anticipated by Resnick’s attorneys.

The deposition was held at the Madison Avenue offices of John Quinlan Kelly, the attorney for Nicole Simpson’s estate, one of three plaintiffs suing Simpson.

Curious shoppers watched as the media hordes mobbed Resnick when she arrived for the 1:30 p.m. deposition.

The proceeding, held just two blocks from Brooks Bros. and a short walk from Grand Central Station, was videotaped as well as transcribed by a court reporter. If Resnick is unavailable to testify in the civil trial, the videotape can be played for the jury. Resnick cannot be compelled to return for the trial, which is scheduled to begin April 2. Legal observers have said the trial is likely to start later because so many other depositions need to be taken in the case, including that of former Simpson guest house tenant Brian “Kato” Kaelin, which is set for Wednesday.

Resnick, 37, emerged as a provocative character in the Simpson case in October 1994, when Dove Books published her sex-laden book “Nicole Brown Simpson: The Private Diary of a Life Interrupted.” In the book, Resnick asserted that just a month after the couple broke up in May 1994, her friend Nicole was murdered by her former husband, who was obsessively jealous about her.

In the book, Resnick wrote that Nicole Simpson had a steamy affair with Marcus Allen, who starred at USC a dozen years after Simpson and is now a running back for the Kansas City Chiefs. Allen was subpoenaed by the defense in the criminal trial, but a Missouri judge quashed the subpoena. Through his attorneys, Allen has denied the affair. But the defense is attempting to depose him in the civil case.

Nicole Simpson’s father, Lou Brown, decried the book as “T-R-A-S-H,” as did numerous friends of Nicole who said it made her appear as if she was obsessed with sex. However, other friends of the murder victim said its depiction of Nicole Simpson’s post-divorce private life rang true.

Simpson has steadfastly maintained that he is innocent of the slayings.

Starting at least 13 months ago, attorneys representing Simpson have suggested that his ex-wife and Goldman were murdered by drug interests who came looking for Resnick at Simpson’s Bundy Drive condominium because she had failed to pay for narcotics.

Los Angeles detectives investigating the murders said there was no indication that the killings were drug-related.

Nonetheless, Simpson has continued to state publicly that the murders were linked to Resnick.

Last week, he declared in a call to CNN, “Let me say it this way, I have no doubt in my mind, no doubt whatsoever, that the answers to these murders are in the world of Faye Resnick.”

Two individuals who are close to Simpson said he had hired private investigators to attempt to prove his contentions.

But skeptics have said that if the murders were the result of a bungled attempt to kill Resnick, it makes no sense that her pursuers have allowed her to remain alive for the past 20 months.

It is anticipated that Resnick will be questioned about her use of drugs and where she acquired them when Simpson’s attorneys start questioning her today.

Goldman reported from New York, Weinstein from Los Angeles.