Simpson, In-Laws Quietly Battle for Custody of Children

The nearly empty corridor outside Department 605 at the Betty Lou Lamoreaux Justice Center gave no clue that O.J. Simpson was inside, waging yet another legal battle, this time for custody of his children.

Even the public court calendar made no mention of the case involving Simpson and his in-laws, which entered its fifth day in court Monday.

All parties in the case have agreed among themselves to not speak to reporters.

“The privacy of the children has to be respected,” Marjorie G. Fuller, attorney for the children, said last week.

Sydney, 10, and Justin, 8, have been staying with their maternal grandparents, Louis and Juditha Brown of Dana Point, since Simpson’s arrest in the June 1994 slayings of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Lyle Goldman.

Since his acquittal in October, Simpson has had weekend visits with the children. Now, both he and the Browns want custody.

Simpson is expected to take the witness stand before Commissioner Thomas H. Schulte. Nicole Simpson’s sisters, Denise and Dominique Brown, have been called to court as witnesses. So has Simpson’s daughter from a previous marriage, Arnelle.

On Monday, while their attorneys entered the courtroom through the front door, Simpson and the Browns used a back entrance, their comings and goings monitored by about half a dozen television camera people.

So secretive were the goings-on in the courtroom, a division of Orange County Superior Court, that a lawyer in the case said it is uncertain if Schulte’s ruling would even be released.

“I don’t think anything will be made public at the time,” Saul Gelbart, one of two attorneys for the Browns, said as he left court Monday.

The custody hearing is taking place as Simpson’s civil trial is set to start within weeks. In that case, the Brown and Goldman families have filed wrongful-death suits against Simpson, alleging that he killed his ex-wife and Goldman in a fit of jealousy.

Also contributing to this report was Times correspondent Cathy Werblin.