Lawyer Says Simpson Violated Gag Order

An attorney in the civil lawsuit against O.J. Simpson accused the former football star Tuesday of violating a gag order in the case, provoking a rebuke from the judge, who warned lawyers on both sides against wasting his time.

John Q. Kelly, the attorney representing the estate of Nicole Brown Simpson, claimed in a letter to the court that Simpson violated the sweeping gag order when he addressed a Washington, D.C., church last week. According to the Aug. 30 letter, Simpson told the audience that he helped pay college tuition for his ex-wife’s sister Dominique, who is a witness in the civil case.

And at a subsequent news conference, Kelly wrote, Simpson insisted he was working on solving the double murder case, saying, “Hopefully, we will see some things come out in the next trial.”

Kelly said Simpson was “promoting his personal objectives” in a way that “flies in the face of the gag order,” which bars all participants from discussing the pending civil case.

During a pretrial hearing Tuesday, Superior Court Judge Hiroshi Fujisaki took no action on Kelly’s complaints and refused to take a phone call from the attorney, who was in New York.

Fujisaki then warned attorneys against filing unnecessary motions for the sake of publicity, an apparent reference to the ongoing flow of court papers submitted by each side.

“If you are just trying to generate interest in this case, I would suggest that counsel on all sides refrain from that type of activity,” he said. “If you’re just going to throw dust in the air and see who blinks, I would suggest, don’t do it. Don’t waste my time.”

Simpson is being sued by the parents of Ronald Lyle Goldman and the estate of Nicole Simpson. O.J. Simpson was acquitted last year on charges of killing his ex-wife and Goldman. The civil trial is scheduled to begin Sept. 17.

Fujisaki also berated a defense lawyer for including what he considered questionable witnesses on a witness list--though the judge did not specify which witnesses he found objectionable.

“I am not going to allow you to garbage up this trial with a bunch of extraneous witnesses,” Fujisaki told Simpson attorney Phillip A. Baker. “I am not going to allow you to parade witnesses who are coming from the planet Mars.”

O.J. Simpson’s defense team has listed 183 witnesses, and the plaintiffs have listed 157.

The witness lists include many figures who became household names in the criminal case but who never took the witness stand, such as Al Cowlings, Faye Resnick and Robert Kardashian.

The defense list includes the attorneys who prosecuted Simpson--Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti and Deputy Dist. Attys. William Hodgman, Marcia Clark and Christopher Darden.

Simpson, who did not testify at the criminal trial, was named on both witness lists. He is expected to spend about four days on the stand, according to court documents filed Tuesday.

In other court developments Tuesday, attorneys for the plaintiffs filed motions to counter defense attempts to bar details about Simpson’s stormy relationship with his former wife.

Last week, the defense asked Fujisaki to bar all references to stalking, battering, spousal abuse and “domestic discord,” including 911 calls Nicole Simpson made.

Attorney Daniel M. Petrocelli, who represents Fred Goldman, father of murder victim Ronald L. Goldman, argued in motions filed Tuesday that a “long line of cases” has treated such evidence as admissible and that “the defendant’s prior assaults upon the victim tend to show the defendant’s motive and, therefore, shed light on the identity of the killer.”

Petrocelli also argued in court papers that statements made by Nicole Simpson--including diary entries in which she detailed alleged verbal and physical abuses--should be allowed at trial.