Goldman and Simpson Trade Angry Words in Courtroom

O.J. Simpson and Fred Goldman exchanged angry words Thursday at the close of an emotional court session that featured such gory crime scene photos that both men averted their eyes from the crumpled bodies of their slain family members.

Goldman spoke first, as the courtroom was clearing. “Don’t give me any of your goddamn dirty looks,” Goldman shouted at the man he believes killed his 25-year-old son, Ronald.

Simpson turned around at the courtroom door, looking indignant, and raised his voice to respond: “I wasn’t looking at you. I was looking at your daughter, who was staring at me. She plays staring games.”

Two Simpson supporters quickly rushed the former football star out of the courtroom and past a throng of reporters. Goldman and his daughter, Kim, remained inside with their lawyers. Goldman is suing Simpson for financial compensation for the loss of his son’s companionship, accusing him in civil court of stabbing and slashing Ronald Lyle Goldman to death June 12, 1994.

Kim Goldman, who has attended almost every court session, sometimes turns to look pointedly at Simpson. But Simpson usually seems not to notice: He stares straight ahead, scribbles notes or confers with his lawyers throughout most of the testimony. On Thursday, attorneys displayed some of the most graphic photos yet of murder victims Nicole Brown Simpson and Goldman, as retired LAPD Det. Tom Lange dispassionately described them.

O.J. Simpson looked away and breathed hard, mouthing words to himself, as the courtroom TV monitor flashed photos of his ex-wife slumped in a fetal position. The Goldmans bent over in their front row seats and looked down, away from the monitor. A few jurors gasped, but regained composure and gazed intently at the exhibits, jotting notes as Lange pointed out the victims’ twisted bodies, a trail of bloody footprints and drops of blood on a walkway.

Just hours after those grisly displays, an alternate juror complained of such severe stress that he required hospitalization. Superior Court Judge Hiroshi Fujisaki excused the man from further service. Seven alternates remain.

Through his testimony, Lange also introduced into evidence the passport, revolver and disguise that Simpson brought along with him while fleeing arrest in a friend’s Bronco five days after the murders. Attorneys for the victims’ families contend that Simpson may have been planning to use the fake mustache and goatee to escape the country. The Bronco chase, they say, shows Simpson’s “consciousness of guilt.”