Simpson Told to Appear at Civil Trial

O.J. Simpson was ordered Friday to appear in court late next week to testify in his civil trial, even as an alternate juror in the case was dismissed for dozing off during the proceedings.

Santa Monica Superior Court Judge Hiroshi Fujisaki directed Simpson to appear at the civil trial next Friday, and the following Monday and Tuesday, according to sources in the case.

Defense attorney Robert C. Baker had said his client did not want to testify in the civil case while he was engaged in an Orange County court fighting for custody of his children. The custody case started last week and Baker had estimated that it would last at least two weeks.

But plaintiffs insisted that they be allowed to call witnesses, including Simpson, in the order they chose. On Friday, the judges and the lawyers in the two cases conferred in private and sorted out the schedule.

Simpson did not testify in his criminal trial, in which he was acquitted of double murder charges. But he has given interviews and spoken about the slayings of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Lyle Goldman in several public forums, including producing a book and a video. He also gave a 10-day deposition in preparation for the civil case.

The plaintiffs hope to use his time on the witness stand to catch him in contradictions.

Before Simpson testifies, plaintiffs’ attorneys will call witnesses to testify about bloody shoe prints at the crime scene, DNA test results and domestic violence in Simpson’s relationship with Nicole. In addition, former Simpson house guest Brian “Kato” Kaelin and limousine driver Allan Park are expected to testify next week.

Simpson spent Friday morning in the Santa Monica court, making his first appearance there of the week. He missed testimony earlier in the week to attend the custody trial in Orange County and to stay by his mother’s side as she underwent knee surgery.

During Friday’s proceedings in Santa Monica, Fujisaki dismissed a white female alternate juror who lawyers said had fallen asleep during the trial.

Fujisaki agreed to excuse the juror, a white 19-year-old student at UC Santa Cruz, after Simpson’s lead attorney complained in a sidebar conference Thursday that she had dozed through “major portions” of testimony. “Your honor, [this] juror was asleep through most of this case,” Baker told Fujisaki, according to a transcript of the sidebar conference.

Fujisaki agreed, saying the woman “seems to have some sort of metabolic problem that causes her to have an inability to stay awake.”

The lead attorney for the plaintiffs, Daniel M. Petrocelli, fought back during the sidebar, urging the judge to also dismiss a black female juror--the only African American on the jury panel--who he said had dozed off on a few occasions. The judge said he would keep an eye on that juror.

The dismissed juror, who had said during jury selection that she knew virtually nothing about the Simpson case, was whisked away in a white van after being dismissed. She is the second alternate excused from the trial; six alternates remain on the panel.

Also on Friday:

DNA expert Gary Sims of the California Department of Justice conceded under cross-examination by Simpson attorney Robert Blasier that contamination is possible in DNA testing. But Sims said there was no evidence that such problems occurred in this case.

Defense attorneys have argued that blood and DNA evidence in the case were mishandled, contaminated and in some cases planted by police investigators.