Several Witnesses Contradict Simpson on Domestic Abuse

Attorneys seeking to hold O.J. Simpson responsible for murder called several witnesses Tuesday who directly contradicted his sworn testimony about domestic violence--including his best friend, Al Cowlings.

Cowlings, clearly a reluctant witness, was questioned about only one incident: a blowup between O.J. Simpson and Nicole Brown Simpson on New Year’s Day, 1989.

Because he has not been granted immunity from prosecution, Cowlings had previously warned that he would invoke his 5th Amendment privilege and decline to answer questions about his actions in the week after the murders of Nicole Simpson and Ronald Lyle Goldman, including his famous Bronco ride with O.J. Simpson on June 17, 1994.

In his brief and limited testimony, Cowlings contradicted Simpson’s sworn statements twice.

First, Cowlings said that Simpson knew police were looking for him in connection with the fight--and in fact, directed Cowlings to take a circuitous route back to his house later in the afternoon to see whether a black-and-white was parked out front. Simpson had testified that he did not realize the police wanted him.

Cowlings also testified that Simpson told him he jumped a fence on his neighbor’s property that same day, while he was leaving his house carrying keys and a bag of jewelry. Simpson insisted that he never climbed over the fence and never told Cowlings that he had done so. The detail, while minor, is important because the plaintiffs contend that Simpson’s route that day prepared him to vault the fence and sneak home undetected after the murders.

Finally, Cowlings testified that Nicole Simpson told him O.J. Simpson had pulled her hair and hit her during the fight. Throughout his testimony, Simpson denied ever striking Nicole, saying their only physical contact that night was a “rassling” match as he tried to maneuver her out of his bedroom.

Later in 1989, Simpson pleaded no contest to misdemeanor charges of spousal battery.

Cowlings appeared to choke up slightly as he looked at police photos of Nicole Simpson’s bruised, swollen and scratched face after the New Year’s Day altercation. Twice, he rubbed his eyes, and once he requested a brief break so he could gulp some water.

Before Cowlings took the stand, two witnesses contradicted Simpson’s testimony that he never hit Nicole Brown Simpson.

India Allen, a former Playboy model, testified that she watched the couple fight in the parking lot of a veterinarian’s office where she was working as a dog washer in the spring of 1983. “He hit her in the face, and knocked off her sunglasses and headband,” Allen testified. “When she came up, it was the only time I saw her without her sunglasses, and she had sort of a fading bruise under her eye.” Allen said she also noticed a redness on Nicole Simpson’s cheek, where she had been slapped.

The defense sought to discredit Allen by mentioning that she had posed nude for more than one publication, by questioning her memory of the long-ago incident, and by suggesting that she came forward with her allegations only after Simpson’s acquittals on criminal charges, when she was hoping to kick-start a movie career. But Allen denied any ulterior motives for testifying, and insisted that she had a clear recollection of the incident.

“I was shocked,” she said, “because they were two beautiful, famous people who looked like they were getting ready to have a knockdown, drag-out [fight] right in front of me.”

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A second witness, pharmacist Albert Aguilera, testified that he saw Simpson knock down Nicole Simpson with a slap across the face on July 1, 1986, on the sands of Laguna Beach. “He swung his right hand, hit her across the face, and she went down,” Aguilera testified. From his position 30 or 40 yards away, Aguilera said he could hear Nicole Simpson saying “No, no” in what he termed “almost a crying voice.”

Again, lead defense counsel Robert C. Baker tried to undercut the testimony, this time by pointing out that Aguilera had originally given a different date for the alleged incident. Aguilera, however, stuck by his testimony.

Jurors also heard from two of Simpson’s friends who testified that he had talked sadly and repeatedly about his breakup with Nicole in the weeks before the murders. Simpson had testified that he, not Nicole, initiated their final breakup and that he did not dwell on the end of their relationship in his conversations with friends.

The friends--like Cowlings, Allen and Aguilera--had not testified in the criminal trial.

Tuesday’s court session opened on an angry note, with Baker demanding a mistrial. Baker insisted that the plaintiffs had tainted the proceedings by insinuating, through a hostile cross-examination, that Simpson flunked a lie detector test with a miserable score indicating “extreme deception.”

In his pretrial deposition and again in testimony last week, Simpson denied ever taking a lie detector test. He testified that he was hooked up to a polygraph machine two days after the murders and asked some questions--but simply as a demonstration, to show him how the test worked.

But Baker argued that despite his client’s firm denials, the accusatory questions from the plaintiffs--including a suggestion that Simpson had scored a minus 22 on the polygraph--would unfairly influence jurors. “I would request that the court mistry this case and, unfortunately, start all over again,” he said.

It was the defense’s fourth request for a mistrial since jury selection began in mid-September. Superior Court Judge Hiroshi Fujisaki denied it just as swiftly as he had the others.

He did, however, instruct jurors that they could not consider attorneys’ questions as evidence. Because Simpson denied taking a test and insisted that he had no knowledge of any score attributed to him, Fujisaki ordered jurors to “treat the subject as though you had never heard of it.”

Meanwhile, attorneys battling O.J. Simpson in his child custody case in Orange County Superior Court asked the judge to dismiss the children’s appointed attorney, who has made clear that she thinks the children should live with their father.

The attorneys for Louis and Judith Brown of Dana Point, who are fighting Simpson for custody of their grandchildren, Sydney, 11, and Justin, 8, asked the Superior Court judge to dismiss Marjorie G. Fuller, charging that she has not been fair in her evaluation of the case. Also, one of the children reportedly has asked that Fuller be dismissed.

Judge Nancy Wieben Stock’s decision is pending. Fuller could not be reached for comment.

Simpson’s children went to live with the Browns when he was charged with murdering their mother and Goldman. After he was acquitted in October 1995, Simpson asked to regain custody of the children, but the grandparents have refused, sparking the legal battle.

Times staff writer Greg Hernandez and correspondent Jeff Kass contributed to this story.