Simpson Liable in Slayings : Compensatory Damages Put at $8.5 Million

Sixteen months after a criminal jury acquitted O.J. Simpson of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman, a civil jury Tuesday unanimously found him responsible for their deaths and ordered him to pay $8.5 million in compensatory damages.

Simpson stared straight ahead, betraying no emotion, as the verdict was read aloud at 7:12 p.m. The murder victims’ relatives, wearing buttons emblazoned with pictures of their slain loved ones, sobbed with relief and clenched each others’ hands.

And then Kim Goldman’s voice shot across the tense, still courtroom. Through her tears, she shouted at the man she blames for killing her brother: “Oh my God, you’re a murderer!”

Simpson did not move.

The mostly white jury deliberated for three days before returning their verdicts. After a mostly black jury acquitted Simpson of the killings in October 1995, the families complained that Simpson got away with murder. On Tuesday, they claimed a moral victory.

“We finally have justice for Ron and Nicole,” Fred Goldman said in a brief, tearful news conference after the verdicts. “Our family is grateful for a verdict of responsibility,” Goldman said. “That’s all we wanted. Now we have it, thank God.” He began to weep.

Simpson, meanwhile, slipped quickly out of court--where scores of spectators had gathered waving signs, chanting and pressing against police cordons to snap pictures of fellow demonstrators, placard wavers or anything else that seemed to relate to the legal proceedings inside. Many shouted “Killer! Killer! Killer!” as Simpson drove off in a black sport utility vehicle.

The jury verdict brings some closure to the impassioned drama that began when two Brentwood residents discovered the crumpled bodies of Nicole Simpson and Ronald Goldman just before midnight on June 12, 1994. But the legal case is not over yet.

Tuesday’s verdict included an order for Simpson to pay $8.5 million to compensate Goldman’s parents, Fred Goldman and Sharon Rufo, for the loss of their son’s love, companionship and moral support. (The Brown family did not file a claim for compensation and thus did not receive any financial award in the first round of jury deliberations.)

The trial now moves to a punitive damages phase in which jurors must decide how much Simpson should pay both victims’ families as punishment for his wrongdoing. In that phase, expected to start Thursday and last just a few days, the jurors will hear testimony about Simpson’s financial assets to help them peg an appropriate damage award.

Simpson will not be able to discharge his financial obligations to the victims’ families by claiming bankruptcy. The Goldman and Brown families can garnish 25% of his salary and seize his home and cars and other assets, including perhaps his football trophies and golf clubs. If their attorneys are aggressive, they can follow Simpson until he pays the full amount due, even if it takes decades.

“This jury is very, very, very mad,” said Los Angeles civil attorney David E. Wood, who handles many wrongful death cases. “Lord help Mr. Simpson when they get the opportunity to award punitive damages.”

The verdict sparked strong emotions.

“White America, shame on you!” an African American customer at a Crenshaw district beauty shop shouted as the verdicts were announced on TV.

Meanwhile, at the exclusive Riviera Country Club in the Pacific Palisades--a club at which Simpson was once a member--a few patrons clinked glasses and gave thumbs-up signs as they watched the verdict in the cozy first-floor bar. The bartender said the club was glad the ordeal was over. “I think 90% thought he was guilty in the first place,” he said.

Meanwhile, politicians called on the public to accept the verdict peacefully, and several expressed relief that the latest trial was over.

“I am delighted, frankly, that it is over, because I am sick of it,” Gov. Pete Wilson said. “I am sick of California being known for little other than one Simpson trial or another. I think it is time that this is laid to rest.”

Los Angeles Police Chief Willie L. Williams was muted in his reaction. While some officers may have felt vindicated, he said, the allegations made by Simpson’s lawyers that he had been framed by racist police had damaged both the department’s reputation and morale.

“You can’t take it all back,” Williams said. “Some may feel there has been justice. Some may feel there has been a vindication. But if you talk to the average officer, you can’t take back the pain. You can’t take back the impression that was falsely put out about our department.”

Simpson can, and probably will, appeal the verdict. Throughout the trial, his lead attorney talked about “building a record” for appeal, and legal analysts said he has several strong grounds for asking a higher court to overturn the verdict. Superior Court Judge Hiroshi Fujisaki made some questionable evidentiary rulings favoring the plaintiffs, analysts said, including allowing testimony from a hotline counselor who said a woman she believed to be Nicole Simpson called a battered woman’s shelter in fright five days before the murders.

Before turning to an appeals court, however, Simpson has 120 days to ask Fujisaki to overturn the jury verdict or reduce the damage award. The judge has complete discretion to slash the compensatory damage award of $8.5 million and can reduce whatever punitive damages are awarded as well.

Even during appeals, Simpson cannot easily postpone payment to the victims’ relatives. The Goldman and Brown families can start seizing his bank accounts and auctioning off his property even during the appeals process unless Simpson posts a bond equal to 150% of the verdict award. In other words, if the total damage award is $10 million, he would need to put up $15 million to hold off his creditors.

The jury that held Simpson liable consisted of six men and six women, ranging in age from mid-20s to mid-70s. But the characteristic that most analysts remarked on from the start was that most of the panelists were white. The jury that acquitted Simpson in the downtown criminal courthouse was mostly black; in Santa Monica civil court, in contrast, Simpson was judged by nine whites, one Latina, one Asian American and one Jamaican immigrant who described himself as half-black and half-Asian.

The wrongful death case brought by the victims’ families was an abbreviated version of the criminal trial--41 days of testimony rather than 133--but it included some startling new evidence. Most important of all was Simpson’s testimony, which the jurors asked to hear parts of again on their last day of deliberations Tuesday.

Petrocelli argued that Simpson lied about every important fact in the case during his four days on the witness stand, pointing out that Simpson’s testimony contradicted dozens of witnesses. He drew up a list of 60 people who had to be lying or mistaken on the witness stand if Simpson were to be believed--including Simpson’s best friend, two of his lawyers and his therapist. Petrocelli also capitalized on the inconsistences in statements Simpson has made since the murders, on subjects as crucial as his alibi and how he suffered several cuts and scrapes on his left hand the night of the slayings.

Petrocelli also produced 31 photos of Simpson wearing the same style Bruno Magli shoes that left bloody footprints at the crime scene. The defense challenged all the photos as fake, but produced an expert witness to testify about signs of forgery in only one of them.

To combat the evidence against Simpson, the defense relied on the same themes that worked so well in the criminal trial: contamination, corruption, conspiracy. They argued that physical evidence could not be trusted, and said police framed Simpson. But the plaintiffs countered those arguments with expert witnesses who implored jurors to trust the blood evidence as utterly reliable--and, Petrocelli argued, utterly incriminating.

The jury reached its verdict after 14 hours of deliberations over three days--more than four times as long as the criminal jury deliberated. Shortly before buzzing the judge to let him know they had reached a verdict, the jurors listened to read-backs of testimony from some of the crucial witnesses in the case: limo driver Allan Park, Simpson’s best friend Al Cowlings and Simpson himself.

To reach a verdict, only nine of 12 jurors had to agree. But when Court clerk Erin Kenny polled the jurors in open court, all 12 said they supported every part of the verdict--including the $8.5-million damage award.

“In some ways, this jury had an easier decision than the jurors in the criminal trial, because their decision was only should Simpson pay or should he not pay--the man’s liberty was not at stake,” Loyola Law School Associate Dean Laurie Levenson said. “But in some ways, they have a harder job because they’re the last court to decide this case.”

In fact, the civil trial verdict is not necessarily the last word. Simpson’s two children with Nicole, Sydney and Justin, retain the right to file their own wrongful death lawsuits against him until they turn 19. For now, however, the children are living with him at his Rockingham Avenue estate; Simpson won custody of them from the Browns late last year.

Santa Monica police said there were four arrests during the evening--three for public intoxication and a fourth alleging assault and battery by a Los Angeles Times photographer on the scene.

Police alleged that the Times photographer, Carolyn Cole, struck two officers as a throng of media and court participants gathered outside the Doubletree Hotel, across from the courthouse, after the verdicts were read.

“Apparently she was asked to leave, and she wouldn’t leave the area as they were walking the principals away,” Sgt. Gary Gallinot said. He alleged that she then struck one officer in the face and another in the arm before police detained her.

But Cole strenously denied the allegations, saying: “I didn’t hit anyone in the face. Basically the police were pressing the crowd back.”

Editor and Executive Vice President Shelby Coffey defended Cole and said the newspaper would fight the charge.

“There was a lot of excitement out there at the courthouse,” he said. “Our photographer was caught in the crunch. To accuse her of assault is preposterous. We’ll proceed to have these groundless charges promptly thrown out.”

Simpson News Inside

* MIXED REACTIONS: Across Los Angeles, the outcome once again played out as a surreal tale of race and celebrity in America. A14

* THE SPIN: Whatever this verdict says about O.J. Simpson, the social issues raised in his two trials remain unsettled. A15

* WHAT’S NEXT? For O.J. Simpson, the judgment is just the latest reversal of fortune in an already constrained life. A15

* SPLIT SCREEN: TV’s worst nightmare: President Clinton’s speech and the O.J. Simpson civil verdict collide. A16