Stein Assails Hahn Over Simpson Case

Just days after a civil court jury found O.J. Simpson liable for two murders, Los Angeles city attorney candidate Ted Stein suggested Thursday that if his opponent had done a better job prosecuting Simpson for domestic violence in 1989, “perhaps Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman might be alive today.”

Stein said incumbent City Atty. James K. Hahn should have lobbied harder to send Simpson to jail seven years ago when he pleaded no contest to beating his wife. Instead, Simpson paid a $200 fine, did community service and received counseling--part of it over the telephone.

“Jim Hahn holds himself up as a champion against domestic violence, but nothing could be further from the truth,” Stein said in a news release. “Jim Hahn should have gone to the wall for Nicole. Instead, he chose the easy way out.”

Stein said he waited to bring the subject up until after the criminal and civil trials had ended--but Hahn’s campaign, and some women’s advocates, criticized the news release as pure political opportunism.

Blaming Hahn for the double murder is an “inflammatory and inappropriate” statement, said Tammy Bruce, president of the Women’s Progress Alliance, a national group she founded with Nicole Brown Simpson’s sister Denise Brown. “Mr. Stein is either ignorant of the facts, or does know and doesn’t care,” she added.

“It is pathetic that Ted Stein is trying to exploit the murders of two people for his political campaign,” said Hahn campaign manager Matt Middlebrook. “This is a desperate, bottom-feeding attack.”

Hahn declined to discuss the matter. Stein was also unavailable for an interview Thursday.

The news release revives a debate that emerged in June 1994, after the double slaying in Brentwood. At the time, Hahn and others criticized Municipal Judge Ronald R. Schoenberg for not imposing a harsh enough sentence on the celebrity; Schoenberg eventually fired back by saying he didn’t give Simpson jail time because the prosecutors didn’t ask for it.

Indeed, court transcripts show that Deputy City Atty. Robert Pingel asked for a fine, community service, counseling, restitution to a battered women’s shelter, and probation. Pingel suggested that Simpson be booked on the misdemeanor charge, but added that “he would not serve any jail time.”

However, Alana Bowman, special assistant to the city attorney for domestic violence, said her office initially did request jail time during off-the-record discussions in the judge’s chambers.

“Our deputy was fighting so long and so hard that he lost track of what was on the record, but he was fighting for jail time in this case,” she said Thursday. “The sentence wasn’t strong enough in this case. . . . We were asking for a sentence that would have given a message, not only to O.J. Simpson, but to everyone.”

Bowman called Stein’s charges “ludicrous,” and accused him of “sensationalizing a tragedy for his own political career.”

She said Hahn has been recognized nationally for his leadership and aggressive prosecution of batterers, noting that Los Angeles has the largest domestic violence unit in the country, handling about 20,000 cases each year and achieving an 85% conviction rate.

“Jim Hahn has set the standard, not only in Los Angeles, but nationally. Our deputies teach domestic violence prosecution techniques throughout the state, throughout the country,” Bowman said.

“By putting this press release out he’s encouraging battered women not to call the police,” she added. “He’s putting the inference out that even if you call the police, even if you prosecute, even if you get a conviction, you can still end up dead. It can have a chilling effect.”