O.J. Simpson Takes Stand in Florida Trial

At his road rage trial, a poised, relaxed O.J. Simpson hobbled on arthritic knees to the witness stand Monday and swore under oath that he had been the victim, not the aggressor, in the incident.

The other driver “just puffed up like a bullfrog, got animated and went off,” the former pro football star testified. “This was a guy who needed some decaf coffee.

“All I wanted to do was get out of there,” Simpson said.

In the heat of a roadside argument on Dec. 4, Simpson allegedly snatched the glasses off the nose of the other man, scratching his forehead in the process.

Under Florida law, this could be considered battery and burglary from a motor vehicle--offenses punishable by two to 16 years in prison.

Simpson, found not guilty by a Los Angeles jury in the 1994 slayings of his ex-wife and her companion, maintains that he has been falsely accused once again. His daughter Sydney, 16, and son Justin, 13, were in his black Lincoln Navigator at the time, and Simpson said he wants this trial to prove to them how innocent people can be accused without cause.

“I only care what my kids think,” Simpson, 54, declared Monday during one of the numerous breaks in proceedings. “So that’s the good I see in this, if there is any good to being in court.”

That evening, he had taken his son to a Toys R Us to buy a sword and shield for his school’s Christmas play, Simpson said, and had just picked up his daughter from rehearsal.

His three-lawyer defense team, led by Miami attorney Yale Galanter, tried twice to have a mistrial declared but was turned down by Dade Circuit Judge Dennis J. Murphy.

During the abundant down time, Simpson, who was nattily attired in a gray suit, joked with journalists, ambled slowly around the courtroom or waited patiently in his chair at the defense table. To while away the time, he brought along a book, a whodunit called “First to Die.”

“I’ve been a victim of injustice, when you look at what’s happened over the past six years,” Simpson said. “But I’ve let go of the anger.

“They win if you let them get you off your stride,” said the former Heisman award winner. At one point, he leaned over and touched the knee of a reporter to emphasize what he was saying.

“Oh, I’m sorry, that’s assault,” he said with a laugh, making light of the charges against him.

The prosecution said there was nothing funny about the accusation, or the prison time Simpson risks if found guilty. “If a person has violent tendencies, what are you going to do with them, put them back on the street?” said Assistant State Atty. Abbe Rifkin during a break.

In testimony that was almost totally at odds with that of the other motorist, Jeffrey Pattinson, Simpson claimed that Pattinson tailgated him, blaring his horn and flashing his bright lights after Simpson stopped at a suburban Miami intersection around 7 p.m.

“I didn’t think anything negative, I thought maybe somebody was trying to tell me I had a flat tire or a back door open,” Simpson told the jury.

He was hoping, Simpson added, that “it wasn’t a fan”--someone who had gone to such outrageous lengths to request his autograph.

About 300 yards from the intersection, Simpson said, he pulled over and got out of his SUV. After ascertaining that the other driver had no weapon, he approached the car that had pulled to within two feet of his bumper. The other driver, Simpson said, also exited.

“He said, ‘You cut me off,’ ” said Simpson. “I said, ‘What do you mean? There’s no traffic on that street.’ ”

By tailing him, Simpson said he told Pattinson, “you can cause an accident and get someone killed.”

“At that,” Simpson said, “he blew up.”

The encounter lasted no more than 30 seconds, Simpson said. “At that point, I realized that this is about nothing,” he said. He testified that he told Pattinson, “Look, guy, I’m sorry if I cut you off, but stop frigging following me,” and then drove away with his children.

On Thursday, the export company owner testified that he was at the wheel when Simpson reached in and pulled the glasses off his face. Simpson denied putting his arm in the man’s car but said his son recalled later that he had touched Pattinson’s glasses as the men stood in the street arguing.

In morning testimony, Elsner Brown, fingerprint supervisor for the Miami-Dade Police Department, said it was Simpson’s right thumb print that had been found on Pattinson’s glasses.

Judy Pattinson also told the jury that her husband came home after the incident to tell her: “You won’t believe who just assaulted me.”

“I think he was in shock,” she said. “I said, ‘Honey, you have a scratch on your forehead.’ ”

Testimony stopped in the afternoon after Rifkin, on cross-examination, asked Simpson: “I didn’t get to take your statement, did I?”

Galanter called the question, which appeared to flout the defendant’s constitutional right not to make self-incriminating statements, “absolute, concrete grounds for a mistrial.”

After hearing from both sides, the judge disagreed.

Murphy also rejected an earlier defense request for a mistrial, filed last week after some of the six jurors and two alternates admitted talking about the case among themselves.

Simpson moved to South Florida last year and purchased a home in the upscale community of Kendall, south of Miami. “It’s the first time I’ve had neighbors bringing me cookies, bringing me wine,” he said happily on Monday. “I got to admit, with the last five years I’ve spent, it’s kind of heartwarming.”

His only occupation at the moment, he said, is that of single parent. “When my kids finish school, I’m gone,” Simpson said. “I’m going to live on a golf course.”