Simpson Team Subpoenas Prosecutors for Pretrial Hearing : Court: Defense hopes to solicit testimony about police searches. Clark, Hodgman are expected to fight the move.
Prosecutors in the O.J. Simpson double-murder case could find themselves on the witness stand if his lawyers win a bid to solicit testimony at a pretrial hearing scheduled to begin today.
Defense lawyers have subpoenaed Deputy Dist. Attys. Marcia Clark and Bill Hodgman in an attempt to force them to testify about what went on during police searches conducted in their presence.
David Conn, a third prosecutor who worked on the case early on but who has since been reassigned, also has been subpoenaed.
Simpson has pleaded not guilty in the June 12 slayings of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and a friend, Ronald Lyle Goldman. Jury selection in his trial is scheduled to begin next week.
Defense attorneys hope to use the prosecutors’ testimony to prove that evidence taken from Simpson’s home, vehicles and business office should be thrown out because of alleged police improprieties.
Clark and Hodgman are expected to vehemently argue that no witnesses should be called at the hearing because much of the issue was covered during Simpson’s preliminary hearing. They also will oppose the motion to suppress the evidence.
Among about 20 witnesses the defense wants to call are Los Angeles Police Detective Mark Fuhrman, who testified in an earlier proceeding that he found one of the key pieces of evidence against Simpson at the former football star’s estate--a bloodied glove similar to one found near the bodies.
Clark has called the glove part of a “bloody trail” Simpson left behind after the slayings, a trail that she contends also included droplets of blood found at the murder scene, on a Ford Bronco owned by Simpson and at his estate.
Defense lawyers have attacked the integrity of the evidence, contending that it was either illegally obtained or tainted by sloppy handling. They have suggested that Fuhrman planted the glove on Simpson’s property, though no evidence of that has been offered.
Fuhrman’s lawyers have scheduled a news conference today, where they are expected to try to discredit a woman who has given the defense a sworn affidavit questioning the detective’s character and objectivity toward Simpson.
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