The Simpson Case / A daily update : Trial Highlights

A look at some of the key events in the O.J. Simpson murder trial Thursday:

* Summary: Superior Court Judge Lance A. Ito ruled against defense attorneys seeking to suppress evidence seized from O.J. Simpson’s Ford Bronco after it was in police custody.

* Court action: Ito ruled that repeated searches of the car were proper, even though police were not specifically authorized by warrants. He also turned back the defense’s effort to force Los Angeles Police Detective Mark Fuhrman back to the witness stand, finding that Simpson’s lawyers missed their chance to question Fuhrman when he testified during the preliminary hearing. Simpson’s lawyers also complained that prosecutors have stalled on conducting DNA testing to gain tactical advantage.

* On the stand: Prosecutors called a number of police witnesses to describe the searches of Simpson’s car, building their case that the hunt for evidence was proper and focused on efforts to find blood, hair and fibers that might connect Simpson to the crime.

* Outside the court: Court personnel said Ito had relented on his plan to oust the Los Angeles Daily News from the trial because it had published excerpts of the juror questionnaire before prospective jurors had finished filling it out. Although Ito remained angry about the incident, a spokeswoman for the court said he did not have time to battle the newspaper over the issue.