Jurors Rehear Testimony, View Videos Central to Defense

Looking relaxed and cheerful, jurors in the O.J. Simpson civil trial interrupted their second full day of deliberations Thursday afternoon to have some DNA testimony read back to them and to watch three videos central to the defense’s theory that evidence was contaminated and planted.

Meanwhile, a source close to the case confirmed that Superior Court Judge Hiroshi Fujisaki has ordered an investigation into a letter that at least two jurors received from two women who served on the jury that acquitted Simpson in his criminal trial.

Brenda Moran and Gina Rhodes Rossborough wrote a letter saying in essence “we respect your verdict and look forward to meeting you . . . [and] if you need someone to talk to, don’t hesitate to call us,” their attorney, Jeffrey Brodey, said. Moran and Rossborough also touted the services of media agent Bud Stewart.

When the civil trial jurors received the letter at their homes earlier this week, they reported it to Fujisaki. The judge had issued an order at the start of the trial banning anyone from contacting the jurors. He recently revoked the courtroom pass of a local television station caught trailing the jurors home, and was furious at the latest breach, the source said.

But Brodey said his clients did not know they were doing anything wrong. “It was foolish, perhaps, . . . but I don’t think there was anything malevolent or any [intent to] influence the jury in any way,” he said.

Thursday night, sheriff’s deputies descended on Moran’s home in a neatly kept working-class neighborhood in South-Central Los Angeles, searching cars and speaking with Moran and her parents in the house. Deputies carried out boxes, bags, files and a personal computer.

The civil case jurors looked at ease as they worked into their 14th hour of deliberations Thursday, apparently focusing on the blood evidence in the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Lyle Goldman.

They listened intently as the court reporter read aloud technical testimony by DNA analyst Gary Sims, who called the defense’s contamination argument “a pretty far-fetched idea.” Earlier, the jurors had requested and received the DNA test strips that Sims used to analyze the blood evidence.

The jurors also reviewed a video of criminalist Dennis Fung stepping across the victims’ bodies holding a paper bag containing the bloody glove discovered at Simpson’s estate. The defense had cited that clip as further proof of contamination, arguing that the glove could have picked up or shed hair and fiber evidence at the crime scene.

A second video the jurors watched Thursday showed Fung inside the foyer of Simpson’s home, where, out of the camera’s eye, he received a vial containing a sample of Simpson’s blood. The defense contends that Det. Philip Vannatter unsealed the vial and sprinkled blood on key evidence before turning it over to Fung, who stashed it in a trash bag.

Associated Press contributed to this story.