Murder in Brentwood (37 page)

I did nothing wrong. I was only doing my job. I made some mistakes in life and corrected them. Everyone makes mistakes. Everyone says things they wish they had not. But not everybody is forced to stand naked in judgment before the rest of the world.

Eventually, I will have to explain all this to my lads. Every few years there will be anniversary specials about the Simpson case, and we will have to relive it all over again. They will hear something in school from someone who is just repeating what they heard on television. They will read about me in the library. I hope they will read this book and it will make things clear for them. I hope they will have the strength to believe in the father they know, rather than the cartoon figure portrayed in the media. I hope they will realize that some people are too star-struck to believe that a popular celebrity can actually murder two people. I hope they will understand that while I am not perfect, the only thing I was guilty of was doing my job. And when my son grows up, I hope lie docs not want to become a policeman.

No matter what happened in the Simpson case and how I felt about it, no matter how my life has been irrevocably changed, knowing everything I know now and everything that happened to me, my family, and others, there is one thing I can say without question. I still would have answered the call on June 13. I still would have gone to the crime scene and done everything at Bundy and Rockingham the same way I did it then. I still would have tried my best to catch the murderer of Ron and Nicole. What else would I do? I’m a cop.

Appendix A INTERROGATION TEXT

P.V.
 
... my partner, Detective Lange, and we’re in an interview room in Parker Center. The date is June 13
^th
, 1994, and the time is 13:35 hours, and we’re here with O.J. Simpson. Is that Orenthal James Simpson?

O.J.
  
Orenthal James Simpson.

P.V.
  
And what is your birthdate, Mr. Simpson?

O.J.
  
July 9, 1947.

P.V.
  
Okay, prior to us talking to you, as we agreed with your attorney, I’m going to give you your constitutional rights. And I would like you to listen carefully. If you don’t understand anything, tell me, okay?

O.J.
  
All right.

P.V.
  
Okay, Mr. Simpson, you have the right to remain silent. If you give up the right to remain silent, anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to speak to an attorney and to have an attorney present during the questioning. If you so desire and cannot afford one, an attorney will be appointed for you without charge before questioning. Do you understand your rights?

O.J.
   
Yes, I do.

P.V.
   
Are there any questions about that?

O.J.
   
(Unintelligble)

P.V.
   
Okay, you’ve got to speak up louder than that.

O.J.
   
Okay, no.

P.V.
   
Okay, do you wish to give up your right to remain silent and talk to us?

O.J.
   
Ah, yes.

P.V.
   
Okay, and you give up your right to have an attorney present while we talk?

O.J.
   
Mmm hmm. Yes.

P.V.
   
Okay. All right, what we’re gonna do is, we want to... We’re investigating, obviously, the death of your ex-wife and another man.

T.L.
   
Someone told us that.

P.V.
  
Yeah, and we’re going to need to talk to you about that. Are you divorced from her now?

O.J.
  
Yes.

P.V.
  
How long have you been divorced?

O.J.
  
Officially? Probably close to two years, but we’ve been apart for a little over two years.

P.V.
   
Have you?

O.J.
  
Yeah.

P.V.
  
What was your relationship with her? What was the...

O.J.
  
Well, we tried to get back together, and it just didn’t work. It wasn’t working, and so we were going our separate ways.

P.V.
  
Recently, you tried to get back together?

O.J.
  
We tried to get back together for about a year, you know, where we started dating each other and seeing each other. She came back and wanted us to get back together, and...

P.V.
  
Within the last year, you’re talking about?

O.J.
  
She came back about a year and four months ago about us trying to get back together, and we gave it a shot. We gave it a shot the better part of a year. And I think we both knew it wasn’t working, and probably three weeks ago or so we said it just wasn’t working and we went our separate ways.

P.V.
   
Okay, the two children are yours?

O.J.
   
Yes.

T.L.
  
 
She have custody?

O.J.
   
We have joint custody.

T.L.
   
Through the courts?

O.J.
  
We went through the courts and everything. Everything is done. We have no problems with the kids, we do everything together, you know, with the kids.

P.V.
   
How was your separation? Was that a...?

O.J.
  
The first separation?

P.V.
   
Yeah, was there problems with that?

O.J.
  
For me, it was big problems. I loved her, I didn’t want us to separate.

P.V.
  
Uh huh. I understand she had made a couple of crime... crime reports or something?

O.J.
  
Ah, we had a big fight about six years ago on New Years, you know, she made a report. I didn’t make a report. And then we had an altercation about a year ago maybe. It wasn’t a physical argument. I kicked her door or something.

P.V.
  
And she made a police report on those two occasions?

O.J.
  
Mmm hmm. And I stayed right there until the police came, talked to them.

T.L.
  
Were you arrested at one time for something?

O.J.
  
No. I mean, five years ago we had a big fight, six years ago. I don’t know. I know I ended up doing community service.

P.V.
   
So you weren’t arrested?

O.J.
   
No, I was never really arrested.

T.L.
   
They never booked you or...?

O.J.
   
No.

P.V.
   
Can I ask you, when s the last time you’ve slept?

O.J.
  
I got a couple of hours sleep last night. I mean, you know, I slept a little on the plane, not much, and when I got to the hotel I was asleep a few hours when the phone call came.

T.L.
   
Did Nicole have a housemaid that lived there?

O.J.
   
I believe so, yes.

T.L.
   
Do you know her name at all?

O.J.
   
Evia, Elvia, something like that.

P.V.
  
We didn’t see her there. Did she have the day off, perhaps?

O.J.
  
I don’t know. I don’t know what schedule she’s on.

T.L.
   
Phil, what do you think? Maybe we can just recount last night...

P.V.
  
Yeah. When was the last time you saw Nicole?

O.J.
  
We were leaving a dance recital. She took off and I was talking to her parents.

P.V.
   
Where was the dance recital?

O.J.
   
Paul Revere High School.

P.V.
   
And was that for one of your children?

O.J.
   
Yeah, for my daughter Sydney.

P.V.
   
And what time was that yesterday?

O.J.
  
It ended about six-thirty, quarter to seven, something like that, you know, in the ballpark, right in that area. And they took off.

P.V.
  
They?

O.J.
  
Her and her family, her mother and father, sisters, my kids, you know.

P.V.
  
And then you went your separate way?

O.J.
  
Yeah, actually she left, and then they came back and her mother got in a car with her, and the kids all piled into her sister’s car, and they...

P.V.
   
Was Nicole driving?

O.J.
   
Yeah.

P.V.
   
What kind of car was she driving?

O.J.
  
Her black car, a Cherokee, a Jeep Cherokee.

P.V.
  
What were you driving?

O.J.
  
My Rolls-Royce, my Bentley.

P.V.
  
Do you own that Ford Bronco that sits outside?

O.J.
  
Hertz owns it, and Hertz lets me use it.

P.V.
   
So that’s your vehicle, the one that was parked there on the street?

O.J.
   
Mm hmm.

P.V.
   
And it’s actually owned by Hertz?

O.J.
   
Hertz, yeah.

P.V.
   
Who’s the primary driver on that? You?

O.J.
  
I drive it, the housekeeper drives it, you know, it’s kind of a...

P.V.
  
All-purpose type vehicle?

O.J.
  
All purpose, yeah. It’s the only one that my insurance will allow me to let anyone else drive.

P.V.
  
Okay.

T.L.
  
When you drive it, where do you park it at home? Where it is now, it was in the street or something?

O.J.
  
I always park in the street. T.L.
  
You never take it in the...?

O.J. Oh, rarely. I mean, I’ll bring it in and switch the stuff, you know, and stuff like that. I did that yesterday, you know.

T.L.
   
When did you last drive it?

O.J.
   
Yesterday.

P.V.
   
What time yesterday?

O.J.
   
In the morning, in the afternoon.

P.V.
  
Okay, you left her, you’re saying, about six-thirty or seven, or she left the recital?

O.J.
  
Yeah.

P.V.
   
And you spoke with her parents?

O.J.
  
Yeah.

P.V.
   
Okay, what time did you leave the recital?

O.J.
   
Right about that time. We were all leaving. We were all leaving then. Her mother said something about me joining them for dinner, and I said no thanks.

P.V.
  
Where did you go from there, O.J.?

O.J.
  
Ah, home, home for a while, got my car for a while, tried to find my girlfriend for a while, came back to the house.

P.V.
   
Who was home when you got home?

O.J.
   
Kato.

P.V.
   
Kato? Anybody else? Was your daughter there, Arnelle?

O.J.
   
No.

P.V.
   
Isn’t that her name, Arnelle?

O.J.
   
Arnelle, yeah.

P.V.
  
So what time do you think you got back home, actually physically got home?

O.J.
  
Seven-something.

P.V.
  
Seven-something? And then you left, and...

O.J.
  
Yeah, I’m trying to think, did I leave? You know I’m always...
 
I had to run and get my daughter some flowers. I was actually doing the recital, so I rushed and got her some flowers, and I came home, and then I called Paula as I was going to her house, and Paula wasn’t home.

P.V.
  
Paula is your girlfriend?

O.J.
   
Girlfriend, yeah.

P.V.
   
Paula who?

O.J.
   
Barbieri.

P.V.
   
Could you spell that for me?

O.J.
   
B-A-R-B-I-E-R-I.

P.V.
   
Do you know an address on her?

O.J.
   
No, she lives on Wilshire, but I think she’s out of town.

P.V.
   
You got a phone number?

O.J.
   
Yeah, of course, [310] 470-3468.

P.V.
   
So you didn’t see her last night?

O.J.
  
No, we’d been to a big affair the night before, and then I came back home. I was basically at home. I mean, anytime I was... Whatever time it took me to get to the recital and back, to get to the flower shop and back, I mean, that’s the time I was out of the house.

P.V.
  
Were you scheduled to play golf this morning, some place?

O.J.
  
In Chicago.

P.V.
  
What kind of a tournament was it?

O.J.
  
Ah, it was Hertz, with special clients.

P.V.
  
Oh, okay. What time did you leave last night, leave the house?

O.J.
 
 
To go to the airport? P.V.
  
Mmm hmm.

O.J.
  
About... The limo was supposed to be there at ten forty-five. Normally, they get there a little earlier. I was rushing around, somewhere between there and eleven.

P.V.
   
So approximately ten forty-five to eleven.

O.J.
   
Eleven o’clock, yeah, somewhere in that area.

P.V.
   
And you went by limo?

O.J.
   
Yeah.