Tritia was a friend.
An interview could save her.
Painful lesson learned.
11/17/94
Judge Ito explained to me why he agreed to do the Toyota interview, and conceded it was a big mistake.
Still, the subject of the interview was not to have been or even touched on the Simpson case or the fact that Ito was the trial judge. Toyota represented to Ito that she wanted to interview him as the son of two people who met as internees in intern camps the government set up to imprison Americans of Japanese ancestry during WWII in conjunction with a Japanese-American National Museum exhibit of the Hart Mountain WY camp where Ito’s parents-to-be were housed. Toyota’s employer welshed on the promise to avoid the Simpson case and other guarantees given Ito, and disaster ensued.
This is covered on pages 25-32 in my book, Anatomy of a Trial.
Even still, the lesson, so far as I am concerned, is that friendship has no place for professionals in matters involving members of the media, regardless of all the best intentions in the world.
Anatomy of a Trial blog 