Remembering What Didn’t Happen?

In NPR’s Jeremy Hobson’s Here and Now interview with TV critic Eric Deggins on Feb. 2, 2016, about the FX drama “The People vs. O.J. Simpson” Jeremey said the show reminds us of so much we forgot about that happened in the 1994-95 Simpson trial.

So I told Jeremy (yes, I talk to the radio, also to the TV), “That’s because so much that’s being portrayed in the FX miniseries didn’t happen.”

An example is the prominent role Kris Jenner, ex-wife of defense counsel Robert Kardashian, has been given. Her pre-“The People vs. O.J. Simpson” comments have her in the courtroom, hanging onto every word throughout the trial.

No. She showed up on one day only. That was Sept. 27, 1995, more than nine months after the trial started and less than a week before it ended with not-guilty verdicts. She sat with her then-husband Bruce Jenner and friends Steve Garvey and Garvey’s wife.

 Photo courtesy of MPJI/HGSTAR1 NEWSPHOTO taken on Sept. 27, 1995, by Photojournalist Haywood Galbreath 

My huge problem with this series and with so much that has been written and portrayed about that case and the trial is the perpetuation of misperceptions, myths and fantasies that just didn’t happen.

Kris Jenner’s 9-27 OJS Trial Photo Finish

Photojournalist Haywood Galbreath, the only photographer  who shot pictures in Judge Lance Ito’s courtroom every day of the O.J. Simpson trial, saw a previous blog post in which I wrote that the only day I knew of that Kris Jenner attended the OJ Simpson trial in person was Sept. 27, 1995, less than a week before the trial ended in not guilty verdicts. Here’s the photo Galbreath took that day, Sept. 27, 1995, of Kris Jenner, her then-husband Bruce Jenner on her right, and to her left Steve Garvey’s wife and Steve Garvey.

MPJI/HGSTAR1 NEWSPHOTO

Galbreath says he took took pictures of people (who thought they were somebody) who showed up in the courtroom.

Kardashian-Jenner Ex a One-Time Show

I’m trying to square this as reported in People magazine:

“Kris Jenner still recalls sitting in the courtroom during the trial of O.J. Simpson, hanging on every word, still grieving the loss of her best friend, Nicole Brown Simpson.”

According to my records and memory, Kris Jenner made it into the courtroom a grand total of once, and that was Sept. 27, 1995, a full 15 months after Nicole Brown was murdered and more than nine months after the trial’s opening statements.

That’s right, more than nine months after the trial’s opening statements. That means, while she was indeed pregnant–very pregnant according to my memory of her that day–as the People piece points out, she became so after the trial began. That should be neither here nor there, except that almost every mention of her in connection with the trial includes a reference to her being pregnant.

What merits noting is that she was not a frequent courtroom attendee. Here’s my account in Anatomy of a Trial of the only day in my records that Kris and her husband at that time, Bruce Jenner, came to the Simpson trial:

“Another day of a strange star alignment occurred less than a week before the trial ended. On September 27, Ito had given the two courtroom seats he held in reserve for his use, generally for visiting judges, his parents or other relatives, to a songwriter, David Foster, he knew and Foster’s wife. The wife had previously been married to former Olympian Jenner. And there in court that same day was Jenner with his current wife, who was the ex-wife of Simpson attorney Robert Kardashian.^[i] The Jenners sat with former baseball star Garvey and his wife, who, months earlier, had been a prosecution witness.

            “While the media didn’t miss a chance to report on celebrity comings and goings, their accounts were silent on the non-stars he met with, often sacrificing lunch or a couple minutes of down time to do so.”

[i].  Author’s notes, Author’s journal, September 27, 1995.

Marcia, Marcia, Marcia! Geez

The Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney, Marcia Clark, who was the lead prosecutor on the 1995 O.J. Simpson murder case, was interviewed not long ago and included as part of a promo barrage for a made-for-TV fantasy drama due to air next year.

In the interview with ET, she said, “I knew if there was a verdict, it was going to be a not guilty, and still there was that little part of me that said, ‘But they can’t! They can’t do it.'”

My reaction was, just believing a defendant is guilty isn’t enough, Marcia. You had to make the jury think so, too. Beyond a REASONABLE doubt.

Clark might have thought “The evidence was overwhelming” as she told ET, but I think there was plenty of evidence proving that she didn’t use the evidence she thinks was overwhelming to prove Simpson’s guilty beyond a reasonable doubt to the jury. Two glaring examples of what might have planted seeds of doubt in jurors’ minds are(1)  having Simpson try on gloves that were guaranteed not to go on over his latex-clad, arthritis-swollen hands, and (2) the lead detective on the case committing perjury on the witness stand.

One bit of fantasy being promoted as fact in the upcoming TV drama is this contention: Kris was often present in the courtroom with Caitlyn Jenner, formerly Bruce Jenner, as Kris’ ex-husband Robert Kardashian was a part of Simpson’s legal “Dream Team.”

All I can say is, NOT! The Jenners showed up one day very late in the trial, Sept. 27, to be exact, and sat with their buddies former Dodgers pitcher Steve Garvey and his wife. I wrote about that strange spectacle on page 67 of Anatomy of a Trial.

 

Shock Disbelief Joy Dismay Outrage

Judgment day is here.

Jurors somber, Simpson grim.

Not guilty verdicts.

10/3/95

Everything from elation to outrage erupted in the Simpson courtroom when the not-guilty verdicts were read. Those reactions exploded out of the courthouse and into the streets, through Los Angeles, up and down California, across the country and around the world. Yes, people everywhere were following the Simpson trial. In places as remote as Tibet, people knew what “the trial” was without anyone having to explain.

My own was disbelief. Weirdly, I didn’t know why. All during the trial, I swung from “It doesn’t look too good for Simpson” to “Well, I don’t know” to “Yeah, he had to have done it” to “I wonder…” Maybe it was because the jury had come back with a verdict so quickly — less than four hours. The jurors couldn’t have even selected a foreman and looked at the list of evidence in that time, much less discussed it. If I wasn’t convinced beyond a reasonable doubt, surely at least one of the jurors hadn’t been either. I later learned that even if one or more did, that didn’t matter nearly as much as getting out of the hotel where they had been sequestered for nine months and back to their homes. They had packed their bags the night before — after notifing the court that they had reached their verdicts: Not guilty of murdering Simpson’s ex-wife, Nicole Brown. Not guilty of murdering Nicole Brown’s friend Ronald Goldman.

It was easy to see the emotions on most of the faces in the courtroom. One face I couldn’t see because his back was toward me. When I did see it in TV footage later, it pretty much convinced me of Simpson’s guilt.

That was Robert Kardashian. Here are a couple of photos of him standing to Simpson’s right as the court clerk, Deirdre Robertson, reads the not guilty verdicts and a split second later. Watching the TV footage is even more telling.

 

Kardashian, who was Simpson’s longtime friend, lawyer and confidant and whose ex-wife, Kris Jenner, was supposedly Simpson’s ex-wife Nicole Brown’s good friend, obviously knew the truth.

20 Years Later: The Afterglow

Here it is 20 years since the 1995 O.J. Simpson trial and all kinds of previously undisclosed news is just now making headlines.

O.J. Simpson nearly committed suicide in Kim Kardashian’s bedroom at her dad’s house.

Kris Kardashian Jenner is finally expressing public remorse about not speaking up when she got the feeling her BFF Simpson ex-wife and eventual murder victim, Nicole Brown, thought her life was in danger. Some best friend. (BTW, interesting that when the Simpson case erupted, Faye Resnick claimed — as she promoted her hastily penned book — that SHE  was Nicole’s best friend.)

Author Lawrence Schiller, who hasn’t been seen or heard from since his book  American Tragedy: The Uncensored Story of the OJ Simpson Defense came out shortly after the trial, is talking about what would have been Simpson’s last words, had he, indeed, killed himself in Kim’s bedroom.

So why is all this coming out now? Oh, yeah. The 20-year anniversary of the Simpson trial and the irresistible spotlight.

Fiction Based on Fiction Doesn’t = Fact

So, how many errors can you sport in the opening paragraph of a US Weekly magazine story about an upcoming TV series based on a book about the 1995 OJ Simpson criminal trial:

“If you lived through the O.J. Simpson trial, chances are you remember Kato Kaelin — the hot-headed, sarcastic witness for the prosecution, who was a guest in Simpson’s home the night Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman were murdered. ”

I call out three.

The first two are the description of Kaelin as hot-headed and sarcastic. I recall him as a bit of a flake and perhaps reveling in his moment of fame. But he didn’t strike me as neither hot-headed nor sarcastic.

The third is that Kaelin was a guest in Simpson’s home. Perhaps I being picky, but rather than being a guest in Simpson’s home, my understanding is that he lived in a guest house behind the main house in which Simpson lived.

But then, considering some of the bloated roles that have been written into the series, such as that of Kris Jenner, and the book it’s based on, I supposed such mischaracterizations are to be expected.

Hasn’t enough misperception, misrepresentation and character assassination taken place already? Sure is maddening.

Read more: http://www.usmagazine.com/entertainment/news/kato-kaelin-thoughts-american-crime-story-cast-201526#ixzz3cFaVWN7d
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Hiring ‘Reality’ Star Won’t Make it the Real Deal

As the makers of the upcoming Simpson murder trial TV series on “American Crime Story” continue to hype names of cast members who will portray trial participants, signs loom that the TV production will be as problematic and flawed as the book its based on.

Today’s announcement was that Lisa Rinna will play Kris Jenner.

If the series is to bear any semblance of reality, and I have my doubts, considering the source of the material, Rinna will have little more than a walk-on part. Kris Jenner attended the trial a grand total of one day. During her brief time in the courtroom, she sat in her nearly nine-month bun-in-the-oven condition next to her husband of the moment, Bruce Jenner, while her husband of a previous moment and member of Simpson’s defense ‘dream team’, Robert Kardashian, sat at the defense table next to his famous client.

There was nothing note-worthy or even interesting about Kris Jenner’s presence in the courtroom.

The now infamous “Kardashians” at that time in 1995 were a thing long into the future.

In an apparent attempt to inflate Kris Jenner’s connection to the trial, ACS promoters point out that Kris Kardashian-cum Jenner and murder victim Nicole Brown gal pal Faye Resnick, whose dashed-off book hit news stands before the trial’s opening statements even got underway, were both friends of Nicole Brown.

Methinks, the following observation in The Celebrity Cafe.com story is the real reason for the Rinna-Jenner creation and the need to pump up Kris Jenner as a trial participant:

“A source also said that producers are excited for ‘the publicity that will come from hiring Lisa.’”

Oh, that Simpson ACS creators would base their series on Anatomy of a Trial — or at least read it.

Very Strange Odd Couples

The headline, Faye Resnick Parties at Kris Jenner’s 59th Birthday Party!, which popped up in the news a day or two ago, sparked a throwback moment for me.

The day was Sept. 27, 1995. As described on page 67 of Anatomy of a Trial: Public Lost, Lessons Learned from The People vs. O.J. Simpson:

“Another day of a strange star alignment occurred less than a week before the trial ended. On September 27, [Judge Lance] Ito had given the two courtroom seats he held in reserve for his use, generally for visiting judges, his parents, or other relatives, to songwriter David Foster, whom he knew, and Foster’s wife. The wife had previously been married to former Olympian [Bruce] Jenner. And there in the court that same day was Jenner with his current [extremely pregnant with Kendall] wife [Kris], who was the ex-wife of Simpson attorney Robert Kardashian. [Yes, THAT Kris Kardashian.] The Jenners sat with former baseball star [Steve] Garvey and his wife, who, months earlier, had been a prosecution witness.”

The most surprising and totally inexplicable after glow of that trial and Kardashian-name ride was the meteoric rise of the Kardashian girls and brand.  Granted, Kim, was only 14 — about to turn 15 — when the Simpson verdicts came in and the trial ended, but I’ve often wondered what, if any, the name recognition her dad achieved, thanks to his role in the Simpson case, had to do with the fame his ex and progeny gained nearly two decades later.

An Expression Worth 1,000 Words

When I saw this headline, Kris Jenner Talks About Her Ex-Husband Robert Kardashian And Says He Believed O.J. Simpson Was Innocent, my thought was, “You would never know, from his expression when the verdict was announced.”

Video footage of the courtroom scene with Simpson flanked by his attorneys, including Bob Kardashian, as the court clerk reads the verdict, almost always run with reports, reminders, reflections, discussions of the verdict. I am always struck by Kardashian’s expression.