All in the Family–and Defense Team

Does this strike you as bizarre or is it just me?

I suppose it shouldn’t be surprising for a Kardashian to hire a lawyer who’s well-known to his family. Rob’s dad, Robert, was co-counsel with Bob Shapiro on Simpson’s defense team. Nor should it be surprising for Kardashian to go with a lawyer who was on a winning side, which Shapiro was as part of that defense team, which prevailed in Simpson’s 1995 murder trial.

Still… What do you think?

http://forward.com/fast-forward/376637/rob-kardashian-hires-oj-simpsons-former-lawyer-to-defend-him-in-wake-of-rev/

Summer sale on Anatomy of a Trial: Public Loss, Lessons Learned from The People vs. O.J. Simpson @ Anatomy of a Trial: Public Loss, Lessons Learned from The People vs. O.J. Simpson — $7.99 (includes shipping with Prime). Or get a signed copy directly from the author — $7.99 plus shipping @ http://anatomyofatrial.com/contact/.

 

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.

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.

Kimmie’s Memory Must be a Dream

Anyone believing this story has to be about as big a double boob as the current queen of t&a.

“For members of a different generation, the name Kardashian invokes a different kind of infamy  — the O.J. Simpson trial, where Robert Kardashian served as O.J.’s defense attorney.

Amidst details about Caitlyn Jenner and her sex tape, Kim Kardashian shared a wild story about O.J. in her new Rolling Stone cover story, claiming he moved into Robert Kardashian’s compound and stayed in Khloe’s room while his trial was going on.”

Why can’t this tale be true? Simpson was in custody and housed in the Los Angeles County jail for the duration of his trial. He was jailed after being arrested on June 17, 1994 and wasn’t released until  Oct. 3, 1995, the day the jury’s acquittal was announced in court.

Kim K., who was 13 at the time of the trial, must have had a dream she thinks came true.

Kardashian Motion in the (Louis Vuitton) Bag?

 Kardashian’s role,

The subject of a motion.

What he knows is secret.

6/9/95

This is so obscure, I almost couldn’t recall what it’s about. I thought it might have to do with Robert Kardashian urging Simpson to surrender to police after the murders of Simpson’s ex-wife, Nicole Brown, and Brown’s acquaintance, Ronald Goldman.

Kardashian, being a lawyer and Simpson confidante, had Simpson staying at his home for several days after the murders. Instead of surrendering as Kardashian had arranged, though,  Simpson left Kardashian flat-footed and took off on what became the infamous slow-speed Bronco chase. A stood-up Kardashian then read Simpson’s “suicide note” to the news media.

Most likely, though, this haiku was related to something else that became infamous; Simpson’s Louis Vuitton garment bag.

Kardashian ended up with the garment bag, which Simpson assistant Cathy Randa gave him the day after the murders. Simpson had apparently brought it back with him from Chicago, where he flown to a short time after the murders were committed.

Although Kardashian stipulated in a court document that he never opened the bag or knew what was in it, speculation abounded, particularly among the Goldman family, that it had contained the knife used as a murder weapon. When the bag became potential prosecution evidence, however, it was empty. As Simpson’s lawyer, Kardashian couldn’t be compelled to testify in court because of confidentiality allowed by attorney-client privilege.

In an ABC interview a year after the not-guilty verdict in Simpson’s murder trial, Kardashian is quoted as saying this about the question of Simpson’s innocence:

“I have doubts. The blood evidence is the biggest thorn in my side; that causes me the greatest problems. So I struggle with the blood evidence.”

My own personal belief is that Kardashian had more than doubts. Every time I see Kardashian’s reaction and the expression on his face when Simpson trial Judge Lance Ito’s judicial assistant Deirdre Robertson reads the jury verdict, I’m convinced he either thought or knew that Simpson was guilty and that he and his defense team had pulled off the greatest coup. 

 

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.

Sideshows Spawned by Simpson “Media Circus”

This story, How the O.J. Simpson trial paved the way for all things Kardashian, published a few days ago, raises an interesting point:

Would any of the Kardashians have made it big, or even have made it small, were it not for their patriarch, Robert, who was a confidante of O.J. Simpson and a member of his defense team?

I remember Kris at the trial in one of the more bizarre events during court proceedings — and there were a lot! Here’s how I recounted it in “Anatomy of a Trial”:

“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 judge, 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 court that same day was Jenner with his current wife [Kris], who was the ex-wife of Simpson attorney Robert Kardashian. The Jenners sat with former baseball star [Steve] Garvey and his wife, who, months earlier, had been a prosecution witness.”

While it’s unknown if the Simpson trial was the Kardashians’ soda fountain counter stool [a la Lana Turner], the Zap2it writer, Sarah Huggins, of the above referenced article did correctly label the spectacle attendant to the trial, although probably not as she intended. That label was “media circus.”  While there certainly was a media circus surrounding the the trial, hard as they tried to make viewers and readers believe the trial itself was a circus, all the circus antics were outside the courtroom — including the demeaning little joke defense attorney Robert Shapiro pulled on Deputy District Attorney Chris Darden, which occurred in the back hallway behind the courtroom.

As the two lawyers were coming out of Ito’s chambers, Shapiro pointed to Darden’s necktie and appeared to ask him something about it. When Darden looked down at his tie, Shapiro brought his finger up and chucked Darden sharply under his chin. Shapiro smirked and said something I didn’t hear, but Darden looked humiliated.

OJS Series Cast Good, Book Anecdote Not

Casting for the TV series  American Crime Story: The People V. O.J. Simpson looks pretty good, so far.Cuba Gooding Jr. as       (Photo: Getty Images)                                                                            O.J. Simpson

Sarah Paulson as Marcia Clark                          (Photo: Gregg DeGuire, WireImage)

John Travolta as Bob Shapiro                         (Photo: Philip Cheung/Getty Images)

David Schwimmer as       (Photo: D Dipasupil/Getty Images)                                            Robert Kardashian

So far as appearances are concerned, these actors are believable as the characters they’ve been cast to play. The series is reportedly based on a book , The Run of His Life: The People v. O.J. Simpson, by New Yorker magazine writer Jeffrey Toobin. My greatest hope for this series is that it won’t follow Toobin’s account of a visit to Ito’s chambers by Larry King. Because it’s wrong. I don’t know where Toobin got his information about the description of the meeting and conversation, but setting the meeting up was my idea. Ito agreed to it only because I suggested it would be an opportunity to thank King personally for granting two requests Ito had made  concerning media coverage, which he thought would complicate jury selection. While King’s visit turned into a fiasco, which I describe on page 65 of Anatomy of a Trial,the exchange Toobin relates didn’t happen. “…he provides a great example of why courts don’t permit hearsay testimony,” I wrote. It had to be hearsay because Toobin wasn’t present during King’s visit. I know, because I was. I was escorted King and his entourage to and from the visit. At no time was Toobin there.

http://www.rollingstone.com/tv/news/john-travolta-joins-american-crime-story-people-v-oj-simpson-20150107#ixzz3PQLKiFFl