Witness: Simpson Spoke Of Dreams -- Conversation Never Took Place - Defense

LOS ANGELES - He said he loved O.J. Simpson as a friend for 26 years. He breezed into Simpson's estate with a press of the gate buzzer. As a policeman, he even ran license-plate checks for him.

But now, Ronald Shipp says, he can't believe that Simpson would lie about a conversation they had the night after Simpson's ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ron Goldman were murdered.

"This is really sad, O.J.," Shipp said yesterday as he withstood a blistering cross-examination, staring at his old friend across the courtroom.

Shipp testified yesterday that on the night of June 13, after Simpson had been interviewed by police, Simpson questioned him about how long it would take to conduct DNA tests on a bloody glove found outside his mansion.

Shortly after, Shipp says, Simpson brought up the dreams.

"He jokingly said, `To be honest, Shipp, I've had some dreams of killing her,' " he said.

Simpson's lawyers said the conversation never took place. The judge barred Shipp from telling jurors that Simpson said the dreams were why he didn't want to take a lie-detector test.

When court resumed this morning, attorneys spent the first hour arguing about whether the bar on mentioning lie detectors misled the jurors, by taking the alleged dream statement out of context and making it seem that Shipp believed it followed directly after the DNA test comment.

Superior Court Judge Lance Ito told the attorneys to correct the problem during cross-examination of Shipp, which then resumed.

A retired member of the Los Angeles Police Department, Shipp took the stand yesterday after Ito ruled he could tell the jury about the Simpsons' relationship. Ito at first had refused to let Shipp tell jurors about the dreams conversation. But after hearing Shipp's testimony outside the jury's presence, the judge apparently decided Simpson's comment was relevant to the murder case.

As for Shipp's being Simpson's friend, defense attorney Johnnie Cochran Jr. said on NBC's "Today" show that Shipp "was asked to stop coming back so much" to Simpson's home. Cochran didn't cross-examine Shipp because they're cousins.

Jury misconduct?

Meanwhile, an L.A.-area TV station, KNBC, reported last night that an investigation has been opened into allegations of possible misconduct against some jurors. The story cited an unidentified source. Cochran declined to comment on the report, KNBC said.

"I think our jurors are working very hard," he told the station. "As you know, they are sequestered, and above that and beyond that, I can't really say anything at this point."

The power of Shipp's testimony yesterday showed in the faces of jurors, who were rapt. Some looked down in their laps as the intensity of the cross-examination increased.

Defense attorney Carl Douglas attacked Shipp's claim that he had a close relationship with Simpson. He sought to portray Shipp as a lying hanger-on with a drinking problem, and he said Shipp once brought a woman who was not his wife to Simpson's house to use the spa.

Shipp acknowledged that he had never dined out with Simpson or played tennis or golf with him.

"You're not really this man's friend, are you, sir?" Douglas asked.

"I guess I was like everybody else. I was one of his servants," said Shipp, noting that he ran license-plate checks for Simpson. He didn't say why.

Simpson and LAPD

With Shipp's testimony, Simpson's long and usually friendly relationship with the Los Angeles Police Department snapped into sharper focus. Since the beginning of the murder case, details have emerged about on- and off-duty contacts between Simpson and members of the LAPD, prompting several internal police investigations. Among them:

-- An off-duty officer acting as a private security guard helped Simpson - then a murder suspect - elude photographers after the funeral of his ex-wife. That officer, Sgt. Dennis Sebenick was investigated and recommended for a suspension. The status of that punishment could not be determined yesterday.

-- Although Simpson was the only suspect at the time, LAPD officials agreed to let him turn himself in following the murders - a decision that backfired when Simpson fled with his friend in a white Ford Bronco, leading police on a widely televised low-speed chase.

-- A police investigation found that the gun Simpson was cradling during the Bronco flight was registered to Earl C. Paysinger, a widely respected lieutenant in the mounted unit of the LAPD's Metropolitan Division. While off-duty, Paysinger has worked as a bodyguard for Los Angeles Raiders owner Al Davis and, sources say, has told investigators he bought the gun for Simpson once to help provide security for the famous running back. A high-ranking police source said the gun purchase did not constitute misconduct.

On the witness stand yesterday, Shipp was obviously tense, but he stayed calm during the questioning, his voice quiet, his gaze always in Simpson's direction. Simpson occasionally glared back.

Legal experts were divided over whether had given the defense powerful grounds for appeal by allowing the dream testimony. And psychologists warned that dreams are beyond the control of the dreamer.

Validity of dreams

"If we got charged with everything we dreamed about, we'd be in jail most of our lives," said psychologist Rosalind Cartwright, director of the sleep disorders service at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center in Chicago.

Cartwright and other therapists agreed that a dream is impossible to analyze without the dreamer providing his own meaning at the time he dreamed it. "I wouldn't even assume anger without working with the dreamer," said New York psychoanalyst Dr. Montague Ullman.

Deputy District Attorney Christopher Darden led Shipp through an account of how he served as a go-between for the Simpsons after their New Year's 1989 fight. Simpson later pleaded no contest to wife beating.

"From what he told me . . . they were making love, and Nicole wanted to stop for whatever reason and they started to argue," Shipp said. "At the time, he told me she was the aggressor and came after him, and he was acting in self-defense."

"He said he was defending himself and pushed her away," Shipp recalled, "and he really didn't hit her."

Shipp insisted under cross-examination that he didn't tell police earlier about the alleged remarks because "I didn't want to go down as the person who nailed O.J."

"You're not, so don't worry about it," Douglas snapped.

"I'm doing this for my conscience and my peace of mind," Shipp said. "I will not have the blood of Nicole on Ron Shipp. I can sleep at night, unlike a lot of others." Information from Los Angeles Times and Newsday is included in this report.