Prosecutor: Simpson Skipped Medicine So Hands Would Swell

LOS ANGELES - A prosecutor alleged that O.J. Simpson stopped taking anti-inflammation arthritis medication so his hands would swell up and not fit gloves that prosecutors contend link him to murder, a transcript released today shows.

Defense attorney Johnnie Cochran Jr. scoffed at - but didn't deny - prosecutor Christopher Darden's accusation. "My dear friends are being paranoid," Cochran said, according to the transcript of yesterday's discussion.

At another sidebar meeting, Darden disclosed that prosecutors plan to produce a photograph of Simpson wearing the leather gloves that prosecutors contend he wore the night his ex-wife and her friend were slain.

The nasty exchanges came as attorneys argued about whether Simpson should be forced to try on a new pair of gloves similar to the make and model of bloody gloves found at the murder scene and at Simpson's estate. The judge eventually allowed the demonstration.

"At some point," Darden tells Cochran in the transcript, "we are going to have a picture of him with the gloves on. So, hey, you know, why are we burning up all this (court reporter) paper?"

The private sidebar discussions about gloves - so mean-spirited the judge ultimately fined both Darden and Cochran - reflected the continuing concern by prosecutors over last week's demonstration in which Simpson struggled to put on the bloody gloves.

Reasons for the poor fit

The prosecution, facing widespread criticism, has suggested a number of reasons for the poor fit: that the gloves shrank from being soaked in blood, that the protective rubber gloves Simpson wore created friction and that Simpson was faking his struggle.

Darden suggested yesterday that Simpson was purposely trying to thwart the prosecution's glove demonstrations.

"Mr. Simpson has arthritis, and we looked at the medication that he takes and some of it is anti-inflammatory," Darden said. "And we are told that he has not taken the stuff for a day and it caused swelling in the joints and inflammation in his hands."

It was unclear whether Darden was talking about the demonstration with the actual murder gloves or yesterday's presentation with the similar gloves.

Cochran responded that Simpson "has medicine" and that "he doesn't want to be sick." He didn't say whether Simpson had stopped taking the medication.

The sidebars were marked by Cochran and Darden trading personal attacks. The pair have been at odds since Cochran suggested Darden was put on the prosecution team to endear the prosecution to the black-majority jury. Cochran and Darden are both black.

No single incident appears to have prompted Superior Court Judge Lance Ito to slap the $250 fines on Cochran and Darden, later reduced to $100 each. The last straw for Ito came in a sidebar in which Darden remarks, in apparent reference to Cochran: "Were you moaning again?"

"Wait a minute," Ito said. "I've about had enough of this between the two of you."

"He started it, your honor," Darden said.

"You are both baiting each other," Ito responded. "You both violated the court's order (on courtroom etiquette). Two hundred and fifty bucks for both of you, today."

Trying to repair damage

The sidebars came on a day in which the prosecution tried to repair damage from last week's glove debacle.

In a demonstration planned with precision, prosecutors had Simpson try on the new pair of gloves. Unlike last week, the gloves slipped onto Simpson's hands.

The demonstration didn't impress legal analysts, who said the prosecution probably gained nothing, and didn't concern the defense, which called the display "bogus."

"With all the effort and strategy and game playing, I'm not convinced that it advanced the prosecution's case or in any way erased the impression left last week that the shrunken gloves did not fit," said Southwestern University law professor Robert Pugsley.

The demonstration did make for good courtroom theater, however, a far cry from today's hearing in which population geneticist Bruce Weir began his testimony on what kind of mathematical formulas to use in determining DNA matches of blood stains from different people.

In revisiting the great glove demonstration, prosecutors took no chances of repeating last week's debacle, which included Simpson muttering to the jury, "They don't fit."

Prosecutors accused Simpson of acting and said the gloves had shrunk from being soaked with blood. The defense said they didn't fit because they weren't his.