Defense Battered; Prosecutor Fined -- Testimony, Rulings Go Against Simpson

LOS ANGELES - After dispensing with 30 defense witnesses in nine days, the O.J. Simpson trial was given a breather today - and perhaps not a moment too soon for the battered defense, the giddy jury and one poorer prosecutor.

The defense suffered a major setback yesterday when the judge severely restricted the testimony of one expert lined up for next week and held open the possibility of barring another. Then the defense, trying to set forth its conspiracy theories, saw two more of its witnesses give the prosecution more help than they gave Simpson.

At the same time, the jury suffered a case of the giggles when testimony veered to panties and prayer meetings.

The panel gets a three-day weekend: No court was scheduled today.

Clark fined for personal attack

The frivolity came in spite of - or perhaps as a result of - tension that built earlier. Judge Lance Ito fined prosecutor Marcia Clark $250 for a personal attack against a defense witness.

Clark had suggested that the proposed witness could not be relied upon to testify truthfully.

"I've warned you already," Ito said, interrupting her. "Sanction is $250. Don't leave court without writing a check."

Testimony won't resume until Monday, at the earliest. The judge held up the flow of witnesses to give prosecutors time to prepare for the testimony of a scientist for the defense whose report was turned over only recently.

Simpson, who says he was home alone during the June 12, 1994, murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman, contends he was the victim of a wide-ranging police frame-up.

The defense's ability to press that argument hit a setback after Ito blocked most of the testimony from an expert who conducted tests on the time it takes sock fabric to dry. The defense contends the tests could prove that blood was planted on socks seized from the foot of Simpson's bed the day after the murders.

Ito agreed with prosecutors that Herbert MacDonell's experiment was flawed, partly because materials and conditions affecting the seized socks were not accurately re-created in the test.

Defense lawyers have said MacDonell's experiments suggested blood was placed on at least one of the socks when it was lying flat, not when it was being worn.

Another defense witness, blood expert Fredric Rieders, was scheduled to testify next.

Rieders is expected to say that a lab preservative called EDTA was found on the socks and on a back gate of Nicole Simpson's condominium. That preservative is commonly added to blood stored at the police crime lab, and the defense argues its presence in evidence blood samples would prove that blood was planted.

Witnesses damage defense case

Yesterday, the defense tried to use two police witnesses to support the sock-planting theory, with adverse results.

Police photographer Willie Ford, whose video shot inside Simpson's house the day after the murders shows no socks in the bedroom, explained that he only taped rooms after they were searched.

Then Detective Bert Luper testified that he saw the socks collected by criminalist Dennis Fung - before Ford even arrived at the house.

A rare bright spot for the defense was the testimony of Simpson's maid, Josephine Guarin, who held up well under cross-examination by prosecutor Christopher Darden.

Guarin deflated Darden's suggestion that Simpson tried to wash bloody clothes, testifying that dark clothing found in a washing machine belonged not to Simpson but to his daughter Arnelle, who also lives on the estate. Among the telltale clues: the laundry included women's panties, Guarin said.

When defense attorney Johnnie Cochran Jr. asked during redirect questioning if Simpson ever walked around the house in women's underwear, the jury started laughing.

Then, when Guarin - a Filipina - struggled with the word "prayer," one of the juror alternates blurted it out so the whole courtroom could hear. The judge remarked that the jury had an interpreter, and the panel cracked up laughing. One juror had to wipe tears from her eyes. Information from the Los Angeles Times was included in this report.