Preservative Found In Evidence Blood, Defense Expert Says

LOS ANGELES - Blood found on a sock in O.J. Simpson's bedroom and on a crime scene gate appears to contain a preservative, a scientist testified today as the Simpson defense tried to prove a frame-up.

Fredric Rieders, a forensic toxicologist, offered the defense's first scientific evidence to back up its claim that Simpson was the victim of a police conspiracy.

The defense claims the presence of the preservative EDTA proves the blood on the sock came from a vial of Nicole Brown Simpson's autopsy blood and the gate blood came from a vial of blood Simpson gave to police the day after the murders.

Rieders' testimony was slow and dense. He used charts and graphs to give jurors a minilecture in sophisticated analysis of blood samples.

"Do you have an opinion of whether . . . there is EDTA in the stain from the back gate?" asked defense attorney Robert Blasier.

"In my opinion, yes, it demonstrates there is EDTA present in that stain," Rieders said.

They were referring to a stain on the back gate of Nicole Simpson's condominium.

Dripped his own blood

Prosecutors say Simpson dripped his own blood on the gate after murdering his ex-wife and Ronald Goldman on June 12, 1994.

Rieders also said he saw signs of EDTA on a speck of blood on a dark sock taken from the foot of Simpson's bed the day after the murders.

Rieders didn't immediately say how much EDTA was in the blood speck. Prosecutors contend the amount is so little as to be scientifically insignificant.

One prosecutor said an FBI agent got the same result from tests on his own untreated blood.

Rieders also said the test on the sock blood may have turned up another substance besides EDTA.

"It might be anything in the universe," the toxicologist said.

Superior Court Judge Lance Ito refused to bar Rieders' testimony, which a prosecutor argued would be irrelevant and misleading. But Ito did say prosecutors could ask Rieders about possible mistakes in a past murder case.

The ruling admitting the testimony was a rare legal victory for the defense. In the past two weeks, Ito has restricted testimony from defense witnesses, including a blood-splatter expert and a man who would have bolstered the defense theory that the murders were a drug hit.

Rieders, founder of National Medical Services laboratory in Willow Grove, Pa., analyzed FBI data to reach his conclusions.

Prosecutors are expected to counter his findings by pointing out that EDTA is found in other substances, including laundry detergent.

But Rieders testified his findings did not come from laundry soap.

Deputy District Attorney Brian Kelberg argued that Rieders' analysis could show that the tests were not conclusive, the same kind of test the judge previously ruled inadmissible at the request of the defense.

Not first appearance

Rieders' appearance isn't his first in a high-profile trial. He testified in a 1991 civil action authorities filed against Michigan doctor Jack Kevorkian to stop physician-assisted suicides.

Another defense expert, blood-splatter specialist Herbert MacDonell, is expected to testify later that a red substance on one of the socks found by police in Simpson's bedroom was smeared there - the way a frame-up artist would do it - and not splashed or dripped, as prosecutors suggest.

But much of MacDonell's proposed testimony, including discussions of an experiment he ran on blood and sock material, was excised by the judge, leaving MacDonell with the opportunity to only discuss the shape and nature of a stain.