Simpson Trial Prosecution Backs Down -- Marcia Clark Will Not Ask Judge Ito To Leave The Case

LOS ANGELES - O.J. Simpson prosecutors decided against seeking the ouster of Judge Lance Ito today, a day after the trial fell into chaos over the role of Ito's police-captain wife in her dealings with Detective Mark Fuhrman.

"We have determined that our faith in this court's wisdom and integrity has not been and will not be misplaced," prosecutor Marcia Clark told Ito. "Accordingly, we agree to pursue (the case) as previously delineated in this court's order that was issued yesterday."

She also said she believed Ito should decide all matters involved in the case, including the admissibility of interview tapes of Fuhrman, the controversy that started the removal effort.

At issue is Ito's marriage to Los Angeles Police Capt. Margaret York, who is allegedly disparaged - along with blacks and Jews - by Detective Mark Fuhrman on tape recordings. The defense wants to play the tapes to discredit Fuhrman, who says he found a bloody glove behind Simpson's mansion.

Yesterday an emotional Ito removed himself from the narrow issue of whether the tapes should be admitted into evidence. Superior Court Judge John Reid will decide the issue.

"I love my wife dearly," Ito said from the bench, halting to fight for composure, "and I am wounded by criticism of her, as any spouse would be. I think it's reasonable to assume that (the Fuhrman statements) could have some impact."

California judges are barred from cases in which their spouses have

"personal knowledge of disputed evidentiary facts."

"Although our review of the case law indicated that we are entitled under the law to seek the court's full recusal, we have determined that it is not the only course," Clark said today.

Yesterday, Clark had said she would seek to have Ito removed because of the appearance of a conflict of interest.

The defense even prepared and filed a response to the anticipated motion.

The apparent conflict of interest stems from taped interviews of Fuhrman in which he utters racial epithets, contradicting his trial testimony. Fuhrman's comments also contradict a sworn statement by York, who said she had limited knowledge of the detective and had no disagreements with him.

"Injecting this issue into this case, your honor, has hurt many decent people - yourself and us, and I'm sure it will hurt the jurors when they hear it, if they do," Clark said today.

Even as the prosecution flip-flopped on its intentions, the content of the tapes was in dispute. A lawyer for their owner said Simpson attorney Johnnie Cochran Jr. had mischaracterized them.

"A lot of it is inaccurate. He's trying to recall what was written in the transcript, but he doesn't have it in front if him," said Ron Regwan, who represents screenwriting Professor Laura Hart McKinny.

"When he quotes Mark Fuhrman, those are not entirely accurate." Regwan wouldn't elaborate.

Several legal experts said they believe Ito would have allowed the jury to hear at least portions of the tape because they bear on Fuhrman's credibility as a witness.

Two women who say they heard Fuhrman admit to pulling over interracial couples in traffic for no reason in the mid-1980s still are scheduled to testify.

The defense also wants to call Fuhrman back to the witness stand to confront him with the tapes.

Prosecutors told Ito that they were considering calling York as a witness to bolster their contention that Fuhrman was exaggerating and repeating other people's opinions rather than his own in the recordings.

Cochran argued against giving the case to a different judge, saying it would be difficult to find one who would not be offended by Fuhrman's inflammatory statements.

"It's not going to be easy," he said. "If you want to send it to a woman, he doesn't like them. If you want to send it to blacks, he doesn't like them. If you want to send it to a Mexican, he doesn't like them. He doesn't like Jews, doesn't like anyone unless they're white, Anglo-Saxon police officers."

Fuhrman's attorneys insist he was only helping create dialogue for screenwriter McKinny.

The screenplay's title, "Men Against Women," borrows the real name of an informal group of female-hating officers at the West Los Angeles police division in the 1980s that reportedly included Fuhrman. Fuhrman and Ito's wife worked at the station in 1985.

Departmental investigations into sexual harassment in that division resulted in the transfer of several veteran officers as late as 1994, according to recent newspaper reports.

Defense attorneys contend Fuhrman is expressing his own racist views on the tapes, which they say contradict Fuhrman's sworn testimony that he never used a particularly offensive racial term for blacks in the past decade.

The defense claims that Fuhrman, who found the glove that is a key item of evidence at the Simpson estate, had motivation to plant the item because of his racism. Court transcripts of private meetings Monday revealed that on the tapes, Fuhrman describes police brutality, notes that Simpson lawyer Robert Shapiro is Jewish and predicts the Simpson prosecution is doomed without Fuhrman.

Police officials are reviewing records to see if certain incidents mentioned by Fuhrman on the tapes took place, the Los Angeles Times reported today.

Information from the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune are included in this report.