O.J. Simpson's Lawyers May Say `Racist Cop' Planted Glove -- L.A. Detective's Psychiatric History May Be Spotlighted

LOS ANGELES - O.J. Simpson's lawyers will try to trump one of the strongest cards in the prosecution's hand - a bloody glove discovered outside his mansion - by attacking the detective who found it, two magazines reported.

The defense will argue that Detective Mark Fuhrman was a racist officer with a history of psychological problems who planted the glove on Simpson's estate the morning after the killings, The New Yorker said in its July 25 issue.

"This is a bad cop. . . . This is a racist cop," said one lawyer in the article by Jeffrey Toobin, which cites interviews with at least two "leading members of Simpson's defense team," who are not identified.

Newsweek, in its July 25 issue, said the defense may try to paint Fuhrman as a "rogue cop who was trying to advance his own career."

The glove discovered on Simpson's property on June 13, the day after Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman were stabbed to death outside her condo, matches a glove found at the crime scene. The gloves were among the strongest evidence presented by prosecutors at Simpson's preliminary hearing.

Fuhrman denied the allegations. "Of course it didn't happen," he told The New Yorker, declining to comment further.

Calls placed to two residential listings for Mark Fuhrman in the Los Angeles area were not returned last night. Police declined to comment on the case.

Simpson has pleaded not guilty to two counts of first-degree murder. He is jailed without bail.

Simpson's lead lawyer, Robert Shapiro, said last night that he was not a source of the report and had not seen it.

On Thursday, sources close to the defense told The Associated Press that Simpson's lawyers were investigating Fuhrman and might suggest in court that he planted the glove.

One lawyer quoted in The New Yorker said the defense will claim that Simpson was framed; another said it hadn't been decided.

The lawyers claimed Fuhrman had two reasons to plant evidence: He wanted to be in the spotlight, and he is racist. Simpson is black; Fuhrman and both victims are white.

The magazine cited reports from psychiatrists who treated Fuhrman, who left the Marines in 1975. He later told Dr. Ronald Koegler that Marines of other races caused him to stop enjoying military service.

Newsweek and The New Yorker both cited a 1983 lawsuit that Fuhrman filed against the city, seeking permanent disability pay for job-related psychiatric problems. The city claimed he was out to cheat the department. Fuhrman lost the case.

Fuhrman and his psychiatrist contended that he had an "explosive personality." Fuhrman told a doctor hired by the city that he was a danger to himself and others; the doctor's reports said Fuhrman admitted beating and abusing suspects.

"I have this urge to kill people that upset me," he told the doctor.

In general, Fuhrman's progress reports from the police department were favorable. A police spokesman said there is no public record of disciplinary proceedings against him.

Koegler wrote that Fuhrman was too ready to use violence during arrests, and a Hispanic man sued Fuhrman, claiming that in 1978 he and another officer attacked the man without cause. That case was dismissed in 1985 after the plaintiff left the country.