Defense Hammers Simpson Witness -- Controversy Over `Dream' Testimony
LOS ANGELES - The former police officer who testified that O.J. Simpson told him he dreamed about killing his ex-wife said today that he had been disciplined for a drinking problem, saw a psychiatrist and left his police job because of stress.
Ronald Shipp also said he often brought fellow police officers by Simpson's house to show off Simpson's football trophies, but denied one of those officers was Detective Mark Fuhrman, who later said he found a bloody glove at Simpson's house.
The defense has suggested Fuhrman planted the glove behind Simpson's house.
Shipp testified in the second day of relentless cross-examination by the defense, which was trying to discredit him by portraying him as a lying celebrity hanger-on trying to advance his acting career by linking himself to the Simpson case.
Under questions from defense lawyer Carl Douglas, Shipp insisted he was telling the truth when he said Simpson told him about dreams of killing Nicole Brown Simpson in a conversation the day after her murder and that of her friend, Ronald Goldman.
Shipp testified yesterday that following a conversation about DNA tests Simpson "kind of jokingly just said, `To be honest. Shipp,' that's what he calls me, Shipp, `I've had some dreams of killing her.' "
Following long arguments with the jury out of the courtroom, Superior Court Judge Lance Ito allowed Douglas to establish that the dream statement did not follow the DNA conversation, but came after Simpson had talked about not knowing whether he wanted to take a lie-detector test.
The subject of lie-detector tests is not admissible in California courts.
Attorneys argued over whether mentioning lie detectors misled the jurors, by taking the alleged dream statement out of context and making it seem that Shipp believed it followed directly after the DNA-test comment.
Ito barred Shipp from telling jurors that Simpson said the dreams were why he didn't want to take a lie-detector test.
Ito at first had refused to let Shipp tell jurors about the dreams conversation. But late yesterday, after hearing Shipp's testimony outside the jury's presence, the judge apparently decided Simpson's comment was relevant to the murder case.
Simpson's lawyers said the conversation never took place.
Prosecutor Marcia Clark argued that it was the dream statement that was important, not when it was said.
"Walt Disney said it best in `Sleeping Beauty': `A dream is a wish your heart makes,' " she said. Legal experts were divided over whether Ito had given the defense powerful grounds for appeal by allowing the dream testimony. And psychologists warned that dreams are beyond the control of the dreamer.
"If we got charged with everything we dreamed about, we'd be in jail most of our lives," said psychologist Rosalind Cartwright, director of the sleep-disorders service at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center in Chicago.
Earlier, Shipp said his drinking problem "got out of hand" in 1983, leading to a 15-day suspension when he showed up to work with alcohol on his breath. Shipp said the problem ended when he left the Los Angeles Police Department in 1989, but noted he has gotten drunk on occasions in the years since.
But Shipp denied being drunk - or even drinking - the night he claims Simpson talked about dreams.
Shipp also revealed that he was seeing a psychiatrist in 1989, and that he referred Simpson to the same psychiatrist after Nicole Simpson was beaten on New Year's Day 1989.
Asked why he left the LAPD that year after 15 years on the force, Shipp cited the stress of the job.
During a morning recess in the proceedings today Shipp was seen apparently mouthing the words "Tell the truth," to Simpson. The judge admonished the witness not to try to make contact with the defendant.
Shipp acknowledged that he had never dined out with Simpson or played tennis or golf with him.
"You're not really this man's friend, are you, sir?" Douglas asked.
"I guess I was like everybody else. I was one of his servants," said Shipp, noting that he ran license-plate checks for Simpson. He didn't say why.
Later, when questioned again by the prosecution, Shipp said he was, in fact, a close friend of Simpson's - one who arranged the security for Nicole Simpson's funeral and one who "never asked O.J. . . . for anything."
With Shipp's testimony, Simpson's long and usually friendly relationship with the LAPD snapped into sharper focus. Since the beginning of the murder case, details have emerged about on- and off-duty contacts between Simpson and members of the LAPD, prompting several internal police investigations. Among them:
-- An off-duty officer acting as a private security guard helped Simpson - then a murder suspect - elude photographers after the funeral of his ex-wife. That officer, Sgt. Dennis Sebenick was investigated and recommended for a suspension. -- Although Simpson was the only suspect at the time, LAPD officials agreed to let him turn himself in following the murders - a decision that backfired when Simpson fled with a friend in a white Ford Bronco, leading police on a widely televised low-speed chase.
-- A police investigation found that the gun Simpson was cradling during the Bronco flight was registered to Earl C. Paysinger, a widely respected lieutenant in the mounted unit of the LAPD's Metropolitan Division. While off-duty, Paysinger has worked as a bodyguard for Los Angeles Raiders owner Al Davis.
Meanwhile, an L.A.-area TV station, KNBC, reported last night that an investigation has been opened into allegations of possible misconduct against some jurors.
Information from The Associated Press, Reuters, Los Angeles Times and Newsday is included in this report.