Simpson Team Hints of Frame-Up

O.J. Simpson’s lawyers Tuesday plunged into the heart of the defense case--the conspiracy theory--by suggesting that an unsealed envelope and shifting testimony about the packaging of crime scene blood raised suspicion of a frame-up.

To bolster their allegations, they asserted that at least 1.5 milliliters of blood mysteriously vanished from the sample Simpson gave police the day after the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Lyle Goldman. And they wondered aloud how an uncollected bloodstain could turn up in Simpson’s Bronco months after criminalists spent three hours examining the vehicle for evidence.

The defense has retained expert scientists to back up their contention that contamination and tampering tainted virtually all of the evidence against Simpson. On Tuesday, however, Simpson’s team called only police witnesses. Those witnesses denied every accusation of impropriety, so Simpson’s lawyers had to raise the specter of evidence tampering on their own, through accusatory questions.

Defense attorney Robert Blasier asked why the paper bindles containing blood evidence were not marked with anyone’s initials when they arrived at the lab for analysis. After all, he pointed out, rookie criminalist Andrea Mazzola testified during the preliminary hearing that she had initialed the bindles. Similarly, Blasier demanded to know why at least one blood swatch left a wet stain on the paper bindle, given Mazzola’s earlier testimony that the swatches were dry. “That would indicate that they weren’t the same bindles, correct?� Blasier demanded.

Mazzola told jurors that she never tested the swatches to make sure they were dry, and explained that she had been mistaken about the initials. But she had to concede that, as Blasier put it, she had “no personal knowledge� that the bloodstains she swabbed from the crime scene were the same stains later analyzed by DNA experts.

To continue the defense assault on the blood evidence, Blasier turned to jailhouse nurse Thano Peratis.

Peratis had testified at the preliminary hearing--which took place before he began to suffer from memory loss--that he drew about 8 milliliters of blood from Simpson’s arm the day after the murders. Based on that figure, defense lawyers in the criminal case asserted that 1.5 to 2 milliliters were missing.

But as soon as he heard about the defense’s allegations, Peratis said he had been mistaken. He testified in the criminal trial via videotape that he had withdrawn only about 6.5 milliliters, which would mean that all of Simpson’s blood was accounted for. Peratis repeated that testimony Tuesday, insisting that his initial figure of 8 milliliters had been just an erroneous guess. But Blasier pointed out that his memory was better when he came up with the 8 milliliters figure than it was in court Tuesday.

Though defense lawyers did most of the talking Tuesday, the plaintiffs scored some points with a video they played while cross-examining former Los Angeles Police Det. Philip L. Vannatter.

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The veteran homicide cop had testified Monday that he saw no evidence of anyone vaulting through the dense foliage that topped a five-foot-high chain-link fence on the border of Simpson’s property. But the plaintiffs played a video that appeared to depict a broad gap in the foliage--right in the location where a bloody glove was discovered.

The plaintiffs contend that Simpson dropped the glove while climbing over the fence; they will likely use the video to argue that he could have made it over without breaking any branches or scratching himself.

During his brief appearance on the stand, Vannatter also answered hostile questions from Robert C. Baker about his handling of Simpson’s blood sample. Vannatter conceded that although the vial was sealed, he did not seal the envelope containing it when he drove across town to Simpson’s estate to hand-deliver it to a criminalist.

Baker seized on that lapse to imply that Vannatter had something sinister in mind when he left the envelope open--such as dipping into the vial to plant Simpson’s blood in incriminating places.

“You sure [would have] wanted to have that envelope sealed to protect the chain of custody if you weren’t going to take any blood out of it,� Baker told Vannatter. For three hours that afternoon, Baker added, “you had the vial unsealed, with only you in possession of it.�

Wearily, Vannatter responded: “It’s part of my job.�

Meanwhile, closing arguments are expected today in the Orange County trial to determine who will have custody of Simpson’s young children.