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| Los Angeles Police Capt. Andy Neiman talks during a new conference at police headquarters in downtown Los Angeles on Friday, March 4, 2016. Detectives are investigating a knife purportedly found some time ago at the former home of O.J. Simpson, who was acquitted of murder charges in the 1994 stabbings of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman, Neiman said Friday. |
LOS ANGELES
(AP) -- More than 20 years after O.J. Simpson's ex-wife and a
friend were stabbed to death, police revealed Friday they are examining a
knife that was reportedly found at the home where the former football
star was living at the time.
The announcement
marked yet another twist in a case that's had more unexpected turns than
television's best crime shows. The knife was believed to have been
recovered by a construction worker tearing down the house. The worker
then gave it to an off-duty police officer who was working as a security
guard at a filming location, police said.
It
was unclear when the knife was found and how long it was held by the
officer, who is now retired. The knife was being analyzed by a Los
Angeles Police Department crime lab for DNA or other material that could
possibly link it to the killings.
Capt. Andy
Neiman stressed that the authenticity of the story was not confirmed and
that investigators were looking into whether "this whole story is
possibly bogus from the get-go."
"It's unusual
how this all of a sudden becomes a huge story during this time," Neiman
added, referring to the popular "People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime
Story" anthology that is airing on the FX television channel.
Simpson
was charged and acquitted in the slayings. Even if the knife is linked
to him, legal experts say he could not be criminally charged again
because of protections against double jeopardy.
"If
they were going to find this knife and make it useful in the murder
trial, they should have found it 20 years ago, and they didn't," said
Loyola Law School professor Laurie Levenson, a former federal prosecutor
and longtime observer of the Simpson case. "It will just raise more
questions about the incompetence of the investigation and probably lead
to more books and more movies."
The weapon
used in the killings has been a mystery for decades. Other knives have
surfaced during the case but were not linked to the crimes.
In 1994, a salesman testified at a preliminary hearing that he sold Simpson a knife before the killings.
That
same month a woman turned in a red-stained kitchen knife she said she
found near Simpson's home, and a handle and a piece of blade of a knife
were found in a tank that collects waste from airplanes at O'Hare
International Airport in Chicago, where Simpson flew the night of the
killings.
In 1998, a residential construction
crew found a folding-blade knife in Simpson's former neighborhood, but
police said there was no evidence to show it was related to any crime.
The
bodies of Nicole Brown Simpson and friend Ronald Goldman were found
stabbed multiple times outside her home on June 12, 1994.
The
discovery led to the so-called "Trial of the Century," in which Simpson
was represented by a team of high-profile attorneys led by the
flamboyant Johnnie Cochran. A jury acquitted Simpson in 1995 after
deliberating only four hours.
In 1997, a civil court jury found him liable for the slayings and awarded $33.5 million in damages to the victims' families.
Fred Goldman, father of victim Ron Goldman, declined to discuss this latest turn in the case.
"He
doesn't feel he has much to say at this point. He wants to wait until
he knows more," Goldman's wife, Patti Goldman, said during a brief phone
interview.
Simpson's Brentwood mansion was torn down after he moved to Florida following his acquittal.
Simpson,
who has always maintained his innocence in the killings, is now serving
a sentence of nine to 33 years in a Nevada prison for a 2007 armed
robbery and kidnapping conviction in which he tried to retrieve football
memorabilia. He is eligible for parole next year.
His
Las Vegas lawyer said he had not talked to Simpson about the knife but
questioned who was in possession of it over the years.
"The
only thing I've heard is that some cop claims some other guy claims he
found a knife on some property," attorney Malcolm LaVergne said. "From
what I can see, there's no chain of custody."
Simpson
becomes eligible for parole in 2017. If the knife turns out to be
linked to him, that fact could be raised at his hearing.
"The
Nevada Parole Board may consider and give relevant weight to any
evidence that bears on whether the release of the petitioning inmate
could constitute a danger to the public," the state attorney general's
office said in a statement.
Authorities do not know the identity of the person who found the knife and have asked that he or she come forward.
Police
are also looking into whether criminal charges could be filed against
the officer who held onto the knife, Neiman said, adding that any
officer who comes into contact with evidence is required to turn it over
to investigators in all circumstances.
