Prosecutors in the murder trial of O.J. Simpson opened one of the most delicate and problematic sections of their case Friday with a candid admission from Los Angeles County's top coroner that one of his deputies made mistakes in autopsies of the two victims.
"He has made some mistakes, yes," Dr. Lakshmanan Sathyavagiswaran testified, referring to Deputy Medical Examiner Irwin Golden, who performed the autopsies and who may testify next week.
Six jurors jotted in their note pads at the remark, the first of what are expected to be a series of acknowledgments by the coroner that Golden did not perform perfectly in conducting the autopsies on Ronald Lyle Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson, who were stabbed and slashed to death June 12, 1994.
Sathyavagiswaran also is expected to tell the jury, however, that none of the mistakes undermined the coroner's ultimate conclusions.
Simpson has pleaded not guilty to the crimes. One of his lawyers, Robert L. Shapiro, has said mistakes by the coroner's office left holes in the prosecution's case and deprived the defense of evidence that might have helped clear Simpson. Prosecutors hope Sathyavagiswaran will be able to convince the jury otherwise.
A likable witness with impressive medical credentials, a distinct Indian accent and near-impossible-to-pronounce last name, Sathyavagiswaran opened his testimony by giving Deputy Dist. Atty. Brian Kelberg permission to refer to him by his first name.
"If we call you Dr. Lakshmanan, you will not be offended, will you?" Kelberg asked.
"No," Sathyavagiswaran replied, returning the prosecutor's grin. "I will not."
Jurors, some of whom were attempting to write down the coroner's name as he spelled it out, smiled gratefully. Superior Court Judge Lance A. Ito, who has forbidden laughter in his courtroom, allowed a few chuckles from the audience to go unpunished.
All 16 remaining jurors and alternates were on hand for Friday's testimony, and their entry stirred a mild commotion. When the jurors strode single-file through a courthouse hallway before the session began, reporters scrambled to nearby phones to pass on the news that none of the panelists had so far been excused, despite reports of investigations into three of them.
At first, the full complement on hand for Friday's session seemed to suggest that Ito had concluded his inquiry and found no misconduct by any of the jurors. But a court spokeswoman said Ito is still considering the issue, which sources said involves accusations against three panelists: a 28-year-old real estate appraiser, a 43-year-old marketing representative and a 54-year-old postal operations manager.
According to sources, the appraiser has been accused of passing a note to another juror and then of not being truthful about that when questioned by Ito; the appraiser, in turn, has said she is intimidated by the postal operations manager. The marketing representative, sources added, has been accused of failing to disclose a past incident of domestic abuse.
Some attorneys had expected a ruling on at least one of the juror issues Friday, but lead Simpson trial lawyer Johnnie L. Cochran Jr. said outside court that Ito had not yet reached a decision.
In his effort to accommodate the jurors, Ito also released a new court schedule. He did not agree to a request from some members of the panel that he add a Saturday session, but Ito lengthened the court days on four days a week, adding 4 1/2 hours a week.
Description of Victims
As prosecutors began to unveil their autopsy evidence, the first clinical descriptions of the murder victims rippled emotionally through the courtroom, highlighting Simpson's discomfort with the topic and emphasizing the prosecution's close bond with the victims' families.
Simpson winced and began to breathe heavily as Sathyavagiswaran read a cursory description of Nicole Simpson's body--her height, weight and body temperature hours after her death. Although the description was far from graphic, Simpson tilted his head back and began breathing through his mouth. Cochran, sitting next to his famous client, placed his hand on Simpson's left shoulder and whispered in his ear.
Deputy Dist. Atty. Marcia Clark, meanwhile, traded notes with Goldman's sister, Kim Goldman, who was seated in the front row of the courtroom. When the Goldman family's address was flashed briefly on a large overhead screen, Clark jumped to her feet and warned her colleagues, who quickly took it off.
Kelberg, with the help of another member of the district attorney's staff, doctored the document in an attempt to delete the address, and then displayed it again.
"It's still there," Kim Goldman whispered to the prosecutors. Kelberg snatched the document off the projector again and instead proceeded without it. Kim Goldman nodded her thanks.
