O.J.: Made in America

We got this call,

and I didn't know whose house it was.

I had never been on a call there but there

had been 10, 11, 12 officers that had been

on various calls over the years.

Simpson is standing on the left side

of the driveway, by the shrubs,

holding a baseball bat.

Nicole is sitting on the front part

of a 450SL Mercedes, windshield smashed in,

and she's bawling, heaving, I mean,

almost uncontrollably.

He's got this look on his face,

like he's going to do battle.

And I say, "Put the bat down."

And he's got this look, this rage look.

I said, "Put the bat down."

He didn't do it the second time.

I took out my baton, and I said, "Put it down now."

And then all of a sudden there was this calm

that came over his face, he dropped it,

and he goes, "Oh, sorry, Officer."

And I went over, and she was still crying,

and I said, "Do you want to make a report?"

And she goes, "No."

I remember saying this because it was...

I think expressing

my displeasure

that she was allowing herself to be treated like this.

I said, "It's your life."

Alright, let the record reflect that

we have been rejoined by all member of our jury panel.

Mr. Darden, you may continue.

Did that search warrant authorize you

to drill a hole in a safe deposit box at Union Bank?

Yes.

Whose safe deposit box was it?

Nicole Brown Simpson.

Recognize that item?

Yes, it was in a sealed envelope

that was contained inside the safe deposit box.

The strategy had been to open the case

with a couple weeks of domestic violence evidence.

Did you remove that Polaroid

from Nicole Brown's safe deposit box?

Yes, I did.

Do you know who took that photograph?

I did.

The swelling over her right eye.

That isn't how she usually looked, is it?

No, it's not.

Going to present all that evidence

in an effort to knock Simpson

off the iconic pedestal on which he stood.

And you mentioned that pictures

began flying off the walls.

How did they come flying off the wall?

O.J. was walking up the hall, or up the staircase,

and he started throwing them.

He took them off the wall and started

throwing them down.

Did the defendant say anything?

He wanted her out of his house,

and he threw her up against the wall,

and the eyes got real angry.

It wasn't as if it was O.J. anymore.

I was so disappointed.

I just had no comprehension about it,

no knowledge.

What did the defendant say

about your sister's weight while she was pregnant?

He used to call her a fat pig.

It's like finding out your wife's a bad person,

you know?

911 Emergency... ?

I heard a female screaming.

Hello?

I definitely felt for Nicole.

And then I heard someone being hit.

You know, I looked at him, "You're a pretty bad person."

He's capable of outbursts.

in the living room!

If you have the personality,

you can physically abuse women.

I don't want to stay on the line.

He's going to beat the shit out of me.

Wait a minute.

Well, then to me, you're also

capable of murdering that woman.

She felt like she was in imminent danger,

and so we made it life... I made it life threatening.

Miss Brown, directing your attention

to June 12, 1994.

Had you and your sister and your parents

planned to go somewhere

after the recital was over?

Yes we did, we were going out to dinner.

Okay, and where were you planning to go?

We were going to Mezzaluna Restaurant.

The domestic violence testimony was the 'why' of it.

Did you invite the defendant to go

to the Mezzaluna?

No, I did not.

Did you hear anyone else invite

the defendant to go to the Mezzaluna?

No, I did not.

Abusers blame their victims

for the cycle of violence,

and on that particular night I think it all

came to a head for him.

He went to the recital, and the Mezzaluna

date was made, he was not included,

and then he tries to reach Paula later that night,

at 10:03, calling her twice, when he was in the Bronco.

She was not there.

And I think that was the last straw for him.

He was abandoned by Nicole,

he was abandoned by Paula,

and that's why we're here.

There's a connection with abuse,

and could it lead to death?

Sure.

But I don't think they proved that.

How many times did you hear her

shout, "He's going to kill me, he's going to kill me,"?

Four or five times.

Let me tell you,

I lose respect for any woman that take

an ass-whupping when she don't have to.

Don't stay in the water

If it's over your head.

You'll drown.

They did not get it.

They just didn't care.

They got it, I mean, you know, it's not that complicated.

They didn't care.

So...

Our hearts sank.

We thought, we are really going to have

a tough time if our jurors don't understand

how this is relevant.

The last thing I told her

is that I loved her.

Knowing what I believed I knew,

I still refused to testify.

But, I get a call from Chris Darden, he said,

"Look, you know, you don't, you're not going

to testify, but I need you to come down here.

I've got to ask you a couple of questions.

Would you please?"

I went, "Okay."

Chris is sitting there, and he goes,

"Hey, man, how you doing, what's going on?"

30, 45 seconds goes by, someone went,

"Chris, you've got a phone call."

He goes, "Oh, Ron, be right back."

And as I'm sitting there,

I look in front of me, you know,

where Chris was sitting,

I see this book, and it has a big Ron

and Nicole on it.

I opened it up.

And I see these beautiful pictures of Nicole,

with her modeling.

I keep opening it, nice pictures of Ron.

And all of a sudden, I get to the actual homicide pictures.

Now, I've seen a million homicide pictures,

I've been in, I don't know how many homicides

in my 15 years as an L.A.P.D. cop.

But all of a sudden you look at some pictures

of somebody you actually know.

Looked at those pictures, it changed me.

It changed me.

Everybody always beating cops up.

Man, there's a lot of stuff that we see,

and we suppress.

I'll never forget the first homicide that I saw.

Oh, it was, um...

excuse me.

It was a 19-year-old girl.

We got a call.

When I went up there, she was totally nude.

She had been beaten to a pulp,

and discarded in the parking lot.

I was like, "What kind of guy would do this?"

She was 19 years old.

I couldn't even, I couldn't make out her face,

because it was beaten in so bad.

Blonde hair.

And we got a call that the guy turned himself in.

We went and picked him up.

And I sat in the back seat with this guy.

I wanted to kill him.

I mean, all I thought about is this is somebody's

daughter, sister, whatever, that's never coming home.

Oh, when I saw Nicole's pictures,

that was the same thing, I felt like that,

with O.J.

Only an animal would do something like this

to the mother of your kids.