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Investigators make formidable team

2008-02-19

The Boston Herald July 22, 1994 Friday THIRD EDITION Investigators make formidable team BYLINE: HELEN KENNEDY SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 004 LENGTH: 277 words The detectives hired to help clear O.J. Simpson include a respected veteran gumshoe and a bitter former Los Angeles police officer with a possible grudge against the department. John McNally, a former New York City police detective sergeant who joined the case Wednesday, has been the right hand of Simpson's lawyers for 20 years. 'He's a top-notch investigator who is excellent in interviewing and reinterviewing witnesses,' said attorney Dan Leonard, partner of Simpson defense attorney F. Lee Bailey. McNally is best known for his single-handed 1964 arrest of notorious jewel thief Jack 'Murf the Surf' Murphy. He also spent three years working on the Patty Hearst bank robbery with Bailey and Boston lawyer J. Albert Johnson, who called McNally 'extremely thorough and highly effective.'The other investigator, Zvonko G. Bill Pavelic, retired abruptly from the LAPD in 1992 - just before passing the 20-year mark which would have allowed him to collect his pension. Pavelic, who often publicly attacked the LAPD and former chief Darryl Gates, told the Associated Press he quit because he was 'sick and tired of watching innocent people get framed, especially members of minority groups.'Pavelic was originally scheduled to be called as a witness in the Reginald Denny beating case to testify that the black men being charged were victims of a racist department. Prosecutors called Pavelic angry, bitter and paranoid.Mike Pirouzian, president of Private Investigators of California, said neither detective has a private investigators license and questioned whether any evidence they turn up would be legally admissable. LOAD-DATE: March 08, 1995 LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

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Judge fines 2 on Simpson team for "disregard of truth'

2008-02-16

Tampa Tribune (Florida)

March 4, 1995, Saturday, FINAL EDITION

Judge fines 2 on Simpson team for "disregard of truth'

BYLINE: A Tribune Wire Service Report

SECTION: NATION/WORLD, Pg. 2

LENGTH: 1032 words

DATELINE: LOS ANGELES

Judge Lance Ito, asserting that defense lawyers had tried to deceive the court "in reckless disregard of the truth," Friday imposed $ 950 fines on two of them and said he intends to tell the jury about their "violation of the law."

The punishment against the two lawyers, Johnnie Cochran and Carl Douglas, was imposed because they failed to notify prosecutors of a taped interview with a potentially crucial witness, as required by California law.

The witness, Rosa Lopez, concluded her testimony Friday, a week after saying she wanted to leave the country for her native El Salvador.

"The false representations by Mr. Cochran and Mr. Douglas that no such tape recording existed lends credence to a finding that this was at the very least a representation made with reckless disregard for the truth if not a deliberate attempt to mislead both the prosecution and the court," Ito said in his opinion, released late in the day.

He fined Douglas because he was directly responsible for exchanging evidence with the prosecution.

And he added in the three-page document that Cochran, who is O.J. Simpson's lead attorney, was being fined because he is not only "responsible for the conduct of the defense team, but he is also the trial counsel presenting the testimony of the witness in question and has made untrue representations to the court in reckless disregard of the truth."

Ito left open the possibility that he will grant a request from prosecutors that they be allowed to raise the delay in the tape's disclosure in their closing statement, which is considered a vital part of any lawyer's presentation.

In addition, the judge said that if Lopez is called to testify, he will first inform the jurors about the defense's conduct and tell them that they may consider the delay in assessing the witness' credibility.

Ito said he would instruct the jury that "this was a violation of the law."

Lopez, a housekeeper who worked next door to Simpson, said she saw the defendant's Bronco in front of his house at the time prosecutors contend he was murdering his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman.

Her testimony has been taped because she had threatened to flee the country.

Cochran later denied lying to the court and maintained it was an honest mistake. "We did not know about the tape," he said. "I talked to the judge and he knows I didn't lie to him. ... We're big boys. We're big men. We accept it."

During her testimony Friday, Lopez appeared to undercut one of Simpson's alibis, saying she had not seen him hitting golf balls outside his home the night he allegedly committed two brutal murders.

Lopez also acknowledged she gave a defense investigator some key information after he first suggested it.

"If he says yes, then I say yes," Lopez testified under cross-examination by prosecutor Chris Darden.

Asked if she had gone along with ideas offered by the investigator, Bill Pavelic, she replied: "I never agreed on anything, sir. He would say that and I would say, "Well, OK.' "

This exchange referred to when Lopez had told Pavelic she saw Simpson's Bronco outside his estate the day of the slayings.

On a tape of an interview with Lopez, played in court Friday, Pavelic seems to be steering her toward specific answers; at one point, for example, he asks if she hadn't seen the Bronco "the whole time" between 8:30 p.m. and 11 p.m.

Lopez replies "yes," as she does to most of Pavelic's questions.

Darden had implied a day earlier that a friend of Lopez, another housekeeper named Sylvia Guerra, had said that Lopez had told her she was promised $ 5,000 for her testimony and that Guerra could get a like amount if she corroborated the story. Friday, the prosecutor elaborated.

He said Guerra had told a police detective on tape that Lopez identified Simpson's lawyers as the source of the money.

When the witness denied that, Darden asked her whether that meant her friend was lying.

"One hundred percent, sir," Lopez said in Spanish through an interpreter.

Lopez frequently contradicted statements she made days and sometimes just moments earlier. She even denied having said some things after hearing herself saying them in Pavelic's interview, which was conducted in English.

In a potentially crucial portion of the tape, the investigator asks when she took her employers' dog out for a walk, during which she purportedly saw Simpson's auto parked in front of his house.

During testimony this week, Lopez has adamantly stated she only knew the time was "after 10."

When Pavelic asks that question, some paper shuffles, then there is a pause and Lopez responds "10:20 ... 10:15" - precisely when prosecutors contend Simpson killed two people.

Darden portrayed the paper shuffling as an effort by Pavelic to provide Lopez with a script, an accusation she denied.

As he asked what else she saw while out that night, Darden threw the day's only curve-ball: He asked Lopez if she saw Simpson playing golf in front of his home, as defense attorneys have said he did at the supposed time of the murders.

"I've never seen him play," Lopez replied. At that point, Simpson looked agitated, put his head in his hands, and talked animatedly with attorney Robert Shapiro.

Darden led Lopez through many questions designed to show her memory is flawed, and she conceded she forgets many things.

As has been the case throughout her appearances, her testimony was riddled with contradictions.

During a round of gentle questioning in which he tried to rehabilitate his witness, Cochran served notice that he will play hardball with anyone the prosecution puts on to contradict Lopez.

For instance, he asked Lopez whether a former employer - who told prosecutors Lopez had praised Simpson and said she would testify for him anytime - had paid her Social Security taxes. Lopez said she had not.

Cochran also sought to draw from his witness explanations for some of the perceived problems with her testimony, including her propensity to answer "I don't remember" to dozens of probing inquiries this week.

She said that, in her dialect of Spanish in El Salvador, that phrase really means "no."

LOAD-DATE: March 6, 1995

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

GRAPHIC: SIGNATURE; PHOTO 2,
 Carl Douglas

NOTES: THE SIMPSON TRIAL

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DETECTIVE RIPS INTO LAPD'S LEADERSHIP

2008-02-12

Los Angeles Times

 

June 30, 1991, Sunday, Home Edition

 

DETECTIVE RIPS INTO LAPD'S LEADERSHIP;

LAW ENFORCEMENT: OUTSPOKEN BILL PAVELIC ACCUSES CHIEF GATES AND OTHERS OF OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE, CRONYISM AND MISMANAGEMENT. CHARGES ARE MADE AT A 'PEOPLE'S GRAND JURY' HELD BY ACTIVISTS.

 

BYLINE: By SCOTT HARRIS, TIMES STAFF WRITER

 

SECTION: Metro; Part B; Page 1; Column 2; Metro Desk

 

LENGTH: 793 words

 

A veteran Los Angeles police detective delivered a scathing and unusual public condemnation of Police Chief Daryl F. Gates on Saturday at an unofficial tribunal examining law enforcement abuses, accusing Gates and other top police officials of obstruction of justice, cronyism and mismanagement.

Detective Bill Pavelic, a 17-year veteran who works in the Southwest Division, likened police leadership to a dictatorship during a 45-minute dialogue at a conference dubbed the "People's Grand Jury on Police Abuses" by activists critical of police abuses.

Under Gates, Pavelic charged, the department's "management has become an organization where managerial corruption, lying and covering up criminal misconduct has become the norm."

"Management's respect for cronyism," he added, "is proportional to their disrespect for the principles of professionalism, including integrity and fairness."

The lambasting of Gates by one of his own detectives was received with cheers and a standing ovation by the partisan audience. Pavelic, known among his fellow police officers and among prosecutors for his aggressive, outspoken manner, said it was the first time he has raised criticisms in a public forum.

The comments represented a new development in a political battle over the future of the Los Angeles Police Department triggered by the videotaped beating of motorist Rodney G. King. Gates, who has been chief since 1978, has steadfastly defended his management of the department.

Introduced as a detective "who has bucked the system," Pavelic said he "was simply exercising my constitutional rights" in speaking out and later predicted that he would be disciplined for his actions.

Pavelic accused Gates, former Assistant Chief William Rathburn -- now chief of the Dallas police -- and Southwest detectives commander Lt. Alan Kerstein of obstructing his investigation into an alleged "date rape" at the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity house at USC. The suspect maintained that the woman consented to intercourse.

The controversy concerned the relationship among Gates, Rathburn and prominent attorney John C. Argue Sr., a USC trustee whose son is a member of ATO. Police say Argue's son was part of a group of fraternity brothers who walked through the room naked and carrying golf clubs while the alleged rape was taking place, an endeavor they nicknamed "just playing through."

By Pavelic's account, interference by Gates and Rathburn quashed efforts at prosecution. Pavelic said he was reassigned from the sexual assault detail after leveling allegations of obstruction within the department. Gates, Rathburn and other officials have denied any wrongdoing.

Pavelic portrayed the incident as the latest in a series of abuses, noting that he first made formal complaints accusing top brass of obstructing justice as far back as 1984. He also asserted that internal reports that reflect poorly on a detective unit's performance are covered up to protect the department's reputation.

Addressing a crowd that had already heard several hours of testimony and seen slides and videotapes depicting police violence, Pavelic emphasized to the crowd that "many, many thousands" of officers he has encountered in his career he considered "law-abiding, decent, honest, professional, hard-working, competent."

"I want you to know I took my oath very seriously," he said. "That oath didn't mention Daryl Gates. It didn't mention (Dist. Atty.) Ira Reiner. It didn't mention (Mayor) Tom Bradley or anybody else.

"All it basically says is that we have to have reverence for the law," Pavelic said.

The detective's statements came near the close of a daylong session at Mt. Vernon Junior High School that attracted hundreds of spectators.

Some activists portrayed their "grand jury" as an alternative to the Christopher Commission, which was formed to conduct a detailed review of Police Department practices after the King beating. Carol Watson, president of the Los Angeles chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, said the purpose of the event was "to galvanize the community to do something about this problem."

In a morning session, more than than 200 people heard human rights activist Ramsey Clark, a former U.S. attorney general, emphasize the importance of prosecuting police abuse cases.

Clark, who was a prominent critic of the Persian Gulf War, said in an interview that Gates is wrong in asserting that the King incident became a media sensation to fill a postwar news void.

"I frankly find it shameful that a chief of police would try to minimize this in human terms," Clark said. "What he's saying is . . . we wouldn't have cared about Rodney King. Well, God help us if that's true. God help anybody who sees that film and doesn't get upset."

 
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

 
GRAPHIC: Photo, Detective Bill Pavelic pauses during his talk to the conference.  ROBERT DURELL / Los Angeles Times

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