SIMPSON HEARING | Day 4 | Rosch | THU
05/16/13 | 6PM
SIMPSON HEARING DAY 4 | Rosch | THU
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SIMPSON DAY 4 | Caddell | THU | 05/16/2013
Noon
Witness says Simpson lawyer had conflict of interest
Reported by: Denise Rosch
Email: drosch@mynews3.com
Published: 5/16/2013 2:09 pm
Updated: 5/16/2013 10:04 pm
LAS VEGAS (AP) -- A lawyer who represented O.J. Simpson
during the appeal of his armed robbery conviction to the Nevada
Supreme Court testified Thursday that he's convinced that
Simpson's lead trial lawyer made decisions in the case based on
his own conflict of interest.
"From what I know now, absolutely. There's no doubt about it,"
attorney Malcolm LaVergne said under questioning by Simpson
lawyer Patricia Palm during a hearing on Simpson's bid for a
new trial.
LaVergne took over as Simpson's local counsel for an appeal in
2010, after another Las Vegas lawyer bowed out in a dispute
over fees with Simpson's Miami-based attorney, Yale Galanter.
LaVergne said he found Galanter wasn't open to any suggestions in the case.
"Yale was going to have it his way," LaVergne testified in the fourth day of hearing before District Judge Linda Marie Bell, who
will determine whether Simpson was improperly represented in 2008 and deserves a new trial.
Simpson is serving a sentence of nine to 33 years in prison.
LaVergne was asked what Simpson's relationship was with Galanter, who allegedly told Simpson he was within his rights to
retrieve personal memorabilia from two collectibles dealers in an ill-fated confrontation in a Las Vegas casino hotel room in
September 2007.
Simpson testified Wednesday that the items he thought would be in the room were his, and Galanter told him that as long as
he didn't trespass or use force, he had a legal right to get them.
"I followed what I thought was the law," the 65-year-old former NFL star and actor said in his first testimony about the Las
Vegas incident.
Galanter is scheduled to testify Friday.
The focus since Monday has been on Galanter's promises, payments and performance while representing Simpson at trial and
staying with the case through oral arguments in a 2010 appeal that was rejected by the Nevada Supreme Court. Galanter has
been cast as more concerned about avoiding the disclosure that he advised Simpson ahead of the incident than he was about
Simpson.
"Mr. Simpson was very cordial to Mr. Galanter, and Mr. Galanter ran the show," LaVergne said, recalling his first meeting with
the two.
LaVergne said Simpson went along with what Galanter wanted. But he said he later found out that Simpson was unaware of
any of the legal issues being raised in his appeal and had not seen copies of the briefs submitted on his behalf.
LaVergne said Simpson wanted him and Galanter to split oral arguments before the state high court, but Galanter rejected
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that.
Palm entered into evidence about seven pages of June 2010 emails between the attorneys about the issue.
LaVergne recalled that at one point in the exchanges, he told Galanter he was being "disrespectful" to him and Simpson. He
said when he reported later to Simpson that Galanter made the oral presentation, Simpson was surprised.
Palm asked LaVergne if Galanter ever discussed "a conflict in his representation" with Simpson, and LaVergne said no.
"I was concerned," LaVergne said. "The biggest concern was that Mr. Simpson's appeals were not going well and another set
of eyes could look at his case."
After the appeal was denied, Galanter wanted to skip any other possible state appeals and go directly to federal court,
witnesses have asserted.
LaVergne said that was when Simpson broke with Galanter.
On Wednesday, Simpson testified that LaVergne and "jailhouse lawyers" were telling him at the time that he was throwing
away his last chance to claim ineffective counsel.
Earlier Thursday, there was testimony by a lawyer who has hounded Simpson to collect a multimillion-dollar civil judgment
after Simpson's "trial of the century" acquittal in the 1994 stabbing deaths of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her
friend, Ron Goldman.
Attorney David Cook said items taken in the hotel room heist didn't really belong to Simpson.
Cook, testifying for the state, said his client, Ron Goldman's father, still has ownership rights to nine airless "game" football
mementos that a California judge ordered returned to Simpson in 2009.
"We have some right to the footballs if they appear on the market," Cook said.
But Simpson testified Wednesday he would never sell what he termed his "stuff." His lawyer Ozzie Fumo, on cross-
examination Thursday, made Cook concede that the footballs were returned to Simpson's attorney - along with neckties,
awards and an autographed photo of Simpson with former FBI Chief J. Edgar Hoover.
Cook has been representing Fred Goldman since 2006 in efforts to collect a share of a $33.5 million judgment awarded in
February 1997 to the estates of his son and Nicole Brown Simpson.
H. Leon Simon, attorney for the state, called Cook to the stand to rebut Simpson's testimony that he only wanted to retrieve
personal belongings when he and five men confronted the sports collectibles dealers.
Outside court, Cook said the original judgment of $19 million to the Goldman estate, with accumulated interest, is now more
than $45 million. He said only some of it has been recovered.
"This is an eternal odyssey," Cook told The Associated Press. "There is no closure here. Fred Goldman rejects closure."
The state on Thursday also called a psychiatrist, Dr. Gregory Brown, to rebut testimony from a psychiatrist, Dr. Norton
Roitman, who suggested that Simpson's perception of what happened in the hotel room may have been narrowed by
sleeplessness, stress and the effects of several hours drinking alcohol before the confrontation.
Brown said he saw no obvious evidence that Simpson was impaired.
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