12 posts from 2007

Los Angeles Times

July 28, 1994, Thursday, Home Edition

BYLINE: By JIM NEWTON, TIMES STAFF WRITER

SECTION: Part A; Page 1; Column 3; Metro Desk

Encouraged by the promise of a huge reward or the chance to contribute to a historic investigation, 250,000 callers have flooded a newly created defense hot line with tips about the O.J. Simpson murder case, while similarly besieged po-lice have designated a full-time "clue chaser" to run down the leads coming to them.
"It's beyond belief," Simpson attorney Robert L. Shapiro said Wednesday of the hot-line deluge. Shapiro, who disclosed the number of calls in an interview with The Times, said they have become so overwhelming that the operators have had to install a special backup recording system to keep up with the crush.
Tipsters have included private investigators with clues based largely on news reports, amateur detectives with theories implicating other possible suspects, and people claiming to have witnessed the events involving the grisly slayings of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Lyle Goldman.
Although some of the tips are seemingly credible, many appear to be the prod-ucts of overactive imaginations. One Maryland woman has called repeatedly to tell of dreams in which she sees another killer. To her frustration, Simpson's camp has not gotten back to her.
"We're hearing from every psycho and every crazy person," said Bill Pavelic, an investigative consultant working with the Simpson team. "But if I get one call in a hundred that's a good lead, it's worth it."
Rising to that thin promise, investigators on both sides of the case are painstakingly chasing down each lead, reluctant to pass up any information that could prove important.
The onslaught of tips has convinced some Police Department officials that Simpson's camp may be fueling the fires in part to occupy detectives who might otherwise be building a case against Simpson.
Any tip that is not checked out could be used against the prosecution at trial. Simpson's camp already has made clear its intention to attack the thor-oughness and competence of the investigation into their high-profile client.
"There's people that are giving us theories, there's psychics, that kind of thing," said Detective Dennis Payne of the LAPD's Robbery-Homicide Division. "And then there's people who have information. We're checking it all out."
Some officers say they're braced for Simpson's team to show up someday with a basketful of leads, wondering whether all of them have been thoroughly investi-gated.
"They're absolutely right to be concerned," said Pavelic, a retired LAPD de-tective now at odds with his former colleagues. "We're getting calls from people who are saying they're being kissed off by the Police Department. If they don't interview these people, they've got a problem. We're going to ask: 'Why not?' "
With the stakes so high for both sides, police detectives and Simpson inves-tigators are simultaneously pounding the pavement. In fact, Simpson's crew and LAPD detectives have occasionally run into one another at the crime scene and other locations.
According to sources in both camps, the most recent wave of tips has featured several from eager private investigators trying to uncover clues in the case.
Paul Katz of Los Angeles-based Katz Investigations hooked up with a pair of Colorado private eyes last week to take a crack at the case. They scoured the area near Nicole Simpson's condominium and found red spots resembling blood in an alley close to the crime scene. They photographed the spots, as well as some intriguing tire tracks, and forwarded the pictures to police, who are investi-gating.
Katz said he has rejected tabloid offers of money for the story and added that neither he nor his colleagues are interested in the reward. They are just trying to solve a mystery that has preoccupied much of the country, he said, and hope to get credit for their efforts.
"This is something that was missed by O.J.'s team and by the LAPD," said Robert S. Hatch Jr., one of the Colorado investigators who flew to Los Angeles at the behest of some Colorado businessmen interested in the Simpson case. "It's potentially important evidence, and we found it."
Hatch said he and his colleagues also turned up a witness who purportedly saw Nicole Simpson arguing with someone -- he's not sure who -- on the morning of the killings. Having uncovered those tidbits, Hatch and Salvador C. Torres, an-other Colorado investigator, headed home this week, leaving Katz to continue hunting for clues.
"We didn't really expect to come up with too much," Hatch said. "When we turned up what we turned up, we were amazed."
They are not alone. Private investigators from throughout the region and some from beyond have descended upon the crime scene in recent days. They are quick to tout their finds.
One investigator forwarded information to both sides that he says will shed new light on Nicole Simpson's character, while others have offered thoughts on the police and medical examiners involved in the case. Scores of calls to the hot line, meanwhile, come from people who say they have information about Simp-son, his ex-wife or Goldman that could help the case one way or the other.
Although most of the tips -- founded and unfounded -- are about the principal players in the celebrated whodunit, many come from people with a dizzying array of thoughts on other issues. One Santa Barbara woman hypothesized that a large dog might have carried a bloody glove to Simpson's home.
She called police and Simpson's hot line Wednesday, urging both sides to de-mand a test of the glove to determine whether it had saliva that could be matched to a large white Akita owned by Nicole Simpson. So far, neither side has complied.
Then there's the self-professed burglar who says he was casing houses in Brentwood on the night of the killings, looking for some quick jewelry and cash. He came forward within days of Simpson's arrest and said he heard a woman scream and saw two white men fleeing the crime scene about the time the killings took place.
The two men, according to the prowler, were carrying a bag or a pillowcase and fled Nicole Simpson's home by running out the front of the condominium prop-erty, not out the back gate, as police and prosecutors have theorized that Simp-son did.
Although Simpson has offered $500,000 for information leading to the arrest of the "real killer or killers," the prowler says he wants no part of the re-ward.
"I just want to straighten this out," he told The Times.
The prowler, who asked that his name not be used, has been interviewed by Simpson's investigators, who said they find him credible. He also has spoken with detectives over the phone and is scheduled for a formal interview later this week.
It won't be his first face-to-face encounter with the detectives. When he was being videotaped at the crime scene by Simpson investigator Pavelic, LAPD Detec-tive Tom Lange happened by. According to Pavelic, Lange asked who the witness was, but Pavelic said he brushed him off.
Police are reluctant to disclose their investigative efforts, but law en-forcement officials say both police and prosecutors have received a stream of calls and letters from across the nation and even other countries. The pace of tips slowed down a bit after Simpson's preliminary hearing, officials said, but picked up again after the Simpson camp opened its toll-free tip line.
"That seemed to make everyone out there feel like they were Deputy Dan," said one law enforcement source. "Our phones started ringing and the letters started arriving."
* REVERSING FIELD: O.J. Simpson's lawyers told a judge their experts will not participate in DNA testing of crime scene blood samples.

Los Angeles Times

January 21, 1997, Tuesday, Southland Edition

BYLINE: JIM NEWTON and MATT LAIT, TIMES STAFF WRITERS

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

Authorities in New York have arrested two suspected extortionists in what was de-scribed as a failed attempt to blackmail Bill Cosby, while police in Los Angeles were were questioning two "possible witnesses" in connection with the slaying last week of the entertainment icon's only son. Officials stressed Monday that they do not believe the two investigations are connected.
The U.S. attorney's office in New York announced Monday that Autumn Jackson and Jose Medina, both of whom are from Southern California, sources said, had been ar-rested Saturday. Authorities said the two were threatening to take a story to the tabloid news media accusing Bill Cosby of fathering an illegitimate child--an alle-gation denied by Cosby's spokesman. Officials on both coasts conferred Monday about that case and last Thursday's shooting near Bel-Air of graduate student Ennis Wil-liam Cosby and concluded that they are not part of a single plot against the Cosby family.
Federal prosecutors said the extortion suspects had sought $ 40 million from the entertainer and were meeting with Cosby's attorneys in New York and were expecting to collect a $ 24-million settlement. Jackson, authorities said, had alleged that she was Cosby's illegitimate daughter.
"This kind of activity is not something that is unique to Bill Cosby," said Cosby spokesman David Brokaw. "It happens all the time to entertainment figures. It's dis-tressing and annoying and disruptive but he's learned over the years how to protect his family and himself from this kind of invasion."
In Los Angeles, detectives Monday questioned two men described as potential wit-nesses in the Cosby slaying. According to a source familiar with the case, the two men were seen driving a car similar to one described by a security guard as having been near the scene of the crime.  Police had announced Saturday they wanted to speak to the driver of that car, a blue hatchback, in the hopes that he might have seen events surrounding the killing of Ennis Cosby.
Driven in part by the release of composite photographs and in part by an escalat-ing tabloid reward derby, Los Angeles police detectives are being forced into a sort of investigative triage, attempting to separate factual from fanciful accounts of Ennis Cosby's slaying as he changed a tire near the San Diego Freeway. By midday Monday, police were sifting through more than 300 tips, some possibly serious clues, others passing observations or dubious suggestions.
On Sunday, Bill Cosby, speaking through his publicist, challenged print and elec-tronic tabloids to stop paying for information about the case and to instead use that money to offer a reward. The National Enquirer was quick to respond, posting $ 100,000 for information leading to apprehension of the killer.
On Monday, Globe Communications, parent company of the Globe tabloid, upped the ante, offering a $ 200,000 reward. The Globe also intends to set up a toll-free num-ber to accept tips about the case.
"In circumstances like this, it is often the case that individuals with informa-tion prefer to deal with someone other than the police," the Globe said in a press release announcing its reward. "We will handle all tips with the utmost confidenti-ality."
The offers of rewards can both assist and complicate the job of investigators. On one hand, experts say, the prospect of a reward may draw out some otherwise wary tipsters. But if the tips come from self-described eyewitnesses to the killing who withheld their accounts until there is money being offered, they could come back to haunt prosecutors.
Witnesses who cooperate with tabloids in return for money often find themselves subjected to withering criticism if they are called into court. In the O.J. Simpson case, for instance, one witness who told the grand jury that she saw a frantic Simp-son moments after the murders was dropped and given a tongue lashing by prosecutor Marcia Clark after she admitted that she had accepted money from a tabloid for her story.  Although that money was offered as payment for a story and not as a reward, the witness' acceptance of the cash cast such a cloud over her credibility that she was never called to testify during the criminal trial.
In the Cosby investigation, legal experts said the primary value of the rewards may be to draw out not eyewitnesses to the crime, but rather people who can identify the suspect from the composite drawing or otherwise aid police with secondhand in-formation.
"The risk to credibility is a real risk," said UCLA law professor Peter Arenella. "But it's arguably well worth it if some individuals with secondhand information may help the police with their investigation."
Tony Frost, editor of the Globe, said he was confident that the tabloid's reward would not compromise the investigation.
"It's not a fear because the information would be passed to the LAPD and their wealth of experience would be able to tell whether it witness was genuine or not," Frost said. He added that the Globe would screen the tips first, and possibly use them for stories, but then would pass along information to the LAPD.
At the LAPD, Cmdr. Tim McBride emphasized that police would prefer to have wit-nesses come directly to authorities. "We are encouraging people to come to the po-lice," McBride said. "We're not in partnership with the tabloids."
The most helpful tips, police and outside observers agree, are those that might lead to the identification of two men: one who is being called the primary suspect in the case and another who is being labeled a possible witness.
Most of the tips thus far have gone straight to the department's Robbery-Homicide Division, the same elite unit that handled the O.J.  Simpson investigation and other high-profile killings. LAPD press officers also have been receiving tips, said Cmdr. McBride, as have officers in other parts of the department, including the West Los Angeles Division, which covers the area where Ennis Cosby's body was found last week.
The result is a massive exercise in what LAPD officials call "clue management," the sifting of leads into credible tips and the rantings of wannabes who sometimes emerge to clamor for a place in a high-profile investigation.
"We appreciate the public's help," said McBride. "Some of the clues are clearly more critical than others. We try to focus our attention on the ones that may lead to a suspect."
Robert W. Peterson, a private investigator who worked on the Simpson case, said that in the days ahead, police can expect to be on the receiving end of a cascade of information, much of it bad.
"Everybody in the world is going to turn in somebody they don't like, a noisy neighbor or an ex-girlfriend or an ex-wife," he said. "Going through all that is like an insurmountable task."
Bill Pavelic, a former LAPD detective who now works as an investigator and con-sultant, said 99% of the calls to the Police Department are likely to be worthless--some from psychics, others from people playing amateur detective. But Pavelic said experienced detectives can quickly separate the wheat from the chaff.
The LAPD's ability to run down scores of leads has been tested before, most nota-bly during the investigation of the June 12, 1994, slayings of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Lyle Goldman. In that case, thousands of callers offered tips--some true, most false--as to the killer or other details of that case.
In the investigation, the issue was complicated by Simpson's offer of a reward for information leading to the apprehension of the "real killer or killers." The Simpson defense team set up a toll-free number, took thousands of tips, then turned over some of them to the LAPD, forcing police investigators to chase them down.
In the Cosby case, the suspect is being described as a white man of average height and weight between the ages of 25 and 32. Police released a composite sketch of him Saturday; in the picture, he is wearing a knit cap.
The other man--whom police said was in his late 20s to mid-30s with dark hair, a mustache and a goatee--is being sought as a possible witness.
Times staff writer James Rainey contributed to this story

 From tales about a footloose dog to a burglar's reports of mysterious screams, tips are pouring in on the hot line set up in the O.J. Simpson murder case.
Simpson attorney Robert L. Shapiro said Wednesday that the toll-free telephone line established by the defense had recorded 250,000 calls in a week.
''It's beyond belief,'' Shapiro said.
Simpson has also offered dlrs 500,000 for information leading to the arrest of the ''real killer.''
''We're hearing from every psycho and every crazy person,'' said Bill Pavelic, an investigative consultant working with the Simpson team. ''But if I get one call in a hundred that's a good lead, it's worth it.''
A Santa Barbara woman called police and the hot line suggesting that Nicole Brown Simpson's white Akita could have carried a bloody glove from the murder scene to Simpson's estate two miles (3.2 kilometers) away.
She suggested tests of the glove to see whether the dog's saliva was on it. So far, neither police nor defense lawyers have requested the tests.
A Maryland woman has called the hot line repeatedly, telling of dreams in which she sees another killer. To her frustration, lawyers haven't called her back.
Investigators for the defense and the police are looking into many of the tips in the June 12 slayings of Simpson's former wife and her friend Ronald Goldman.
''There's people that are giving us theories, there's psychics, that kind of thing,'' Detective Dennis Payne said. ''And then there's people who have information. We're checking it all out.''
Some officers said they are concerned defense lawyers will present a huge number of tips to police, then argue that the investigation wasn't thorough if all aren't tracked down.
One caller who identified himself as a burglar said he was casing homes in the neighborhood the night of the slayings. He said he heard a woman scream and saw two white men fleeing the crime scene about the time of the killings.
The burglar said he isn't interested in the reward money.
''I just want to straighten this out,'' he told the Los Angeles Times, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, FL)

January 8, 1995, SUNDAY, ALL EDITIONS

SLEUTH

BYLINE: BY TOM MURPHY

SECTION: SUNSHINE MAGAZINE, Pg. 8

LENGTH: 2522 words

JOHN McNALLY WAS AN OFF-DUTY NEW YORK POLICE detective on his way to visit his daughter Deborah in the hospital one winter night in 1969, when he spotted a robbery in progress at a liquor store near the Holland Tunnel. He pulled his car over and strolled into the store as if he were a customer.

A man with a pistol was standing behind a counter while a second man emptied one of the cash registers. When the robber moved to a second register, McNally suddenly drew his service revolver and stuck it under the man’s chin.

The other gunman whirled around and aimed his .32 at McNally, but his pistol misfired.

“Put down your gun if you want your friend to live,” McNally shouted.

The man tossed his gun to the floor.

“John was never off duty,” says Stan Kochman, an ex-NYPD cop and private investigator from New Jersey.

Kochman admits he’s not an impartial observer. As private investigators, he and McNally worked numerous cases together, including the Claus von Bulow appeal, masterminded by Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz in 1985. After being convicted of attempting to murder his wife, heiress Martha “Sunny” von Bulow, with injections of insulin, Von Bulow was granted a new trial. The second jury found him not guilty.

“McNally was a legend in the police department,” Kochman recalls. “He wasn’t intimidated by anything.”

McNally has been a private investigator now for 22 years. Since 1983 he and his partner, Pat McKenna, have been based in West Palm Beach, though McNally still maintains an office in New York City. During this time, they have worked for many of the most prominent criminal defense attorneys in the country.
Unlike his famous clients, very little is known about McNally, who was born in Brooklyn in 1933. He usually makes every effort to avoid the media, though that proved impossible when he stepped off a plane in Los Angeles last July to head the investigation for the O.J. Simpson defense team.

Every reporter within shouting distance wanted an interview. Time magazine, grasping for information, published a story headlined: “Who Are These Guys, Anyway?'’
The article painted a less-than-flattering portrait of McNally, but a very different image emerged when the PI finally agreed to an interview with Sunshine in Los Angeles, in between tracking down crucial evidence for Robert Shapiro, Simpson’s lead attorney.

IT IS A BRIGHT SATURDAY afternoon at a Bel Air hotel on Sunset Boulevard, and McNally and McKenna are relaxing at a poolside table, their cellular phones close by. McNally, whose hair and beard are gray, could be a finalist in the annual Key West Ernest Hemingway look-a-like contest.

He makes it clear that he wouldn’t have agreed to the Sunshine interview if it wasn’t a favor for F. Lee Bailey, the flamboyant Palm Beach defense attorney who gave McNally his start in the private-investigation business and was responsible for McNally joining the Simpson team.

Throughout the interview, McNally refuses to embellish his exploits and offers only sparse information about his personal life.

He grew up in Brooklyn, attended a Catholic high school and enlisted in the Navy at 17. When he was discharged from the service, he joined the New York police department. He moved up quickly through the ranks and became the youngest man in the department to make detective first-grade. In 1964, he was credited with helping to break one of the most famous jewel robberies in American history.

That was the year Miami man-about-town Jack “Murph the Surf” Murphy and two companions broke into Manhattan’s Museum of Natural History and stole the Star of India - the largest sapphire in the world - along with other priceless jewels.

Tapping his sources on the street, McNally learned that a group of out-of-town men had been spotted partying at a local hotel.
“I ran down the lead the same day,” McNally says, “and turned the information over to the FBI.”

Two days later, the FBI arrested Murph the Surf in Miami and recovered the Star of India.

After receiving 22 commendations during his career, McNally retired from the NYPD in 1971.

The following year, he was referred to F. Lee Bailey, who had come to New York on a murder case involving two brothers named Jacobson. Bailey asked McNally to check out a rumor that the prosecution was planning to coach a witness during a mock trial scheduled to take place in an empty courtroom over the weekend.

Posing as a janitor, McNally put on old clothes and mopped his way into the courtroom where the witness was being questioned. The next day in court Bailey asked the witness if she had been coached in her testimony. When she said no, Bailey informed the prosecution that McNally could verify the witness was lying. Bailey won the case, and he and McNally began their long association.

Since being licensed as a PI in 1972, McNally has worked almost exclusively for elite criminal defense attorneys. Though he won’t discuss his fees, they are substantial. He doesn’t advertise, and never had to perform such mundane tasks as domestic surveillance.

“I started out at the top,” he says. “Lee was my jump-off point.”

INTERVIEWS WITH THE ATTORNEYS McNally has worked for bring a sharper portrait of him into focus. There is a remarkable degree of consistency in their feelings about the investigator, who, they say, is the best in the business.

Fred Hafetz, a longtime lawyer and a former chief of the criminal division in the U.S. Attorney’s Office, has used McNally’s services for more than 20 years. He met the PI in the early ’70s, when Hafetz was representing a defendant in a murder case and needed to locate a witness.
“All we had was a nickname and a little information about the neighborhood,” Hafetz remembers. “I turned the information over to John on Friday. On Saturday he found the man. Amazing.”
What comes across repeatedly is McNally’s ability to find witnesses and to get them to talk. When asked how he does it, he shrugs, saying, “You have to work to get them on your side. I try to take that extra step. Other PIs might interview someone by phone. I like to do it face to face.”

McNally’s world is not the slam-bang stuff of TV heroes like Tom Selleck of Magnum P.I. or James Garner of The Rockford Files. There are no car chases or shootouts. McNally has a gun license in both Florida and New York, but he seldom carries a weapon.

Not that there haven’t been a few tense moments.

Gerald Alch was a criminal defense attorney for 34 years before becoming a district court judge in Massachusetts. In the mid-’70s he was working a murder case in Indiana, and McNally was along as his investigator. When Alch received an anonymous death threat, McNally insisted that as a precaution they trade motel rooms.

“When you have a private investigator who’s willing to take a bullet for you, it’s pretty hard not to have confidence in him,” Alch says.
Barry Slotnick, a New York attorney who in 1984 hired McNally to investigate the case of subway gunman Bernhard Goetz, tells a story that illustrates McNally’s ability to get the kind of information that can prove vital during a trial.

In 1980, Slotnick was defending two young Hasidic Jews charged with attempted murder. Searching for a key witness for the prosecution, McNally moved seamlessly through the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, a mixed-race neighborhood where Hasidic men wear black formal garb and full beards. Finally, he found the witness and interviewed him. When he briefed Slotnick, McNally said he was certain the witness had been smoking marijuana during the incident he claimed to have seen.

Dubious, Slotnick told McNally it hadn’t been mentioned in the police report.

McNally shrugged. “Well, I guess they didn’t pick up on it.”

When Slotnick questioned the witness in court, he asked the man if he had been smoking marijuana at the time, and the witness said yes. Then Slotnick asked him if he was able to see the event while he was smoking.

“Yeah, man,” the witness said. “Marijuana makes me see better.” Slotnick’s clients were acquitted.

AT THE HOTEL ON SUNSET BOULEVARD, McNally and McKenna are drinking out of cans of beer from their cooler, and McNally is feeding potato chips to a squirrel that has scampered up to the table.

What does he think about the Time magazine article that quoted an assistant U.S. Attorney as saying McNally was a confidant of Gambino crime-family members? The question clearly irritates the PI.

“If I work for five different lawyers, am I the confidant of five different defendants?” he asks rhetorically. “No. It’s because of the lawyers I work for.”

Lee Bailey, coming to McNally’s defense, says, “If John were a confidant of the mob, I wouldn’t be introducing him to any of my clients.”

When Judge Gerald Alch is asked the same question, he reacts in disbelief. “You’ve heard of the impossible dream? That’s the unleapable stretch. John has the ability to get the job done without ever crossing the ethical or moral line. He never gets that line blurred.”

According to Time magazine, McNally does have his detractors, but it is difficult to put a name to such sources as “a high-ranking member of the NYPD” or verify the statement that “law-enforcement sources” told Time that McNally was the target of an FBI investigation.

When asked about the Time story, an FBI spokeswoman said that the agency would not confirm or deny any investigation, past or present. She added, however, that the “law-enforcement source” mentioned in Time was not the FBI.
The news that McNally and McKenna were working for O.J. Simpson’s defense team was not warmly received by a group of California private investigators, and a complaint was filed by the Los Angeles County Criminal Investigators Association. Their law firm sent McNally and McKenna a cease-and-desist order, stating that they were not licensed to operate in California.

McNally flips open a thick, three-ring binder and jabs at a page.

“I called Sacramento (the state capital) when I first got out here and was told I did not have to have a California license to work a particular case,” he says with heat in his voice. “I called a second time to confirm that and I was told the same thing.”

When asked if there were any other investigators involved on the Simpson case, McNally nods his head.

“Yeah,” he says. “We have an ex-LAPD sergeant named William Bill Pavelic acting as a consultant.”McNally smiles at McKenna. “We are that ‘army of investigators’ you keep hearing about.”

McNALLY HAS HAD HIS SHARE of personal tragedies. His son, John, was killed in a car accident in New York in 1981. Devastated, McNally and his wife, Elaine, left New York for South Florida, and bought a condo in Jupiter, where McNally took a two-year hiatus from his work. Elaine died in 1992.

Today, McNally devotes himself to his private-investigation business, which has grown dramatically since he moved to Florida. Over the years, he has built up a network of PIs he calls on when he’s too busy to handle a case himself. Using this network, he was able to put together a team to investigate the country’s first toxic-dumping racketeering case in 1990.

New York attorney Michael Walsh represented one of the corporations charged with the illegal dumping of medical waste. McNally set up surveillance teams to follow hospital employees to determine who was actually dumping the waste products.
The information that McNally’s team uncovered convinced the jury that it was hospital employees, either intentionally or negligently, who were improperly disposing of tons of toxic waste.
In this case, as in many others, McNally got little credit for turning a case in the client’s favor.

“It’s not important for John to take credit for a lawyer’s success in the courtroom,” Walsh says. “I like to think of him as the stealth detective.”

F. LEE BAILEY HAS LONG BEEN an advocate of the value of a top-flight investigator. “I’m a great believer in the notion that if your investigator is good enough, almost any lawyer will do,” he says.

Bailey devoted a section of his 1982 book, To Be A Trial Lawyer, to the responsibilities and skills of a PI. The attorney believes that an investigator must try to ensure that the lawyer he’s working for gets no surprises during the trial.

McNally agrees.

“It’s just as important to find out the bad stuff as the good stuff,” he says.

To do this, McNally puts a witness at ease, then obtains a statement without the subpoena power of the police.

Miami attorney Jay Hogan has known McNally since the PI moved to Florida 13 years ago.

“John can talk to a guy in a candy store or a penthouse or the CEO of a corporation,” Hogan says. “He seems to be the kind of man who invokes trust from all kinds of people.”

On his first contact with a witness, McNally identifies the law firm he’s working for and then presents his calling card.

“I’ll ask if they’ve read the police report that has their statement in it,” he explains. “If they say no, I’ll give it to them. You’ve got to give a little to get a little. Often they’ll finish reading the police report and tell me, ‘That’s not what I said.’ Then I’ll ask, ‘So what did you say?’ ”
McNally tries to form a bond of trust with the witness that lasts throughout the trial. Sometimes an attorney will ask him to go back to a reluctant witness and persuade him to testify. In a case like this, McNally says that the best approach is to appeal to the witness’ sense of fair play.

“With each witness, I have to be as good as my word,” he says.

IT’S APPROACHING 4 O’CLOCK, and McNally announces that he has to meet someone in Malibu and excuses himself to get ready. Pat McKenna stays at the table to talk about the man he is assisting in the Simpson case.

McKenna has a master’s degree in criminology and is a former corrections-parole officer who came to Florida from Calumet City, Ill., in 1978. He has traveled to Europe and South America on investigations and worked such high-profile assignments as the IRA Stinger-missile case in West Palm Beach in 1990 and the William Kennedy Smith rape saga in 1991. He and McNally have been associates for more than a decade.

McKenna is tanned and looks fit.

“I’m 46 and can’t keep up with the guy,” he says about the less-than-svelte McNally. “John is always thinking, always on his toes. He never rests.”
McKenna admits he is in awe of McNally, even though they sometimes argue and challenge each other about tactics. McKenna talks of how proud he was when, as a notary public, he was asked to perform the wedding ceremony for McNally’s daughter, Eileen, in Jupiter. He also mentions McNally’s generosity.

“John could have had the William Kennedy Smith case, but he gave it to me,” McKenna says.

He frowns, trying to come up with a fitting way to express admiration for his friend and mentor.

“I’ve learned a lot on my own, but when I’m with John, I know I’m working with the master,” he says. “It’s like a painter being asked to work with Michelangelo.”

TOM MURPHY is a freelance writer. He lives in Boca Raton.

Associated Press Worldstream
July 21, 1994; Thursday 20:15 Eastern Time

BYLINE: MICHAEL FLEEMAN
SECTION: International news
LENGTH: 437 words
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES

A top investigator for former football star O.J. Simpson has been portrayed in court papers as a bitter ex-cop with a vendetta against a former Police Department colleague assigned to the sports legend’s murder case.

Yugoslav native Zvonko ‘’Bill'’ Pavelic gave up a generous pension package when he quit the department 18 months ago after nearly 20 years on the force. He contends he was forced out because he had complained about racism and corruption in the department.

‘’I was sick and tired of watching innocent people get framed, especially members of minority groups, and that includes African-Americans and Mexicans,'’ Pavelic, a Croat born in the former Yugoslavia, told The Associated Press. ‘’I was disturbed about officer-involved shootings, and how they covered up the incidents.'’

William Bill Pavelic, who has sat in court behind Simpson, was hired to review the police investigation in the case, looking for mistakes, violations of LAPD policy and skeletons in investigators’ closets.

Simpson, 47, is charged with murder in the June 12 stabbings of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson, 35, and her friend Ron Goldman, 25. He faces a Friday arraignment.

Court papers describe Pavelic as angry, bitter and paranoid.

‘’Pavelic thought there was a big conspiracy among the supervisors at Southwest Detectives and command staff officers of LAPD who were ‘out to get him,”’ prosecutors wrote in a case in which the defense was considering calling Pavelic as a witness.

In recent days, the Simpson camp has leaked unflattering details about Detective Mark Fuhrman, who testified at a preliminary hearing that he found a bloody glove at Simpson’s estate.

The defense was reportedly going to argue that Fuhrman planted the glove. However, an internal police investigation has concluded that scenario is virtually impossible, unidentified police sources told the Los Angeles Times.

Many of Fuhrman’s defenders suspect Pavelic was responsible for revealing details to the media of a 1983 lawsuit that portrays Fuhrman as racist and violent.

Pavelic makes no secret of his hatred toward the LAPD, and Fuhrman in particular.

A review of his personnel file suggests, however, that Pavelic enjoyed a successful career. He strongly defended his reputation, pointing to 175 commendations he received.

But his career apparently took a turn for the worse in his latter years, when he started openly criticizing command staff, including former Chief Daryl Gates.

Pavelic retired in 1992 on a service-related disability pension of half pay, claiming his working conditions aggravated his health.

Associated Press Worldstream
July 28, 1994; Thursday 16:54 Eastern Time

SECTION: International news

DATELINE: LOS ANGELES

From tales about a footloose dog to a burglar’s reports of mysterious screams, tips are pouring in on the hot line set up in the O.J. Simpson murder case.

Simpson attorney Robert L. Shapiro said Wednesday that the toll-free telephone line established by the defense had recorded 250,000 calls in a week.

“It’s beyond belief,” Shapiro said.

Simpson has also offered $ 500,000 for information leading to the arrest of the “real killer.”

“We’re hearing from every psycho and every crazy person,” said Bill Pavelic, an investigative consultant working with the Simpson team. “But if I get one call in a hundred that’s a good lead, it’s worth it.”

A Santa Barbara woman called police and the hot line suggesting that Nicole Brown Simpson’s white Akita could have carried a bloody glove from the murder scene to Simpson’s estate two miles (3.2 kilometers) away.

She suggested tests of the glove to see whether the dog’s saliva was on it. So far, neither police nor defense lawyers have requested the tests.

A Maryland woman has called the hot line repeatedly, telling of dreams in which she sees another killer. To her frustration, lawyers haven’t called her back.

Investigators for the defense and the police are looking into many of the tips in the June 12 slayings of Simpson’s former wife and her friend Ronald Goldman.

“There’s people that are giving us theories, there’s psychics, that kind of thing,” Detective Dennis Payne said. “And then there’s people who have information. We’re checking it all out.”

Some officers said they are concerned defense lawyers will present a huge number of tips to police, then argue that the investigation wasn’t thorough if all aren’t tracked down.

One caller who identified himself as a burglar said he was casing homes in the neighborhood the night of the slayings. He said he heard a woman scream and saw two white men fleeing the crime scene about the time of the killings.

The burglar said he isn’t interested in the reward money.

“I just want to straighten this out,” he told the Los Angeles Times, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“Guilty of Incompetence” is a hard hitting book, that will expose the facts instead of fiction, and take you behind the scenes to see how LAPD and LADA helped create the OJ Simpson “race card”, covered up the existence of suspect “Charlie”, mismanaged the investigation and botched the “Trial of the Century”.

ABC NEWS
January 30, 1997

SHOW: ABC GOOD MORNING AMERICA (7:00 am ET)

FORMER LEAD SIMPSON INVESTIGATOR VISITS GMA

GUESTS: BILL PAVELIC

BYLINE: ELIZABETH VARGAS

SECTION: News

HIGHLIGHT: RESPONSE TO LANGE AND VANNATTER

ELIZABETH VARGAS, Host: As we said earlier, former LAPD detectives Phil Vannatter and Tom Lange were guests on our show yesterday. Today -- and they were emphatically defending the integrity of their investigation, we must say. Today, we are going to speak with Bill Pavelic. He was the chief investigator of the OJ Simpson criminal trial, civil trial, and the custody case involving his two young children, Sydney and Justin. Bill Pavelic joins us this morning. Welcome, thank you for being here.
 
BILL PAVELIC, Former Simpson Lead Investigator: Thank you.
 
ELIZABETH VARGAS: Former detectives Lange and Vannatter took on the air -- were on the air -- concede they made mistakes, but they emphatically deny framing OJ Simpson. Why are you so sure that, in fact, they did?
 
BILL PAVELIC: In fact, their book even substantiates that premise even more. They basically falsified the affidavit, the search warrant affidavit. The information that they provided to the judge in order to get the search warrant was basically fabricated. They lied to the judge by informing her that OJ Simpson left on an unscheduled flight, thus leaving them with the impression -- leaving her with the impression that he was fleeing California. They did not tell her that they scaled the wall. They told her that they recovered the glove while securing the evidence. And as you know from the trial, that's absolutely incorrect. I could go on, but I don't think we have the time.
 
ELIZABETH VARGAS: But even if we grant, even if we were to accept everything you just said on face value, which clearly detectives Lange and Vannatter deny and do not, you were an LA police officer for 19 years yourself. What you are suggesting is a conspiracy of such an enormous scope. They would have had to have planted Mr. Simpson's blood at Bundy. They would have planted Mr. Goldman's blood in Mr. Simpson's Bronco, planted Nicole's blood and Simpson's blood at the Rockingham estate. It goes on and on, and it seems fantastic to many people.
 
BILL PAVELIC: Yes, it does. But if you look at the facts, even Judge Ito supported our premise, and that is that Vannatter, for all intents and purposes, was dishonest. If Vannatter was dishonest, his partner obviously is just as culpable as Vannatter. What we found in this book, in fact, is, that Vannatter was shopping for a favorable prosecutor, in this case, Marcia Clark. Vannatter contacted Marcia Clark before he obtained the search warrant or the affidavit, completed the affidavit for the search warrant, before he went to Judge Lefkovitz (ph). So now we learn from his book that the prosecutor had a much bigger role in this conspiracy than we initially thought.
 
ELIZABETH VARGAS: Well, let's get to the specifics of what they said yesterday ...
 
BILL PAVELIC: Sure.
 
ELIZABETH VARGAS: ... on our air, for example. For -- the first thing they said was that Mr Simpson was not acting like an innocent man. As one of the proofs, pieces of proof of that, they played the following tape. It's an audiotape from the Bronco chase. Let's listen to it very quickly.
 
Det TOM LANGE: (on phone) And nobody's going to get hurt.
 
OJ SIMPSON: (on phone) I'm the only one that deserves ...
 
Det TOM LANGE: No, you don't deserve that.
 
OJ SIMPSON: I'm going to get hurt.
 
Det TOM LANGE: You do not deserve to get hurt.
 
OJ SIMPSON: Ahhh ...
 
Det TOM LANGE: You do not deserve to get hurt. Don't do this.

OJ SIMPSON: All I did was love Nicole. That's all I did was love her.
 
Det TOM LANGE: I understand.
 
OJ SIMPSON: I love everybody. I tried to show everybody my whole life that I love every body.
 
Det TOM LANGE: We know that, and everybody loves you.
 
ELIZABETH VARGAS: Mr. Simpson says on this tape, "I'm the only one who deserves to get hurt. I loved Nicole too much." To detectives Lange and Vannatter, they say that sounds like a grieving guilty man.
 
BILL PAVELIC: Well, he is a grieving not-guilty man. What he is referring to is obviously not the crime itself, but the fact that he eluded authorities, and went to the grave, and was suicidal. The interpretation that the -- Lange and Vannatter are putting out is that somehow this has to do with the crime itself, and that is totally incorrect.
 
ELIZABETH VARGAS: Any question why Mr. Simpson didn't say, "I'm innocent of these crimes"? Why he didn't say -- talk more about Nicole's death?
 
BILL PAVELIC: In fact, he did say that. Not only did he maintain his innocence, but he also said, in various discussions that same day, that he was being framed by the police. I would like to submit to you, why didn't Vannatter and Lange put the contents of all -- the entire tape in a follow-up report or a supplemental report? You're not going to find that. And the reason you're not going to find it is because there's a problem with this tape. First of all, what probable cause did they have to tape record this conversation? Second of all, they're totally contradicting their initial premise, which was that he was fleeing again, trying to leave the public with the impression that he was somehow -- with the goatee and the mustache, that he was going to run away.
 
ELIZABETH VARGAS: But it does bring up an interesting issue. Why, in fact, if he was just going to his wife's grave, or why, in fact, he was only going to commit suicide or contemplating that horrible thought, would he have a disguise and $8,000 cash with him?
 
BILL PAVELIC: Well, first of all, he had a disguise. Why would he take his passport with no disguise? I mean, it's ludicrous to assume that he was trying to disguise himself in order to flee, but yet he took the passport that doesn't have the disguise. I mean, it just doesn't make sense.
 
ELIZABETH VARGAS: All right. They also introduced detectives Lange and Vannatter, they say there was new evidence that was never introduced at the criminal or civil trial, and they talked about it yesterday on our show. I've got another clip I'd like you to listen to.
 
Det TOM LANGE: We had a witness at the airport that initially, interestingly enough, came to the defense and said, "Listen, I was at the airport a little after 11:00. I saw OJ Simpson there with his arm buried in a trash container, and then it went to a small flight bag on top. He zipped it closed, and he walked inside." The day after -- the day of the murders, this fellow reported this to the defense, and they never shared it with us. It was nine months later when this man followed up on this revelation with us.
 
ELIZABETH VARGAS: Did you investigate this man who says he saw OJ Simpson disposing contents of the -- of a bag?
 
BILL PAVELIC: First of all, first of all, let me just say something about Detective Lange here. We don't have an obligation to turn over discovery material to him. Discovery material would be turned over to the prosecution. If the prosecution did not let him see it, that's their business. We did turn over that information. As far as his interpretation, what happened is, their interpretation is completely different from ours.
 
ELIZABETH VARGAS: And the other evidence about supposedly OJ Simpson got a gift of knives just days before the murders?
 
BILL PAVELIC: Again, you have to ask yourself, why didn't they introduce this man? Why didn't they call him to testify? His contention is that it was the prosecution that didn't want to do it. This is a question that should be posed to the prosecution. As far as we're concerned, the gentleman that he is referring to was contacting tabloids, was trying to sell his story, has changed the version of his story, and he is -- he was not reliable.
 
ELIZABETH VARGAS: To many people in this civil trial in particular, the most damning evidence against OJ Simpson is this series of photographs showing him wearing Bruno Magli shoes, the kind of shoes that left a footprint at the murder scene. Do you still believe that first photograph printed in "The Enquirer" was indeed doctored, was a fake?
 
BILL PAVELIC: Unlike the plaintiffs' witnesses, I will not comment on an issue that the jury in the civil case is adjudicating. I think it would be improper. I'm still subject to the rules and regulations and the gag order that was issued by Judge Fujisaki.
 
ELIZABETH VARGAS: All right. Then without commenting in specific on this evidence, do you think that overall, this civil trial has been a fair trial for Mr. Simpson?
 
BILL PAVELIC: I would prefer to answer that question after the adjudication. And I think you may find it rather surprising.
 
ELIZABETH VARGAS: There have been many have been -- who have felt that Mr. Simpson has been subjected to double jeopardy. Those who support him feel that he's already been through this once, that in the civil trial, he is -- has been -- all this has been brought out against him again, we're getting this new evidence. Do you feel the same way? Do you feel sympathetic that way?
 
BILL PAVELIC: Let me just make a comment that I don't see the rage in America with regards to Mark Fuhrman making a living, who is a convicted perjurer. I don't see groups demonstrating against him. He is given an opportunity to make a living. So if we're talking about double standards here, I think there are double standards with regards to the way they look at OJ versus Mark Fuhrman. And in this case, only one person was convicted, and that was Mark Fuhrman.
 
ELIZABETH VARGAS: You still have a good relationship with OJ Simpson. You still speak with him regularly.
 
BILL PAVELIC: Yes, I do.
 
ELIZABETH VARGAS: How is he holding up through this trial?
 
BILL PAVELIC: I'm sure it's very difficult for him, but I think the fact that he has his children, he's content with that, and he knows this is an uphill battle. This is only round two in a 15-round fight. I'm sure that there will be some additional rulings.
 
ELIZABETH VARGAS: Round two, that means it sounds like if he loses, he'll appeal.
 
BILL PAVELIC: I expect the appeal to go. I don't expect him to lose in this case.

ELIZABETH VARGAS: You expect him to win in the civil trial.
 
BILL PAVELIC: I think we're going to have to wait for the jury, and we may be just as surprised here as we were in all the others.
 
ELIZABETH VARGAS: In the criminal trial, OJ Simpson repeatedly professed his innocence, repeatedly pledged to find the real killers of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. You were the man put in charge of that. What have you found about who might have killed these two people?
 
BILL PAVELIC: It's interesting that you ask that question. I don't recall anybody asking Mr. Jewell, "If you didn't plant the bomb in the -- in Atlanta, who did?" In this particular case, Mr. Simpson did authorize me to conduct an investigation. I will not comment on the investigation. I want to maintain the integrity of the investigation. And unlike the prosecution in the criminal case, I'm not about to rush to judgment.
 
ELIZABETH VARGAS: Bill Pavelic, thank you for coming in, interesting speaking with you this morning.
 
BILL PAVELIC: Thank you, have a good day.
 
ELIZABETH VARGAS: Thanks, same to you.

Author is  a legal asvisor and content writer

City News Service

July 27, 2001 Friday

BYLINE: By TERRI VERMEULEN KEITH, City News Service

DATELINE: LOS ANGELES

A millionaire businessman acquitted of charges that he sexually assaulted nine women, seven of whom allegedly were drugged, said today that the allegations have been "a devastating experience."

"The nightmare is over, absolutely. I'm looking forward to just relaxing and going back to work, and salvaging a lot of the money that I've lost and just looking forward to a new life and getting married and having a family," John Gordon Jones said at a downtown news conference.

Jones spent more than two years in county jail without bail until a Long Beach Superior Court jury acquitted him yesterday of 29 charges, including kidnapping, rape of an unconscious person, rape by use of drugs and sexual battery.

The 46-year-old owner of Worldtech Computer in Encino, which he had helped to run from jail, maintained that he had been "wrongfully accused."

"They falsified documents, they hid documents. There was prosecutorial misconduct that was just to an unbelievable, devastating state," the businessman said.

"Well, what happened is the District Attorney's Office wanted to have a GHB date rape case, and they wanted to go ahead and prosecute me no matter what the truth was.

"They went ahead and they got these women to go ahead and say false allegations against me, with blackouts that never existed, by lying. When these women wanted to back out, I believe that they forced them to go ahead with their stories," Jones said.

One of Jones' lawyers, Milton Grimes, said his client is "thinking very seriously of suing the county for false imprisonment because of the incompetent investigation in this case."

"Nine different women caused this man, this man here, to sit in jail wrongfully for 793 days over two years with wrongful allegations," Grimes said.

On behalf of the district attorney, Sandi Gibbons said her "office will not be commenting on such silly allegations that aren't true anyway."

The woman whose allegations launched the case against Jones claimed he had date-raped her and that she got home after spending the night with him and believed she had been drugged, Grimes said.

"Well, when she was tested the next day, it turned out that she had snorted a considerable amount of cocaine, which would definitely inhibit or prohibit or keep anyone from being knocked out, so this is the young lady that started this avalanche going," the defense lawyer said.

He noted that the jurors cleared his client after taking a field trip to Jones' home.

"Once the jury went out to the residence of Mr. Jones and viewed it, they had no doubt of his innocence because the descriptions of some of the women were that they were locked in bedrooms that turned out to have no locks on the doors," Grimes said.

Another of Jones' lawyers, Richard Sherman, said his client became the "poster boy for date rape."

"He was a rich man, he was a prominent man in the business community and they took him into custody. They never investigated the allegations of the first victim, the alleged victim. Had they done that, they would have realized that he didn't do that and that she was not telling ... a true story," Sherman said.

Jones said he learned that "county jail is very rough," and that he was jumped and beaten up while on the county jail bus.

"It has been a devastating experience with tremendous loss of income. And it took a lot of praying and a man like Milton Grimes and (private investigator and former LAPD detective) Bill Pavelic and Mr. Sherman to prove my innocence," he said.

Jones and his lawyers said they believed the case was motivated by his wealth and the prospect that the women might get hefty legal judgments in civil lawsuits if he had been convicted.

The women "started coming forward" with the allegations after the District Attorney's Office went to the media in December 1998 and "asked are there any victims out there who have been victimized by the alleged millionaire limousine rapist?" Grimes said.

"I don't think there'd be any charges if I didn't have any money, there would have been no charges, absolutely not," Jones said.

Jones, who had faced the possibility of consecutive life prison sentences if convicted, said he spent his first night of freedom in more than two years at a gathering with his mom and some of his friends.

"It's like starting all over again, really. Just driving the car was amazing," he said, adding that he plans to go back to work next Monday at his company, which sells laser jet cartridges and office products nationwide. "Basically, I'm just happy to be free."

The case against two other people indicted along with Jones in April 1999 on a much smaller number of charges is under review given the jury's verdict in Jones' case, according to the District Attorney's Office.

Pina Marie Colapinto and Lawrence Elliott are awaiting trial next month in downtown Los Angeles.