14 posts tagged “bill pavelic defense investigative consultant”

Scripps Howard News Service
October 27, 2003, Monday

Dr. Henry Lee

Forensic authority who has testified in more than 1,000 legal proceedings, including for the defense in the O.J. Simpson double-murder case. Also consulted in JonBenet Ramsey murder and President Kennedy's assassination.

Dr. Cyril Wecht

Nationally recognized forensic expert and coroner of Allegheny County, Pa., which includes Pittsburgh. Examined remains of Modesto's Chandra Levy.

Bill Pavelic

Private investigator and former veteran Los Angeles police detective. Previously worked on Simpson's defense team.

Gary Ermoian

Local private investigator retained when Modesto police began focusing on Scott Peterson. Authorities secretly monitored part of one of his calls to Peterson.

For the prosecution:

Steve Jacobson

Investigator with the Stanislaus County district attorney's office and former police officer. Supervised wiretaps on Peterson's phones.

Jon Buehler

Modesto police detective. Amber Frey, Peterson's girlfriend, reported to Buehler after telephone conversations with Peterson, which continued at least a month after Frey went public with their romance.

Craig Grogan

Modesto police detective and lead investigator in the Peterson case. Previously named in a federal lawsuit filed by the family of 11-year-old Alberto Sepulveda, who was killed by another officer during a 2000 raid.

Al Brocchini

Modesto police detective. Helped escort Peterson from San Diego to Modesto after his arrest in April. Defense lawyers say Brocchini mishandled a hair found in Peterson's boat.

James Brazelton

Stanislaus County district attorney since 1996 and a local prosecutor since 1985. Previously worked as a policeman and in private practice.

John Goold

Chief deputy district attorney since 1999 and former Bay Area policeman. Often serves as a spokesman for the Peterson prosecutors.

(Distributed by Scripps-McClatchy Western Service)

BYLINE: By HELEN KENNEDY 

O.J. Simpson's lawyers lied and willfully broke the law when they tried to hide damaging information, said Judge Lance A. Ito, who slapped the Dream Team yesterday with fines and various other punishments.

"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 wrote in a strongly-worded ruling.

When the jurors come back Monday, Ito - as part of the punishment - will tell them the defense lawyers broke the law and it is their fault the jurors have been cooped up in hotel rooms for the last 10 days.

Lead defense attorney Johnnie Cochran Jr. will have to pay a $ 950 fine, as will Carl Douglas, whom Ito has warned once before about violating the law of discovery by holding back information.

Misconduct fines under $ 1,000 do not get reported to the California Bar.

This is the second time the defense has been blasted by the judge for trying to put one over on the prosecution. The first was when Cochran surprised prosecutors with a raft of new witnesses in his opening statement.

The latest uproar stemmed from a July 29 interview conducted by defense investigator Zvonco "Bill" Pavelic with Rosa Lopez, Simpson's star alibi witness, who said she saw Simpson's Bronco parked at home at the time he was allegedly killing his ex-wife two miles away.

The interview produced a written statement and a tape recording, which contained different information. Neither was given to the prosecution.

Prosecutors charged that the defense hid the records because Lopez made easily-disprovable statements - notably that another Brentwood maid, Sylvia Guerra, was at her house June 12 and could back up her story.

Guerra has denied being there and said Lopez claimed Simpson's lawyers would pay her $ 5,000 to give Simpson an alibi.

When the defense belatedly produced the July 29 written statement last week - just before Lopez was to take the stand - prosecutors cried foul.

A stern Ito quizzed the defense team about any other records, but Cochran, Darden and Pavelic all heatedly denied any existed. Only after prosecutor Marcia Clark suggested Ito place Pavelic under oath, did he admit he had an audiotape.

Cochran and Darden claimed they never knew of the tape.

Cochran told reporters late yesterday: "I'm glad it's over. We'll pay and move on."

Ito also ruled that "when or if" Lopez' testimony is ever shown to the jury, he may allow prosecutors to tell the jury about the unethical defense tactics in their closing argument.

That's just one more reason for the defense to scrap Lopez's testimony altogether.

The slight Salvadoran maid finished testifying yesterday, but continued to be vague and confused about almost everything.

The defense did not ask the judge to order Lopez back, indicating they will not fight hard to have her testimony put before the jury.

Prosecutor Christopher Darden continued to demolish her testimony on cross-examination yesterday. But when Cochran got up to ask her more questions and try to mop up the mess, Lopez's answers actually became even more contradictory.

When Cochran - trying to elicite a "no" - asked Lopez if she had told a former employer that "O.J. Simpson is a great guy. I would testify to anything, anytime," Lopez responded: "Maybe I said that, I don't remember."

Cochran tried to tell the court that when Lopez said "I don't know," it meant "no" in her Salvadoran dialect.

But the Salvadoran consulate in Los Angeles released a statement saying that in no Salvadoran dialect do the words "I don't remember" substitute for "no."

Lopez also responded "no me recuerdo" when asked if she ever told Guerra she was being paid by Simpson's lawyers.

Later, she listened to a tape of Guerra saying that Lopez claimed she was being paid and that Guerra could also make $ 5,000 by pretending to have seen Simpson's Bronco.

"I never said that, sir," Lopez replied.

"Sylvia's lying?" Darden asked.

"100 percent, sir," Lopez said.

Though her estimate of when things happened changed almost every time she was asked a question, Lopez stuck adamantly to the core of her story: that she heard Simpson leave his home, that she heard scary footsteps in hard-soled shoes and that she later heard Simpson's voice and felt safer.

Because Lopez was unable to fix a time for these events, prosecutors may be able to argue that Lopez actually heard Simpson creeping back onto his own property after murdering his wife, and that the later conversation was Simpson talking to his limo driver.

Cochran has said Simpson was home chipping golf balls in his yard - but Lopez never mentioned seeing him do that.

BYLINE: By G. LUTHER WHITINGTON

SECTION: Domestic News 

DATELINE: LOS ANGELES

 A mental patient who allegedly raped a mentally ill woman at a hospital was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder for the attack because he tested positive for the deadly AIDS virus, authorities said.

Ben Lezine, 31, of Los Angeles, was arrested at Los Angeles County-University of Southern California Medical Center just before his scheduled release Thursday. He was the second person arrested for attempted murder in Los Angeles County on the basis of being an alleged AIDS carrier.

''We had to expedite this arrest,'' detective Bill Pavelic said Friday. ''Despite our pleas to hold him, the hospital was about to let him go. We had to book him.''

Lezine allegedly lured an unidentified 26-year-old woman -- also a mental patient -- to his room on Ward 3B of the County-USC psychiatric building Sept. 3 and attacked her, said Pavelic, a detective with the police Mental Evaluation Unit.

Lezine had reportedly been in and out of different psychiatric facilities for years, according to Pavelic, and was admitted to County-USC after threatening his mother.

Pavelic said he could not comment on whether Lezine was aware that he had tested positive for acquired immune deficiency syndrome, a deadly disease that afflicts mostly homosexual men and intravenous drug users.

The detective also declined to say when Lezine, who was held Friday in isolation at County Jail, was given a test that indicated he had been exposed to the AIDS virus.

In late June, Joseph Markowski, a 29-year-old prostitute afflicted with acquired immune deficiency syndrome, was taken to the same hospital for psychiatric care after he attempted suicide. Despite pleas by police that Markowski be held, he was released on schedule only to be arrested a day later on suspicion of attempted murder for allegedly selling AIDS contaminated blood.

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.

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.

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”.