10 posts tagged “bill pavelic detective supervisor”
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.
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
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
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.
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.
“...Bill Pavelic was especially proud of his street sense. He had been one of the few (LAPD) Caucasian cops; he liked to tell friends, who understood how things really worked in the black community. He got so deep into it that he saw things, he was certain, through nonwhite eyes. He discovered that African-Americans and dark-skinned immigrants of all backgrounds had a lot to fear from the LAPD. When the department couldn't prove something, some cops had no problem framing people who couldn't fight back. Pavelic complained loudly, and soon enough he was seen as disloyal. Before long, he was out...”
"...I know (LAPD)
Robbery-Homicide Division. I've actually seen them frame innocent people. You can't take anything for granted..."
“...Pavelic studied the LAPD's
crime-scene logs. He called friends at LAPD to see what else he could learn. He
put in twenty-hour days, and finally what happened in the early hours of June
13 started to come together...”
“...Pavelic got a call from an
officer on another matter. As they spoke, he realized that the cop was
connected to the Simpson investigation. He said the department thought there
was more than one killer. The wounds suggested each victim was murdered with a
different weapon. Goldman's injuries indicated he had fought fiercely before he
died...”
“...Pavelic felt that there was no
private investigator in town better at living inside the collective mind of the
LAPD than himself. He was an expert on the department's rules and procedures.
He'd been on the force for eighteen years, won hundreds of medals,
commendations, favorable incident reports...”
“...It was Pavelic who gave them
their first real hope, however elusive: He saw corruption in the police
casework...”
“...Under any circumstances, Pavelic
would have looked for it. His career with the LAPD had ended in angry
protest. In 1984, Pavelic had testified
against fellow officers who killed a fleeing suspect. One cop was fired,
another suspended for six months.
Pavelic assumed he was stigmatized forever. But by 1990, he'd made it to
supervising detective in the Southwest Division. Then he got in trouble again.
His men were investigating a date
rape at USC when their bosses began showing a heavy-handed interest. Pavelic, his partner, and their immediate
supervisor eventually concluded that then-chief Daryl Gates and a deputy chief
were listening to the suspect's father, a prominent lawyer with influence
inside the department.
Pavelic and his men protested publicly.
And Bill raised similar charges again before a "people's tribunal"
when activist groups held hearings on the LAPD after the Rodney King
beating. Pavelic told the crowd that
lying and covering up were the norm in the department. That earned him a desk job. In 1992, he and
the brass reached an accommodation. He
took a disability pension for asthma and chest pains. He told one doctor he'd
rather spend time in a gulag than go back to work...”
“...When
Shapiro called, Zvonko "Bill" Pavelic was in his basement office at
home in Glendale,
cut off from everything. Pavelic finished his investigations that way. He
isolated himself with his computer and his tapes from mid-morning till midnight
or later. He allowed himself only one break, for dinner with Maria and the
kids. He was proud of his tight, loyal family.
That was one reason he worked at home in the big house that Maria kept
so well...”
“...Robert
Shapiro called just before eleven P.M. They'd worked together three years.
Pavelic liked the lawyer's style-intellectual, highly organized, well prepared.
Shapiro's particular genius, he thought, was laying a foundation so solid that
the case was a winner no matter who presented it. They had won every case
they'd worked on...”
“...Would
Pavelic like to join the defense team in the Simpson case? Shapiro asked.
"Are you available?" Naturally Pavelic said yes. He apologized
because he couldn't make Shapiro’s first meeting the next day. But he shifted
into gear mentally while he was still talking. He'd need Maria to clip
newspapers. He knew he had to identify the documents already being generated in
the case. The prosecution's discovery file would undoubtedly be
voluminous..."
“...Bill
Pavelic met Robert Shapiro at his office in Century City.
Elegantly appointed with original art, Baccarat and Lalique crystal. Polished
and expensive, like its occupant. Then they moved to a conference room. Their
forty-five-minute meeting ranged over the entire case. Nothing would be easy, Shapiro said. An
arrest might be coming soon. He needed the investigator to do what he did best,
run parallel with the police detectives and figure out how they saw things;
then, as soon as possible, move their own investigation ahead of them. As
always, the first days were the most important...”
“...His
one experience with O.J. Simpson was part of his police history. When Simpson
was one of the runners carrying the Olympic torch before the 1984 games in Los Angeles. Pavelic was assigned to protect VIPs. He and
Simpson had talked briefly in the special seating section. Around that time,
the International Olympic Committee's Life President, Lord Killenin, nearly
died choking on his food. Pavelic had saved his life and he thought Simpson
might remember the incident...”
“...
He put his background to work as a private investigator and learned to make his
computer think like a cop. That was why he was so concerned with early
discovery material. If you took the documents, the crime reports, the logs, the
affidavits and connected them to each piece of evidence, then considered how
each cop might view it, then you could make a pretty good guess where the
department was going with the case. You could see who'd like one thing, who
favored another. Sometimes you could see their destination and arrive there
ahead of them...”
“...As
an ex-cop, he drew on his knowledge of what the police do at a crime scene.
They don't always go by the book. They cut corners-some officers more than
others-but their reports make them sound like Boy Scouts. Pavelic knew how to read between the lines of
police verbiage and find the hidden stories in the photographs the D.A. had
turned over...”
“..Pavelic
knew that Robbery-Homicide, the elite corps of detectives from LAPD, would be
assigned the case when it became known that Simpson's ex-wife was involved...”
“...As a private investigator, Pavelic was particularly good at following law enforcement paper trails. He was immediately suspicious of the lack of specifics in the Bundy and Rockingham reports. Pavelic's red alert signals flashed as he studied Phil Vannatter's affidavit for the Rockingham search warrant.
No
indication who found the bloody glove. Nothing about going into Kato Kaelin's
room. Very little information about the murders at Bundy. Nothing about
climbing the wall. Vannatter's affidavit said they learned, after talking to
Arnelle and Kato, that Simpson had left on an "unexpected" trip to Chicago. More important,
the information about Arnelle and Kato was a handwritten addition to the typed
affidavit. Had the judge or someone else asked a question during the hearing
that prompted Vannatter's addendum? Bill knew they'd called Cathy Randa and
learned from her that Simpson's trip was a planned business trip. The detective
had misrepresented the facts about the departure in order to obtain the search
warrant. O.J.'s departure was not "unexpected." Vannatter knew that.
Pavelic knew then that Vannatter had been forced into a further material
omission, the omission of the fact that they had scaled the wall at Rockingham
before obtaining the search warrant. He
also noticed that the affidavit said that Simpson took the flight "in the
early morning hours of June 13, 1994." That expanded the window available
for the killings. The cops further "observed" the glove on the back walkway
"during the securing of the residence." Whether intentional or not,
the language suggested that the LAPD investigators had assumed at once they had
a crime scene.
Vannatter wrote that "scientific investigation" confirmed that human blood was found on the Bronco. Pavelic knew that at the time he wrote the affidavit, only a routine presumptive test had been done.
Detective Vannatter had more than twenty years on the force, but his affidavit was amateurish. Why had he omitted so many damaging details? Pavelic suspected that the LAPD was rearranging things and embellishing information. Vannatter and Lange, for example, had failed to log themselves out of Bundy when they went to Rockingham. The police logs showed them signing out at ten A.M. as if they'd never left Nicole's condo.
He
also noticed that the criminalists didn't list how many samples of each
bloodstain were taken. A deliberate omission? No doubt in Pavelic's mind.
A
few days before the preliminary hearing, Shapiro received a twenty nine-page
memo outlining every mistake Pavelic saw...”
“...The
week before, only two days after the Bronco chase, Pavelic had put together a
memo for Shapiro asking for sixty-eight pieces of LAPD paperwork, ranging from
communication tapes and follow-up investigative reports to the watch
commander's daily reports. He also requested the table of contents for the
murder books, which contained virtually everything the detectives had...”
“...Earlier
in the week, when Mark Fuhrman said he had found the glove, Pavelic was
stunned. This was the guy who found the glove? That night Pavelic went to his
computer. By now he had a program in place that tracked every individual
involved in the case: what evidence each person looked at, what reports each
one filed...”
He couldn't find a single LAPD report identifying Fuhrman as the cop who found the glove. Not even the search warrant affidavit. As far as you could see in the paperwork, Fuhrman hadn't noticed the blood on and in the Bronco. He hadn't gone over the wall, hadn't interrogated Kato Kaelin. In fact, he hadn't been at Rockingham that morning.
The
Bundy crime-scene log listed Fuhrman arriving at 2:10 A.M., leaving at ten A.M.
Period. At Rockingham, he was logged in at 5:l5 the following afternoon and
left at 7:10 P.M.
If
the logs were to be believed, Fuhrman had never left Bundy to go to Rockingham
with Vannatter, Lange, and Phillips. He hadn't returned to point at the Bundy
glove while a police photographer snapped a picture. He didn't take a Polaroid
of the Bundy glove to Rockingham so Vannatter could make a comparison. The man
who wasn't there.
Pavelic
started to put the facts together. Robert Deutsch, a lawyer Pavelic knew,
called him that night. "Bill, do you realize who this Fuhrman is?"
"I guess I don't." Fuhrman had been part of the Britton case, which
Deutsch and Pavelic had worked together. A black man armed with a knife had
robbed and brutally beaten people at automatic teller machines on L.A.'s West Side in 1988.
Fuhrman was part of a CRASH Unit stakeout team that spotted Joseph Britton
threatening someone with a knife at an ATM. Britton ran. He claimed he tossed
the knife over a hedge before the cops chased him down. The CRASH team said
Britton waved the knife at them.
They
shot him six times. Most of the bullets came from Mark Fuhrman's gun. Britton
claimed that Fuhrman walked back to the hedge to get the knife and dropped it
beside him. "Are you still alive, nigger?" he sneered at the wounded
man. Britton went to prison and sued the LAPD for using excessive force.
Fuhrman was that cop. Once reminded of the connection, Pavelic remembered that
the Britton incident was just one item in a hefty dossier.
Years
earlier, Pavelic had checked out everyone on the CRASH team and found pure gold
under Fuhrman's name. The detective had filed for a disability pension in
September 1981. He wanted out because of stress. The records said that a
department psychiatrist had given him a temporary medical leave a month before
he filed. The detective complained that he was getting angrier and angrier at
"low-class" people, notably Latino and black gang members-angry
enough to kill someone. In one of the interview summaries, a doctor reported
that Fuhrman used the word "nigger."
Pavelic
knew that in April 1982 the Workers Compensation Appeals Board had judged
Fuhrman temporarily disabled and given him time off. But a year later the Board
of Pension Commissioners looked at a thick stack of contradictory psychiatric
reports and concluded Fuhrman should go back to work.
"I'm
going to need the pension reports and Fuhrman's psychological profiles,"
Bill told his friend. Deutsch was happy to send them to Shapiro.
Some
therapists wrote that Fuhrman shouldn't carry a gun. Others felt he was
exaggerating the street trouble he saw in hopes of bailing out of a job he
didn't like with a golden parachute. The LAPD had an unusually large number of
officers applying for stress pensions in those days. It was getting expensive.
The force wasn't about to let anyone out easily. Fuhrman appealed the Pension
Board judgment to Superior Court. That put his psychiatric evaluations on the
public record.
Bill
also began hearing from LAPD friends who had watched the preliminary hearings.
"Please be advised that several LAPD police officers and detectives have
contacted me and are eager to help O.J.," he wrote in a memo to Shapiro.
"If there is one common denominator in these phone calls, it is that Mark
Fuhrman is a pathological liar."
Of
course, nothing is ever simple in an investigator's life. Pavelic began to
suspect that the LAPD was sending him disinformation. Anything to make the
defense waste time and money.
A letter signed "Blue" from a writer claiming to be a black LAPD lieutenant advised O.J. to hire Johnnie Cochran, and concluded: “All stops are being pulled in your case. Strings are being pulled across the country. The L.A.P.D. and the D.A. do not want to lose your case, so beware. I know for a fact that lies are being blended into your case."
In 1991, Bill Pavelic established himself as the foremost insider critic of racism and corruption in the LAPD.
Bill Pavelic has been the subject of many articles nationally and internationally for speaking out against and exposing racism that he personally witnessed as a LAPD Detective.
On June 30, 1992, Bill Pavelic sent the following letter to the Los Angeles Sentinel concerning the institutionalized racism, corruption, and sexism, of the LAPD under Chief Daryl Gates’ leadership.
To: Los Angeles Sentinel Opinion Section
As a 19 year veteran of the Los Angeles Police Department, I am elated that Chief Gates was forced into retirement. His corrupt managerial style, coupled with his inflammatory and intemperate public comments, have done irreparable damage to the City of Los Angeles and its police department.
Daryl Gates and his close associates are suffering from a disease called megalomania……an exaggerated belief in their own greatness and that of the organization. In order to maintain a mythical status of being “the best law enforcement agency in the world” the LAPD management developed a bunker mentality and consciously impeded and retarded investigations or inquiries which reflected poorly on the organization. The “us against them” mentality required faulty analysis which was oftentimes based on pseudo reasoning, clever fallacies and distorted or manufactured evidence.
The disciplinary system under the leadership of Daryl Gates lacked consistency, uniformity and equality and sent a deplorable signal to others on the force, that it is OK to falsify official investigations, violate the LAPD manual, discredit the Code of Ethics and be dishonest as long as you are a member of management or have friends at the top who will protect you even when prima facie evidence of a crime is clearly evident.
Chief Gates has failed to hold accountable personnel under his control who were acting under the color of law and were exercising illegal direction under the guise of official authority. In no sphere of public life is this practice more repugnant than in law enforcement. Chief Gates, who morally bankrupt the Los Angeles Police Department, forgot, or never knew, that true leadership can be gained only by an intolerance of wrong doing…and…unless we all abide by the highest standards among ourselves, we have no business enforcing the law upon others.
Chief Gates used the Internal Affairs Division to intimidate those officers who dared to speak out against Los Angeles Police Department’s institutionalized racism, corruption, sexism, mismanagement, promotional cronyism and other sensitive issues. If the Internal Affairs Division didn’t get these “disloyal” police officers, like the Russian KGB, the organization could always count on the Medical Liaison Unit to send these officers to the Department shrink…to certify them as functionally crazy.
Under the leadership of Chief Williams, respect for individual dignity will once again become an integral part of the Los Angeles Police Department’s philosophy…a philosophy that will be based on the principles of professionalism, reverence for the law and harmony between the police and the community it serves.
Respectfully,
Bill Pavelic, Southwest Division
Neighborhood
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