Word: petrocelly
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That strategy made the difference in understanding Simpson. It was the background Petrocelli relied heavily on in cross-examining Simpson on the witness stand. The people who helped the plaintiffs' case most were several of Simpson's former golfing buddies--some of whom he had thanked in his infamous "suicide" letter. Many of them initially and passionately believed Simpson to be innocent. Only much later, well into the criminal trial, did they change their minds. Helping the plaintiffs, Alan Austin and Ron Shipp described Simpson's jealous rages, his obsession with Nicole and, perhaps most important, how Nicole...
...Simpson were having fights in those last weeks. Their hostilities had taken a cruel turn. Simpson sent Nicole a letter that was a thinly veiled threat to report her to the IRS for failing to pay capital-gains taxes. Infuriated, she started to deny him access to the children. Petrocelli would explain to the jury that Nicole felt O.J. had hit below the belt with the IRS letter and that she finally rejected him, just as he was deciding to recommit himself to her. She began to treat him like a stranger. That, Petrocelli said, is when three weeks...
...Petrocelli's first tasks was to assemble his team from among the lawyers and staff of Mitchell, Silberberg & Knupp. In addition to Gelblum, who was to serve as an all-purpose hand, he chose Tom Lambert, a senior lawyer who has tried complex securities litigation, and Ed Medvene, another senior partner, who specializes in white-collar-crime cases. These four lawyers would be the backbone of the case. Since they were representing the Goldmans, the next issue was how to deal with John Kelly, the lawyer representing the Nicole Brown Simpson estate, and Michael Brewer, the lawyer representing Sharon Rufo...
...Petrocelli's own handpicked team of four lawyers, a paralegal, one legal assistant and a secretary worked with a curious dynamic. A logical and orderly man, Petrocelli is nevertheless superstitious and a creature of habit. In several of his big civil trials, he had set up a courtside work center outside the main offices of his law firm. Once settled in, he had never set foot back in the office until the trial was over. He had never lost a case when he did this, so the Simpson case was not going to be an exception. Gelblum laughs...
...some 700 civil-trial exhibits. On the wall was taped a separate profile of each juror, listing his or her education and any other inclinations the plaintiffs thought might be relevant, such as feelings about domestic violence or the reliability of DNA testing. To help select the jury, Petrocelli and Lambert turned to consultant Don Vinson and his DecisionQuest. (DecisionQuest is the jury consultant that the prosecutors in the criminal trial called in--and chose to ignore.) Petrocelli & Co. took Vinson's advice, which included using DecisionQuest to prepare all the boards and exhibits explaining DNA evidence. The plaintiffs were...