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From: Jasper
Date: 9/12/00
Time: 12:19:39 PM
Jean,
I didn't include all of those details in Iago because some of them rested entirely on O.J.'s say-so. What I did was use the 911 tape, the scratches and bruises on Nicole's face and body and the statements of the 911 dispatcher, O.J. and Edwards to see how they matched up. The only stories that matched the tape and the other physical evidence was O.J.'s (see pictures and text in Chapter 1 of The Smoking Gun) and the dispatcher Sharyn Gilbert.
Gilbert never said that a woman called 911 and told her that she was being beaten. Edwards said that to Michelle. Gilbert said she got the call and no one said anything on the open line for three minutes. She said that it was her job "to create an incident" to put down on her report so she would know what kind of response to make. The three-minute silence was interrupted by a woman screaming. So that's what Gilbert wrote, "woman screaming." No ranting O.J. No indications of a man on the scene at all. Then Gilbert heard the distinct sound of flesh hitting flesh followed by a moan. Gilbert noted "woman being beaten." The line went dead.
Remember, it was Gilbert's job "to create an incident." She couldn't see what was happening. No one told her what was happening. She knew only that it was an emergency call and that it sounded like a woman being beaten. She did not say that the caller was the one who was being beaten or that the perpetrator was a man. Edwards assumed those things and told Michelle that he wasn't going to leave until he spoke to the woman who called 911. That's when Nicole ran from the bushes where she had been hiding while Edwards was arguing with Michelle to let him in. She never gave Michelle a chance to say that she (Michelle) was the one who called 911 because of Nicole.
There should have been five report on that incident available for the public to compare: O.J.'s, Nicole's, Edwards' his partner's and the dispatcher's. Instead we are left with two. We have Edwards speaking for himself, for Nicole, for O.J., for his partner and Michelle. We have O.J. speaking for himself and Michelle. The city attorney discounted O.J.'s version of what happened because of Nicole's initial complaint and Edward's report. That left Edwards as the only official source of information about what happened.
Study Edwards' report carefully and compare it to the pictures he took and his chronology of events leading to Nicole's dash from the bushes crying "He's going to kill me! He's going to kill me!" You'll see that Det. Ferrell, who was assigned to investigate the case, and the city attorney had a problem over and above the fact that Nicole refused to prosecute. Edward's story didn't add up. To nail O.J. they had to have another report of spouse abuse to show a pattern….
Enter Mark Fuhrman. --Jasper