[ Home | Contents | Search | Post | Reply | Next | Previous | Up ]
From: Jasper
Date: 9/25/01
Time: 10:44:10 PM
Miss Marple,
I don't know how I can do what you suggest because it is not consistent with Park's testimony.
Park's testimony changes slightly each time he testifies. That's consistent with how everybody's memory works. It's also consistent with what he learned the prosecutors wanted to hear.
The two constants in each of his stories is the fact that he saw Kato first and that he first saw O.J. where he appears in the spotlight in each of the animations. He says that he saw Kato stop, wave and look toward the garage BEFORE he saw O.J. (how much time does that take?) and that he saw O.J. "ALMOST simultaneously."
This is the pertinent text from the preliminary hearing:
Q Okay. Now, when your boss called back at 25 10:55, during that phone call you said you saw the white male come out on the Ashford side path. 27 A Correct. 28 Q And about what time was that? 01 A In between -- 10:56, 10:57. 02 Q Can you describe that white male for us? 03 A Five foot eleven, 170 pounds. Blond hair, medium length. 05 Q Was he holding anything? 06 A He had a flashlight. 07 Q How long did the conversation with your boss last? 09 A Three minutes. I don't know. 10 Q Three minutes? 11 A Two minutes, three minutes. I don't know. I can't remember. 13 Q Pardon? 14 A I can't remember. 15 Q It was not a long conversation. 16 A No. It was very brief. 17 Q So your estimate right now is about two, three minutes? [Note: it was exactly two minutes and fifty nine seconds] 19 A Yeah, I guess. 20 Q Okay. Did you see something else AFTER you saw that white male on the Ashford side path? 22 A Almost simultaneously as I saw him, I saw somebody cross the driveway and go into the house from this area, came out.
"This area" is the second spotlight in the Kato's Walk animation AND the Marcia's Story animation. These were the facts that the prosecution was stuck with. All that business with the bags was strictly to confuse the issue. The golf bags are the only bags that really mean anything.
The fact is, Kato's testimony agrees with Park's up to the point where they saw each other on the pathway. However, it varies sharply when it comes to the time that either Park or Kato COULD HAVE seen O.J. and when Kato AND O.J. could have been together loading the bags (that's why the clock is so important). Kato said that he put O.J.'s golf bags into the limo (accelerated time on the clock) when he let Park into the gate. This was BEFORE Kato saw O.J. FOR THE FIRST TIME. Kato's story happens to square with what O.J. said he was doing when Park first saw him. It also squares with the fact that Kato didn't recall seeing the golf bags when he first went behind the garage. Park is the only one to say that the golf bags were loaded AFTER Kato came back from behind the garage the SECOND time.
Park first testifies that he didn't see O.J.'s Bronco when they exited the Rockingham gate. After it was firmly established that the Bronco was there and he knew that the prosecution wanted to argue that it arrived when he was ringing the buzzer at the Ashford gate - only then did he say that he saw an "obstruction" of some kind on his right. The obstruction could only have been the Bronco.
The bottom line is this: Allan Parks memory could be trusted only as far as corroborating testimony (Kato's), his phone records (when he first saw Kato) and his immediate concerns (finding someone at home and the car parked on his left) were concerned. In later testimony he says that he saw O.J. "seconds" after he saw Kato (again, refer to the clock). In no amount of seconds (from one to fifty-nine) could he have seen O.J. without Kato seeing him, too, unless Kato was already past the spot where Park first spotted O.J. going into his house. The spot he marked on the prosecution's diagram did not "cross" the driveway. It intersected the driveway and the walkway, which is exactly where O.J. said he put his golf bags.
I could make an animation to further demonstrate how absurd Park's story gets at the point where he said he saw O.J. (and, as you pointed out, did not tell his boss - which would indicate that he saw O.J. after he hung up). But when we add the sound, actually reading his testimony from each of appearances on the stand, the point will be made abundantly clear.
The animation I want to make is Fuhrman's version of what happened, following the blood trail "discovered" by his partner Brad Roberts from the Rockingham gate into the house (page 211-213 of Murder in Brentwood). Do you think that one is worth doing? I'd really like to know what you think. --Jasper