CBS News Transcripts

March 02, 1995, Thursday

SHOW: EYE TO EYE WITH CONNIE CHUNG (9:00 PM ET) 

O.J. Simpson: On Trial; Rosa Lopez Takes Stand For Videotaped Testimony

ANCHORS: CONNIE CHUNG

LENGTH: 977 words

CONNIE CHUNG, host:

In the O.J.  Simpson trial this week, an alibi witness took the stand and took some heat–a lot of it.  By this afternoon, her story, her credibility and a key part of the Simpson defense were all beginning to crumble.  It began Mon-day in videotaped testimony that the jury may not see for months.  Defense law-yer Johnnie Cochran posed a question to which he, and a lot of other people, al-ready knew the answer.

O.J.  SIMPSON: ON TRIAL

(Footage from courtroom; questioning and answers for Rosa Lopez are trans-lated throughout)

Mr.  JOHNNIE COCHRAN (Defense Attorney): And while you were out there, out on Rockingham, did you ever have occasion to see any cars parked?

Ms.  ROSA LOPEZ (Witness): There was a white car, a Bronco.

CHUNG: (Voiceover) With those words, Rosa Lopez, a housekeeper working next door to O.J.  Simpson’s house, laid the groundwork for the defense’s best hope to provide Simpson with an alibi.

Ms.  LOPEZ: Over here, right here.

(Footage of Bronco being towed; Simpson home; photo of Nicole Brown Simpson)

CHUNG: (Voiceover) Lopez testified that O.J.  Simpson’s white Bronco was parked outside his home at the time the prosecution said the murders took place.

Mr.  CHRIS DARDEN (Prosecutor): You understand that today you are under oath?

Ms.  LOPEZ: Yes.

(Footage of courtroom)

CHUNG: (Voiceover) Today, with prosecutor Christopher Darden’s cross-examination, began another sort of trial, a trial of Rosa Lopez’s memory and ul-timately her credibility.

Mr.  DARDEN: Well, what month was this?

Ms.  LOPEZ: I don’t remember, sir.

Mr.  DARDEN: Do you have a hard time remembering dates?

Ms.  LOPEZ: No, sir.

CHUNG: (Voiceover) Darden fought to rip Lopez’s story apart, suggesting that she was coached by Simpson team investigator Bill Pavelic, well known by the name William Bill Pavelic and Zvonko Pavelic.

Mr.  DARDEN: You would give times and he would give other times, correct?

Ms.  LOPEZ: If you say so, sir.

Mr.  DARDEN: But I’m asking you, ma’am.  Is that correct?

Ms.  LOPEZ: It is correct.

Mr.  DARDEN: Did Mr.  Pavelic tell you or mention to you first that you saw the Bronco at 10:15 or 10:20?

Ms.  LOPEZ: All I said was that it was after 10.

Mr.  DARDEN: And so you don’t know how long after 10?

Ms.  LOPEZ: No, sir.

CHUNG: (Voiceover) Rosa Lopez’s ability to account for time became the issue of the day.  CBS News consultant trial lawyer Gerald Lefcourt.

Mr.  GERALD LEFCOURT (Attorney): What’s crucial and her whole purpose…

(Footage of Lopez)

Mr.  LEFCOURT: (Voiceover) …is to put that Bronco there between 10 and 11:00.

And if she says that she saw it there and it was just sometime after 10 and she doesn’t remember, well, then it could be quite a bit after 10 and something closer to 11, in which case her whole value as a witness really goes down the drain.
(Footage of Michael Knox)

Mr.  MICHAEL KNOX (Former Juror): I’m not supposed to say anything.  I’ve been…
Unidentified Reporter: What was it like being on…

Mr.  KNOX: …ordered not to say anything.

CHUNG: (Voiceover) But the real shock this week may have come yesterday, words from Michael Knox, who was dismissed from the jury.  He gave reporters in-sight into what the jury may really be thinking.

Mr.  KNOX: …because I think that the prosecution has laid a pretty strong case so far.

CHUNG: (Voiceover) The African-American male was replaced by a middle-aged white woman.

(Footage from courtroom)

Unidentified Woman: Juror number 353, please have a seat in seat number 12.

CHUNG: (Voiceover) Once again, the issue of race moved center stage in Judge Ito’s courtroom.

Mr.  LEFCOURT: The truth is–is that people of color are more likely to ques-tion four white detectives when there are allegations of racism against one or more of them than would white people, and that is simply a reality in America.

Judge LANCE ITO (Los Angeles Superior Court): All right, Ms.  Lopez, could–would you take the witness stand again, please?
(Footage from courtroom)

CHUNG: (Voiceover) This afternoon, prosecutors resumed their attack.  Rosa Lopez was shown a news report in which she contradicted her story.

Ms.  LOPEZ: (From news story) I don’t know what time.

Mr.  DARDEN: When you told a reporter that you heard voices, didn’t you tell him that you didn’t know what time it was that you heard the voice?

Mr.  LOPEZ: (Not translated) Si, senior.

CHUNG: (Voiceover) And when Darden wasn’t attacking Lopez, he was taking on Johnnie Cochran, accusing him of coaching Lopez.
Mr.  COCHRAN: I would never, ever do anything like that.

CHUNG: (Voiceover) The judge and the prosecution accepted Cochran’s explana-tion, that he was only signaling the court reporter.  But the prosecution kept it up, ultimately suggesting Lopez’s story was for sale. She denied it.

Ms.  LOPEZ: No, sir.

CHUNG: There may be one more victim in the Simpson case: motherhood. Marcia Clark’s estranged husband has filed for custody of the couple’s two young sons.  He blames the Simpson trial for keeping Clark away from her children.  Clark, who says her children are more important than anything, recently asked for more financial support, citing increased child-care costs and the expense of having to dress for national television.

(Footage of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller)

Announcer: (Voiceover) When we come back…

RUSS MITCHELL: Is it true that you actually wrote “Hound Dog” in eight min-utes?

(Footage of record label; Leiber and Stoller)

Announcer: (Voiceover) …their Elvis hit sold seven million copies.  Now Leiber and Stoller take the EYE TO EYE challenge.
MITCHELL: If I gave you eight to 10 minutes right now to write a song…

Mr.  JERRY LEIBER (Songwriter): All right.  Here we go.  One, two, shuffle, two, three, four–(singing) Baby, I like the way you look from your ankle to your knee…

LOAD-DATE: March 02, 1995, Thursday

LANGUAGE: English

TYPE: Profile