OJ Case: Mary Anne Gerchas Places 4 Men Near Scene Of Double Murder

Mar 7, 1995

AP

LOS ANGELES – Mary Anne Gerchas, the potential witness in the O.J. Simpson case who has been branded a liar by prosecutors, said in a TV interview that she saw four “hoodlum-type” men running from the area on the night of the murders.

“These four guys were bookin’ ” from the direction of Nicole Brown Simpson’s condominium on June 12, she told KCAL yesterday.

Simpson attorney Johnnie Cochran Jr. described Gerchas in his opening statement as an important defense witness, but prosecutors have labeled her a “known liar” and “Simpson-case groupie” who is the subject of 37 lawsuits.

The 40-year-old jeweler said she was on Bundy Drive in the city’s Brentwood section the night of the slayings to look at a lease property.

She had parked and walked across the street when she saw four men running toward her, Gerchas said. Afraid she was going to be mugged, she went back to her car and the men drove off in a car, she said.

Gerchas said the encounter took place between about 10:30 p.m. and 10:45 p.m. and that her car’s clock had read 10:27 before she got out. Prosecutors have put the killings of Nicole Simpson and Ronald Goldman at about 10:15 p.m.

Yesterday, Gerchas pleaded not guilty to charges including making a false statement on a car loan application. The allegations stem from incorrect information she gave for a car she bought or leased in September, her attorney, Gary Livingston, said.

She has also been charged with failing to pay a $23,000 bill for a three-month hotel stay last summer. Her attorney said she was the victim of an impostor.

`RUSH TO JUDGMENT’

Meanwhile, Simpson’s defense yesterday kept pressing its “rush to judgment” theory, suggesting that drugs and a banana could have led a more vigilant police force to the real killer or killers.

Resuming cross-examination of Detective Tom Lange yesterday after an 10-day hiatus, Cochran suggested two murder scenarios that would exclude Simpson:

— A drug hit possibly related to Faye Resnick, a friend of Nicole Simpson’s with past drug problems.

— Or something to do with Goldman, a young man with two lists: one of women’s names and numbers, including Nicole Simpson’s; and a grocery list that included bananas, which often carry a kind of sticker found at the crime scene.

Lange rejected both of Cochran’s theories. The detective said he never seriously considered the possibility that someone other than O.J. Simpson was the culprit.

Simpson’s lawyers continued to press their two-pronged attack: trying to show that police were incompetent and that they rushed to incriminate Simpson without pursuing other leads.

For instance, Cochran asked if police looked into Resnick’s background. The socialite lived with Nicole Simpson days before the murders, before she was admitted to a drug-treatment clinic. The judge barred questions about Resnick’s entry into the clinic, where she was the night of the crime.

Lange said his partner, Detective Philip Vannatter, interviewed Resnick on tape. But Lange said he never listened to the recording.

“Did you ever look into the possibility drugs were a factor (in the murders)?” Cochran asked Lange.

The detective said he “superficially” looked into drugs as a possible motive, but no connection was found. “In this particular case, we had another direction to go,” he said.

Cochran also explored a Goldman connection, asking: “Did you ever consider that Mr. Goldman may have been the targets of the assassin or assassins that particular night? Did you ever consider that at all?”

“The targets of an assassin?” Lange replied incredulously, looking perplexed.

WAS GOLDMAN THE TARGET?

Cochran then changed his wording to whether Goldman was “the target of . . . the perpetrator or perpetrators” on June 12. Lange still seemed mystified.

“Did you ever – as the investigating officer in this case – ever consider any other theory than if O.J. Simpson was the only perpetrator in this case?” Cochran asked.

“I had absolutely no other evidence that would point me in any other direction,” Lange replied.

Prosecutors say Simpson set out to kill his ex-wife and that Goldman happened upon the scene when he went there to return a pair of glasses.

Cochran also pressed Lange about what appeared to be a fruit label found near the bodies.

Cochran asked Lange to unwrap Goldman’s clothes – a white shirt and black pants he had worn to work the night of the murders. Among his belongings was a green scrap of paper scrawled with a grocery list.

Lange said he had never seen the list before.

Cochran didn’t explain the significance of the banana questions, but hinted that they might be related to the time of death or show that police ignored clues at the scene.