10 - The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, January 31, 1995
Ito scolds Simpson
defense for illegal
tactics, witnesses
c o Vri .
0 Judge orders jurors to
disregard much of
defense's opening
statements
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Inept
investigators so polluted blood evi-
dence in O.J. Simpson's murder case
that they made DNA testing mean-
ingless, a defense attorney said yes-
terday, moments after the judge re-
buked him and admonished jurors to
ignore much of what he said last week
because his tactics broke the law.
"The evidence will be shown to be
contaminated, compromised and cor-
rupted," Johnnie Cochran Jr. said.
"The gathering of evidence was a
complete disaster."
Cochran was picking up the pieces
of last Wednesday's opening state-
ment, interrupted by a fight over the
explosive information he revealed
from witnesses previously unknown
to the prosecution.
Superior Court Judge Lance Ito
sternly warned jurors to disregard six
witnesses mentioned last week, in-
cluding a woman who purportedly
saw four men running near the crime
scene the night Nicole Brown Simpson
and Ronald Goldman were killed.
Ito told jurors the defense had vio-
lated the law in withholding evidence
and witnesses from the prosecution
and had caused the trial to be delayed
two days.
Ito emphasized, however, that the
illegalities were not evidence that
Simpson was guilty.
The jurors listened intently but
took no notes as the judge spoke.
Earlier, and outside the jurors'
presence, Ito reprimanded the entire
defense team, ruling they had pur-
posely hidden the identity of several
witnesses "for the purpose of gaining
an unfair tactical advantage."
Ito forbade defense attorneys from
calling as witnesses any of the six
people mentioned to jurors, as well as
eight others named in separate defense
reports, until the end of their case.
He refused to grant prosecutors a
30-day delay to study the new evi-
dence, but told Deputy District Attor-
ney Marcia Clark he felt his sanctions
against the defense were "as harsh a
finding as the court can make under
these circumstances."
Simpson is on trial for the June 12
slashing murders of his ex-wife and
A-bomb
display cut,
new version
planned
The Washington Post
WASHINGTON -Smithsonian
Secretary I. Michael Heyman yester-
day scrapped a controversial exhibit
about the atomic bombing of Japan,
replacing it with a drastically scaled-
down display of the plane that dropped
the bomb on Hiroshimaa video about
its crew and minimal text.
Heyman asserted that the planned
exhibit was fundamentally flawed and
"consuming me and the institution."
He said the forward fuselage of the B-
29 Enola Gay would be exhibited at
the Smithsonian's National Air and
Space Museum without text that
would have raised questions about
the morality of the decision to drop
the bomb.
Despite Heyman's action, the 3.1-
million-member American Legion
said congressional hearings on the
publicly supported Smithsonian
should go forward as planned.
Heyman said,"Despite our sincere
efforts to address everyone's con-
cerns, we were bound to fail," he said.
However, Heyman said he is consid-
ering "a series of symposia" to be
held at a later date on the issues raised
by atomic weapons and their use.
AP PHOTO
Lead defense attorney Robert Shapiro consults with O.J. Simpson during yesterday's proceedings.
her friend.
Prosecutors devoted half their
opening remarks last week to a "trail
of blood" from the bodies to
Simpson's Bronco to socks at the foot
of his bed.
They said sophisticated DNA
analysis linked Simpson and both vic-
tims to many of the samples.
But Cochran called the tests "gar-
bage in, garbage out" because of
botched collection methods by care-
less, poorly trained employees.
"We expect in the course of our
evidence in this case to show that
from their own studies, the LAPD's
laboratory is a cesspool of contami-
nation," he said.
He showedjurors a blow nup photo
that showed the feet of a woman stand-
ing near Goldman's slashed body.
The woman's high-heeled pumps
were not covered with the protective
booties normally worn by crime scene
workers, and she was standing on a
blood-stained sheet beside the body.
A pair of bloodied examination
gloves lay atop Goldman's chest, ap-
parently dropped there by a police
technician, Cochran said.
"We think the evidence will show
this scene was tracked, traipsed up,
and the gathering of evidence was a
complete disaster," he said.
He added, "If the evidence was
contaminated at the scene or mis-
handled by the LAPD, it doesn't mat-
ter what was done afterward."
Goldman's mother and sister were
asked to avert their eyes when his body
was shown. Members of the Simpson
and Brown families also looked away.
0
"STRAIGHT FROM THE COACH'S MOUTH"*
(Talk Series)
will feature
BOB DARDEN
U of M Men's Gymnastics Coach
on
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 1,1995,12:00 PM to 1:00 PM
at the LEAGUE UNDERGROUND
located at the lower level of the
MICHIGAN LEAGUE
*This program to be telecast on Channel 60 (Columbia Cable)
(Date and Time to be announced later)
Sponsored by the Michigan League Programming
Radioactive village now learning nuclear secrets *
MUSLIUMOVO, Russia (AP) -
The shallow creek runs beneath an
abandoned mill. Cows wander knee-
deep in the water. In the summer, it is
where the village's children swim.
This pastoral scene is deceptive,
however. The TechaRiver is radioac-
tive and has been for almost half a
century.
The nearby Mayak nuclear com-
plex, also known as Chelaybinsk-65,
began dumping raw nuclear waste
into the Ural Mountains river in 1949,
when it housed the Soviet Union's
first reactor to produce plutonium for
atomic bombs.
By the mid-1950s, radiation at the
top-secret plant affected 124,000
people living along the Techa, which
flows through a pretty forest and lake
region.
About 20 villages around
Musliumovo, with their 8,000 to 9,000
residents, were evacuated because
radiation levels were considered too
dangerous.
Musliumovo was not, even though
radiation in the village often exceeded
that at the evacuated sites. Many vil-
lagers suspect they were left behind
as human guinea pigs.
"For 40 years, they've been check-
ing how a living being can survive in
a radiation zone," said Valentina
Kaidaneyeva, a teacher.
"A lot of professors studying us
must be dead by now, but we are still
alive," she told a visiting group of
foreign scientists, politicians and re-
porters this fall.
Officials are at a loss to explain
why Musliumovo, 930 miles east of
Moscow, was not relocated. A senior
scientist said he saw the evacuation
order with his own eyes.
"I don't think it was done on pur-
pose, but probably because the vil-
lage was too big and too expensive to
evacuate," said Mira Kosenko, an
expert on radiation medicine from
Chelyabinsk, the regional capital.
Whatever the case, thousands of
people remained in Musliumovo, us-
ing the river water for their house-
holds and letting cattle graze in con-
taminated fields, unaware of the poi-
son creeping into their bones.
The former Soviet Union zeal-
ously guarded its nuclear secrets, and
public health hardly mattered. So the
villagers were not told anything about
strontium-90 and cesium-137. In-
stead, they were told to keep out of the
river because it was dirty.
The mostly Bashkir-Tatar people
of Musliumovo did not listen. For
them, the Techa was a source of life.
If they fell sick, medical personnel
were under orders to keep silent about
radiation, Kosenko said.
The revelation came in 1989, when
the Russian government first men-
tioned Mayak's legacy of nuclear ac-
cidents and radioactive pollution.
Detailed reports later brought more
knowledge and more despair.
The village's people learned that
the level of radiation accumulated in
their bodies greatly exceeded permis-
sible amounts, that scientists had
found traces of even deadlier pluto-
nium in the area, and that the river
was so contaminated its silt could be
classified as solid nuclear waste.
Doctors began to speak of the
region's problems with immune defi-
ciencies, bone pains, blood disorders,
chronic radiation sickness and can-
cers. Infant mortality is said to be
high. But scientific studies of the vil-
lage are only just starting, so there are
no reliable figures on health prob-
lems.
While radiation is clearly a dan-
ger, some physicians are cautious
about attributing its effects. They say
the heavily industrialized Chelyabinsk
region also has health problems from
general pollution.
"As people learn more about the
health effects, they begin to insist on
leaving this place. They're very much
concerned," said Gennady Gabitov,
the head of the district administration
in nearby Kunashak.
0
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The University of Michigan
MICHIGAN
19
Summer
Department of Recreational Sports
CLA SSICS
95
SOftball
DIVISIONS:
MANAGER'S
MEETING:
REGISTRATION/
ENTRIES
TAKEN:
ENTRY FEE:
[Due at day,
date and time
of Entry]
Men's -- C (Single game and Doubleheader leagues)
Men's -- D (Single game leagues only)
CoRec -- C (Single game leagues only)
Women's -- C/D (Single game leagues only)
[NOTE: Women's league will be formed only if six or more teams register/enter]
MANDATORY FOR ALL TEAMS - Returning and New!
Thursday March 23, 1995 6:00 p.m.
U of M Intramural Sports Building -- IMSB (606 E. Hoover Street)
Thursday March 23, 1995 -- Following Mandatory Manager's Meeting
All Teams ---- Returning -- approximately 7:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.
New -- approximately 8:00 p.m. - 8:30 p.mr
[NOTE: In order for a team to be registered, that team must be represented at the Mandatory Mgr's Mtg]
Single Game Leagues ---- $495.00 per team
[NOTE: 10 Round Robin League games and I Playoff game]
Doubleheader Leagues ---- $990.00 per team
[NOTE: 20 Round Robin League games and I Playoff game]
No Individual Player Fees! Game balls provided! Uniforms not required!
ENTRY FEES DUE AT DAY/DATE/TIME OF REGISTRATION/ENTRY!
An equal opportunity employer.
I
i