O.J. Simpson Found Not Guilty in Road-Rage Trial

Wednesday, October 24, 2001

MIAMI — O.J. Simpson was cleared of road-rage charges Wednesday after he and another motorist offered vastly different versions of a hot-tempered exchange on a side street.

Simpson put his hand to his chest and mouthed 'Thank you' and nodded his head to the jury when the verdict was read. He then hugged his attorneys.

Simpson had faced up to 16 years in prison if convicted of auto burglary and battery in the driving spat with Jeffrey Pattinson last year in their suburban Miami neighborhood.

During closing arguments, prosecutor Abbe Rifkin did everything but call Simpson a liar, saying the actor came out in him when he tried to charm the jury as the sole defense witness. The jury deliberated for an hour and a half.

"He is a figment of his own imagination. He's a legend in his own mind. He has a sense of entitlement," she said. "Mr. Simpson's story changes and evolves with time."

To defense attorney Yale Galanter, Pattinson chased down Simpson to provoke a confrontation after Simpson turned in front of him at a stop sign.

"Pattinson became a vigilante. That's what he does. He doesn't seek out help," Galanter said. "He wants to play cop instead of calling a cop."

Rifkin accused Simpson of trying "to muddy up the waters" in a simple case caused by a "notorious," enraged celebrity who offered different versions of his story to fit the developing evidence.

"The question is, 'Was Mr. Pattinson inside of his car? Did Mr. Simpson reach in and grab his glasses off his face?' " she said. Simpson was accused of scratching Pattinson's temple while yanking off his eyeglasses.

The drivers offered vastly different accounts. Pattinson testified Simpson, 54, ran a stop sign, then stopped after Pattinson honked his horn and flashed his high beams.

Simpson denied reaching into the car and said the men confronted each other outside their SUVs after Pattinson left his brights on and was "sitting on his horn."

He said Pattinson lied about staying in his car, which led Rifkin to ask Tuesday whether Simpson would ever lie, "especially if your life depended on it."

Simpson responded, "I've never been put in that position to have to lie with my life on the line."

Pattinson testified that he stayed in his locked vehicle, that a shouting Simpson stormed at him and that he asked Simpson if he was "a madman or something."

In two days on the stand, Simpson said Pattinson "puffed up like a bullfrog, got animated and just went off" after recognizing his celebrity neighbor.

Simpson offered no explanation for the scratch but explained his thumbprint on the glasses by saying it must have happened when he brushed them away as he broke off their 30-second, profanity-laced confrontation.

Circuit Judge Dennis Murphy denied a fourth mistrial motion based on Rifkin's comment that Simpson "didn't stick around to have his fingernails swabbed."

Simpson was cleared of criminal charges in the 1994 slayings of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman, but a civil jury later ordered him to pay $33.5 million for their deaths. He moved to Florida last year.

O.J. Simpson took the stand in his own defense on Monday, denying that he ripped the glasses off another motorist's face and coolly sparring with the lead prosecutor.

In his road rage trial, Simpson said during questioning from his attorney that it was Jeffrey Pattinson, Simpson's alleged victim, who started harassing him. He told defense attorney Yale Galanter that he never reached into Pattinson's car and said Pattinson exited his car and came up to him very angry.

"He just puffed up like a bullfrog and just went off," Simpson said, alternating his gaze between his attorney and the jury.

Simpson's testimony came after Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Dennis J. Murphy denied a motion for mistrial from Galanter after jury members acknowledged on Thursday that they had discussed the case among themselves before all the evidence was heard. Murphy ruled no verdict had been reached and allowed the trial to continue.

On Dec. 4, Pattinson and Simpson were heading to their homes in southwest Miami-Dade when Simpson allegedly ran a stop sign. Pattinson said Simpson came close to hitting him and he had to slam on his brakes. Pattinson said he honked his horn at Simpson maybe once and Simpson stopped abruptly in front of him, almost causing a second crash. Simpson then, according to Pattinson, walked to his car very angry and, after an exchange of words, reached into his car and ripped Pattinson's glasses off. Pattinson said during his testimony last week that Simpson stopped when one of Simpson's children screamed from inside the car.

Not so, said Simpson on Monday. Simpson said he was headed home after picking up his children from after-school activities when he came upon the intersection and made a brief stop. He said he saw a car coming slow and proceeded to go through the intersection, figuring he had enough time. Next thing he knew, Simpson said, someone was behind him honking and blinking high beams at him.

"I didn't pay much attention because it occurs quite often" with fans who are trying to get autographs, Simpson said. "He just sat on the horn. I was hoping it wasn't a fan who went through all this to get an autograph."

Instead it was Pattinson screaming at him "O.J Simpson!" the former football player said. He denied ever reaching into Pattinson's car, because he said Pattinson exited his own car. One of the charges against Simpson, burglary of a conveyance, implies that he put his arm inside of Pattinson's car without permission.

Simpson said they then exchanged words as Pattinson waved his glasses at him. Prosecutor Abbe Rifkin said lab analysis uncovered one of Simpson's fingerprints on the glasses and Pattinson had a scratch in his face. Simpson said on Monday, he did not notice whether he touched the glasses, but his son Justin later told him he brushed them.

"That was a guy who needed some decaf coffee," Simpson said he told his children as Pattinson returned to his car.

Simpson's side of the story faced aggressive scrutiny from Rifkin. That portion of Simpson's testimony was punctuated by constant objections by Galanter, which from the very start sent both sides to look at law books after Galanter accused Rifkin of leading the jury to believe Simpson had invoked the Fifth Amendment, which gives defendants protection from self-incrimination.

Despite Rifkin's sharp questioning Simpson remained calm on the witness stand, at times looking at the judge to see whether he would allow Rifkin to ask a certain question and other times directing his answers at the jury instead of Rifkin.

"I certainly didn't expect that incident to grow into this," Simpson said.At one point when Simpson went into a long-winded answer Rifkin asked impatiently: "Are you done?"

Simpson faces up to 16 years for battery and burglarizing a car. Simpson's testimony is expected to resume today.

MIAMI, Florida -- O.J. Simpson was found not guilty Wednesday on charges stemming from a traffic altercation with another motorist in December 2000. 

A four-man, two-woman jury returned the verdict in Dade County Circuit Court on Wednesday afternoon. 

Simpson had been charged with misdemeanor first-degree battery and theft from an occupied automobile, a felony, for allegedly grabbing the glasses off a man who had honked at him for driving through an intersection in front of him. 

If convicted, Simpson could have faced up to 16 years in prison on the two charges. 

After the verdict was read, Simpson turned to the jury and put his hand over his heart in an expression of thanks. 

According to the police report on the December 4 incident, Simpson drove after Jeffrey Pattinson, who honked at him, and forced Pattinson to stop his car. The incident happened in the Miami suburb of Kendall. 

Pattinson told police Simpson got out of his Lincoln Navigator, shouting, "So, I blew the stop sign. What are you going to do, kill me and my kids?" 

Simpson then reached through the open car window and grabbed the glasses off Pattinson's face, Pattinson said, according to the report. 

Pattinson said he heard a young girl's voice from inside vehicle shouting "No, Daddy, no." Simpson then turned and drove off, he said. 

But in a news conference back in February, Simpson said there was no "road rage" on his part. 

"Never in my life have I chased a guy in a car, put on high beams, blow the horn, to me, from what I gather, that's part of what road rage is about, and I don't think anybody has alleged that I went after anybody in a car," he said. 

After one of the most sensational trials in American history, the former football star was acquitted of murder charges in the brutal 1994 slayings of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ron Goldman, who were found stabbed to death outside her Los Angeles home. 

He was later found liable for their deaths in a civil trial and was ordered to pay $33.5 million in damages. Simpson moved to the Miami area last year. 
MIAMI -- Writing a happy ending for O.J. Simpson in his latest run-in with the law, a jury Wednesday speedily found him not guilty of a road rage episode that carried a potential 16-year prison sentence.

"Thank God," the retired football player and onetime murder defendant told a friend in the courtroom. After the verdict was read, Simpson mouthed "thank you" to the jury, hugged his trio of lawyers and expelled his breath in relief. Usually garrulous, he said he couldn't make a statement immediately.

"You say things that you don't want to," Simpson said. "I just need 24 hours to get my anger and my joy settled." Simpson was whisked away from the rear entrance of the Dade County courthouse in a black Mercedes, riding in the passenger seat.

"The Juice is loose," quipped one of the many courthouse workers who stood on the steps watching.

His chief attorney, Yale Galanter, said Simpson, 54, should never have been on trial. Assistant State Atty. Abbe Rifkin, the prosecutor, called Simpson "the Teflon man" and said she wasn't sure any jury in the United States would ever convict him.

Simpson had been charged with running a stop sign in a Miami suburb Dec. 4 and then climbing out of his Lincoln Navigator to berate another motorist, Jeffrey Pattinson, who had objected by honking his horn and flashing his lights.

Simpson was accused of reaching into Pattinson's Jeep Cherokee and snatching the glasses off his face. Under Florida's laws, the alleged incident was prosecuted as misdemeanor battery and felony burglary inside an automobile.

Pattinson testified that Simpson had behaved "like a madman." Simpson, though, said under oath Monday that it was Pattinson, and not he, who had been furious, and that he never extended his arm into the other man's car.

If his right thumbprint was found by police technicians on Pattinson's glasses, Simpson testified, his hand must have brushed against them as the two men stood at the roadside arguing.

In the end, it was a trial of diametrically opposing accounts, with even the meaning of the thumbprint open to debate.

"We didn't think there was enough evidence" for a guilty verdict, said Ernesto Diaz, a member of the four-man, two-woman jury.

The panel only deliberated for about 1 1/2 hours before informing Circuit Judge Dennis J. Murphy that it had reached a unanimous judgment. If more proof had been offered that Simpson's arm had been inside Pattinson's Cherokee, said Diaz, the jury would have voted to convict.

"If there would have been some kind of fingerprints on the vehicle, things would have changed," Diaz told reporters.

Galanter pronounced himself "thrilled" over the outcome of the trial, which began a week ago. In the past, the lawyer has accused police and prosecutors of targeting Simpson because of his prominence.

"This was a major piece of litigation over a very minor traffic altercation," Galanter told a post-trial news conference. "This case was argued like a death penalty case, and it wasn't even close to that."

Rifkin said: "The fact of the matter is, this is the type of case that is filed every single day." She said a plea bargain had been offered that included probation and anger management classes but that Simpson had refused.

"Obviously we are disappointed, but we respect the jury," she said of the verdict.

One small mystery left unresolved was how Pattinson came to be scratched on his left temple that December evening. In her closing remarks, Rifkin accused Simpson of having nicked the other man with his fingernail as he pulled off his glasses.

Simpson never provided an alternative explanation and never had to because the burden of proof was on the prosecution. Throughout the trial, Simpson made his incredulity plain at having to be in court for a roadside argument he said couldn't have lasted more than 30 seconds.

"How much did this case cost?" Simpson asked a reporter Wednesday. "Is there no crime in Miami?"

At one time, no personality in the country was more scrutinized than Simpson, who was found not guilty after a lengthy trial of the 1994 stabbing deaths of ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman. In a subsequent civil case, however, he was found liable for their deaths and was ordered to pay $33.5 million.

In her summation, Rifkin insisted that there is another Simpson besides the cheerful celebrity who became familiar to Americans through his football exploits with USC and the Buffalo Bills, and during a second career in acting and the movies.

"He is a figment of his own imagination. He is a legend in his own mind," Rifkin told the jury. She accused Simpson of believing that only "common folk" have to obey stop signs and of exaggerating his limp in the courtroom to curry favor with jurors.

"His whole thing was to try to charm you," she told the jury. "He was trying to baffle you."

In his closing, Galanter portrayed the other man involved in the roadside incident as the true aberrant personality. "Pattinson became a vigilante," the lawyer said. "He's going to be the person who shows O.J. Simpson, 'Hey, you can't do this to me.' He wants to play cop instead of calling a cop."

Galanter asked the jury to acquit Simpson "not because he's a movie star, a football player, has bad legs and can't walk, but because they didn't prove their case."

Simpson, who moved to South Florida last year, lives with his daughter Sydney, 16, and son Justin, 13. Simpson phoned them with news of the verdict, but they already had heard, he said.

"They were happy," Simpson said. "They're kids. They're trusting. I think as you get older, you get a little more cynical."

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