Cop on Simpson case 'stars' at SPJ confab

By: Mark Fitzgerald Fuhrman Insists Media take responsibility for 'Not Guilty' Verdict

Attorney Lucy Dalglish's introduction of Mark Fuhrman set the rollicking tone for the O.J. Simpson case homicide detective's confrontation with the media at last week's Society of Professional Journalists (spj) convention in Indianapolis.
"So," Dalglish said, turning to Fuhrman, "you're a lying, racist son of a b----, right?"
That wasn't the only bit of conventional wisdom Fuhrman would dispute during a 75-minute "panel discussion" that, one audience member complained aloud, turned into "The Mark Fuhrman Show." The session, which competed with 11 other discussions during the same period, attracted about 200 of the 600 convention-goers.
Fuhrman ? who described himself as "the only [investigator] who didn't make a mistake" in the case ? complained the media fell for the story spun by Simpson's defense team. "'Fuhrman's a racist. Fuhrman planted the bloody glove.' Everybody in the media was fixated on following the lemmings," he said.
The putative scapegoat did a bit of scapegoating himself: Fuhrman suggested the media was largely to blame for Simpson's acquittal in the June 13, 1994, murder of his ex-wife Nicole Simpson and Ronald Goldman. "The media ? tv, radio and newspapers ? has got to take a great piece of the responsibility for the failure of the Simpson case ? because they were not aware of how effective their words were," Fuhrman said. Fuhrman said media reports were followed by the jury, which was sequestered but allowed weekly conjugal visits, and by the prosecutors, defense attorneys, and trial Judge Lance Ito, "who read their reviews every morning in the paper."
Fuhrman himself became an issue in the trial when defense attorneys attempted to portray him as a racist cop who planted evidence. The famous courtroom confrontation with F. Lee Bailey over whether Fuhrman had ever uttered a racial epithet was recreated at the spj convention by two persistent questioners.
"Have you ever used that word ? yes or no?" one member demanded. Fuhrman dismissed the topic as "at this late date, an incredibly silly question ? a ridiculously irrelevant question." At the trial, Fuhrman's sworn testimony that he had not used the word "nigger" in the past was later contradicted by a tape on which he said he was "role-playing" for a fictional screenplay.
Fuhrman, who now hosts a radio talk show and writes books about celebrated crime cases, said he purposely waited for the Simpson trial furor to calm down before talking about his own views of the case and media.
"The media first wanted to make me a real cool guy. Then it wanted to make me a real evil guy," Fuhrman said. "I didn't get an agent and say, 'I want to be on tv.'"

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