O.J. Judge Hits Media With Double Wallop p.3

By: M.L. Stein

A LOS ANGELES judge delivered a double wallop to the media last week, forbidding cameras at the O.J. Simpson civil trial and upholding his gag order.
Citing Simpson's criminal trial as the kind of media explosion he wanted to avoid, Superior Court Judge Hiroshi Fujisaki said he was obligated to maintain decorum in the courtroom.
The Los Angeles Times quoted the judge as asserting that the electronic media "significantly diverted and distracted participants" and "detracted from the integrity of the process."
Attorney Kelli Sager represented a battery of media organizations seeking to obtain permission for TV and still cameras to record the trial, beginning Sept. 17. News organizations also asked Fujisaki to lift his sweeping gag order, which prevents attorneys, litigants and witnesses from talking publicly about the trial.
The camera ban includes sketch artists and microphones, although reporters and the public will be admitted. However, the small Santa Monica courthouse, the site of the trial, has only 48 seats, several of which are expected to be occupied by the 15 attorneys involved in the case.
The families of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Lyle Goldman are suing Simpson in connection with the stabbing deaths of the two. A jury acquitted Simpson of the murders.
Media attorneys predicted an appeal might overturn or modify the gag order, but held little hope that cameras will be filming the trial, given the power of the judges to run their courtrooms as they please. Also, judges and lawyers have come out against televised trials since the Simpson murder trial.
"What the judge has done is eliminate all direct access to the trial," said Sager. "It's made it impossible for the public to see for themselves or hear for themselves what goes on in the civil case."
In a hearing, Fujisaki contended that Simpson's first trial "played to the cameras." Gestures and outbursts by lawyers and witnesses created a "circus atmosphere (that) detracted from the trial process and the dignity of the courtroom," he said.
Laurie Levenson, dean of Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, was quoted in the San Jose Mercury News as saying of Fujisaki's ruling:
"The sad thing to me in this is that I really do think the public loses. The public will be seeing a very distorted view of what this trial is. It will have all the information filtered by reporters."
Among the media, about 50 broadcast companies have already requested courtroom seats for the trial.