Simpson’s Ex-Wife Feared Him, Lawyer Says

Only days before she was murdered, Nicole Brown Simpson told her mother that she feared O.J. Simpson would kill her, according to a lawyer who was present at the deposition of Juditha Brown on Wednesday.

Brown answered questions for two hours about her daughter’s relationship with Simpson, acquitted last year in the murders of his wife and her friend, Ronald L. Goldman.

Brown left immediately after testifying, but Daniel M. Petrocelli, who represents Goldman’s father, Fred, said Brown recalled that her daughter feared for her safety in the days before her death.

“Nicole told her mother as late as [five days] before her murder that she believed O.J. would kill her,” Petrocelli said after the deposition. “Ms. Brown testified that Nicole told her that O.J. had threatened her.”

Attorneys present at Brown’s appearance said the ordeal had been difficult for her.

“You have to remember that this is a woman who gave birth to Nicole,” said John Q. Kelley, lead attorney for the Brown family. “This is the woman that raised Nicole. And she had to bury Nicole. Judy Brown and all the Browns live in their own private hell right now. It’s one that’s not of their own making.”

Brown’s testimony at Petrocelli’s West Los Angeles law office followed depositions Tuesday by her husband, Lou, and one of their daughters, Dominique.

At those sworn appearances, the family members talked about how Nicole Simpson rebuffed her ex-husband’s sexual advances in May 1994, according to attorneys.

“O.J. wanted to have sexual relations with Nicole. She refused,” said Michael A. Brewer, who represents Sharon Rufo, Ronald Goldman’s mother. “He offered her $5,000. I think that anyone with a degree of integrity would be insulted, humiliated. That appeared to be the way she felt based upon the way it was described by family members.”

Attorneys involved in Simpson’s civil case also turned their attention Wednesday to former Los Angeles Police Department Det. Mark Fuhrman. He refused to answer questions in a separate deposition in Idaho earlier this week, invoking his 5th Amendment privilege against self-incrimination.

Prosecutors are looking into whether Fuhrman lied under oath in Simpson’s criminal trial when he said he had not used racial epithets in the last decade. A tape-recorded interview with Fuhrman conducted by a screenwriter showed that he did use such language.

During Simpson’s criminal trial, defense lawyers sought to paint Fuhrman as a racist who lied on the stand and planted a bloody glove at Simpson’s estate on the night of the murders.

Attorneys involved in the upcoming civil trial predicted that Fuhrman’s refusal to answer questions under oath might keep the “race card” from surfacing again.

“If he is not available to testify and if that means that race is not a part of this case, then I think that’s a good development,” Petrocelli said. “I think race was never a legitimate part of this case. It was simply a trick--a device, an artifice--used by the defendant and his lawyers to get an acquittal.”

The depositions in the civil case are scheduled to continue today with Nicole Brown Simpson’s sister Denise. Robert Kardashian, a friend of O.J. Simpson, is to testify on Friday.