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CNN Spotlight

CNN SPOTLIGHT: The O.J. Simpson Trial: Where Are They Now?

Aired June 13, 2014 - 22:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHNNIE COCHRAN, ATTORNEY: If it does not fit, you must acquit.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): It was a trial that transfixed the nation.

JIM MORET, FORMER CNN CORRESPONDENT: This O.J. Simpson murder case was the first true reality show.

PHILLIPS: A real-life soap opera with a cast of characters who became household names.

KATO KAELIN, HOUSE GUEST OF O.J. SIMPSON: I heard a thumping noise.

My life changed overnight.

PHILLIPS: The witnesses, the prosecution, the dream team, what are they doing 20 years later?

GIL GARCETTI, PROSECUTOR: Once I left the DA, said, that's it.

ALAN DERSHOWITZ, ATTORNEY: People send me e-mails to this day damning me to hell.

PHILLIPS: The families of the victims.

(on camera): Didn't you spot Simpson in a parking lot?

KIM GOLDMAN, SISTER OF RON GOLDMAN: I had my foot on the panel, and I was revving, thinking I could take him out.

PHILLIPS (voice-over): And O.J. Simpson himself.

NORMAN PARDO, AGENT: He doesn't want people to see him like he is right now, so we talk, and that's that.

In the CNN Spotlight: "The O.J. Simpson Trial: Where Are They Now?"

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The bodies were found around midnight.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A witness discovered the body of Nicole Brown Simpson.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: O.J. Simpson.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Pro football Hall of Famer is questioned in the death of his ex-wife.

PHILLIPS: Twenty years ago on June 17, 1994, Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson were brutally murdered.

Nicole's sister, Denise Brown, will never forget the phone call.

DENISE BROWN, SISTER OF VICTIM: I hear this scream, the wail, this -- something that I had never heard before come out of my mother. And I go, what is going on? She goes, Nicole is dead. And I go, what?

PHILLIPS: The chief suspect, O.J. Simpson, famous football star, and Nicole's former husband.

Ron Goldman's sister, Kim, heard the news from her father, Fred.

K. GOLDMAN: He said, did you hear the news? Did you hear about O.J. Simpson and Nicole Brown? I said, what -- who are these people? What is happening? And then he said, your -- Ron -- Ron is dead. And I -- I did not understand right away. And then he repeated it again. And I just -- I remember I was kind of spiraling. I went down to the floor.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: O.J., you there?

PHILLIPS: The shocking case turned surreal when O.J. went on the run.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: At approximately 10:15...

PHILLIPS: Months later, the marathon trial of the century.

LANCE ITO, JUDGE: Mr. Simpson, would you please stand and face the jury?

PHILLIPS: And the acquittal that shocked the world.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We, the jury, in the above entitled action find the defendant, Orenthal James Simpson, not guilty of the crime of murder.

PHILLIPS: Today, the victims' families still struggle to cope.

K. GOLDMAN: I can still feel him and see him and I still want to call. I still have to stop myself from grabbing the phone.

FRED GOLDMAN, FATHER OF VICTIM: It is as painful as it was 20 years ago. People ask me. Occasionally, you will get someone to say, you know, have you gotten closure, is it over, did you learn to live with it?

And all of which is, no, you don't learn to live with it.

PHILLIPS: At one point, Kim considered even getting even with the man she believed killed her brother.

(on camera): Didn't you spot Simpson in a parking lot at some point?

K. GOLDMAN: I did.

I had my foot on the pedal. I was white-knuckling the steering wheel, and I was revving, thinking I could -- I could take him out. I'm the only one. There is nobody here. I could do this. I could do this.

And then I thought of my dad, and thought, I can't really do this, because that is not who I am.

PHILLIPS (voice-over): Kim could not kill O.J., but she could not forgive him either. She has written a book about her struggle.

(on camera): The title of the book is, "Can't Forgive: My 20- Year battle O.J. Simpson."

Why can't you forgive?

K. GOLDMAN: I don't know how, and I don't know that I need to.

There is a belief that, if you don't forgive, therefore, you're stuck, or that you live your life with anger, or that you're less than, or that, in some way, you can't find your way. And I -- I think I am doing OK with the way that I am living my life and my process.

PHILLIPS (voice-over): As for Denise Brown, her coping process also took years to revolve.

BROWN: I just remember, myself, being so angry, and it took me 13 years to get over that. And that is something I just don't want to -- I don't want to feel anymore. I want to be able to remember Nicole as we were.

PHILLIPS: Though Denise knew and Nicole was not always happy with O.J., she says she didn't know her sister was being physically abused until after she was dead.

(on camera): When did you first realize, oh, my sister is in an unhealthy, possibly dangerous situation?

BROWN: After I read her diary. That is when I knew. I saw a picture of her when she was really young and she had the black eye. And she goes, isn't it terrific? She goes, they painted a black eye on me, because he was doing a movie at the time. So, I said, wow, that is really great. It looks like you have a black eye. And I threw it back in the drawer. I'd had no idea about domestic violence, no idea.

PHILLIPS (voice-over): Now she's using her sister's story as motivation to speak out against domestic violence.

BROWN: Two years ago, I decided to start a speakers bureau. And I thought, you know, there are so many incredible people out there speaking about domestic violence, sexual assault, mental health, human trafficking, just wonderful, wonderful, passionate people. And I thought, OK, I'm going -- that is what I am going to do.

PHILLIPS: Denise's speakers bring awareness and provide education to universities, nonprofits and Fortune 500 companies.

(on camera): When you were at her funeral, did you say, I promise I'm going to do right by you, I'm going to do something?

BROWN: Well, I anyway said that I will continue to speak out and continue to have her remembered for the rest of my life. I want the victims of this to be remembered. I want Ron and Nicole to be remembered.

PHILLIPS (voice-over): Coming up: the trial of the century. Where are the characters from the real-life soap opera now?

KAELIN: I became famous, not rich.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARCIA CLARK, FORMER PROSECUTOR: That trail of blood was devastating proof of his guilt.

PHILLIPS (voice-over): From the second the courtroom drama unfolded, viewers were hooked.

MORET: This was the first wall-to-wall televised trial, the perfect soap opera.

I am Jim Moret in Los Angeles. Court is once again in session.

PHILLIPS: Reporter Jim Moret covered the trial for CNN.

MORET: It was something that you had to watch. You have a football hero. You have a beautiful, blonde ex-wife. You have a good- looking young man who is killed. If you wrote this drama, no one would believe it.

PHILLIPS: A real-life murder mystery that preempted TV soaps.

ITO: Objection is sustained.

PHILLIPS: The bearded judge, Lance Ito, with those signature specs, just one of a bizarre set of characters who became a household name.

MORET: You couldn't cast this trial any better.

KAELIN: I heard a thumping noise.

PHILLIPS: Kato Kaelin, the slacker house guest with that hair we could never forget, was the trial's breakout star.

KAELIN: You ask me to checkout stand if I two forms of I.D., I would "Star," "The Enquirer."

ALLAN PARK, WITNESS: I got a lot of, I know you from somewhere. How do I know you? You look very familiar.

PHILLIPS: Limo driver Allan Park co-starred.

PARK: I saw a figure come into the entranceway.

PHILLIPS: Park was hounded by the press and fled L.A. after the verdict.

PARK: I never, ever was going to let this change my life, not who I was and who I was going to be. And I wasn't going to sell my story.

PHILLIPS: He left the limo business, and today has twin sons and is a train conductor in Sacramento, California.

All the players became instant celebrities.

DA Gil Garcetti appointed attorney Marcia Clark to lead the prosecution.

CLARK: He seeks to protest his innocence and yet not allow to ask him any questions.

MORET: We wondered, who was she? Was she single? Was she married? What is her life like?

PHILLIPS: Clark became a tabloid fixture when the country became obsessed with her hair and makeup.

MORET: We saw Marcia Clark's makeover on television, which is what made it so dramatic. Wow, what happened? Marcia did her hair, Marcia, Marcia, Marcia. A generation before, Marcia was on "The Brady Bunch." Our generation, she is in the O.J. Simpson trial.

PHILLIPS: It was one of the murder cases she ever lost. Clark left law after Simpson's acquittal, penning crime novels, and along with her books came an even newer look.

Clark's sidekick, co-prosecutor Chris Darden, had one of the most dramatic scenes of the trial.

CHRIS DARDEN, PROSECUTOR: We asked him to straighten his fingers and extend them into the glove. (OFF-MIKE)

COCHRAN: I object to these statements by counsel.

PHILLIPS: A move that in the end backfired.

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Like a slow-motion disaster movie for the prosecution. PHILLIPS: The trial finished off Darden's career as a

prosecutor, and today he has his own law firm, and, like Clark, writes crime thrillers.

The glove debacle gave lead defense attorney Johnnie Cochran a chance to steal the show.

COCHRAN: If it doesn't fit, you must acquit.

PHILLIPS: Cochran was just one of Simpson's A-list defenders, dubbed the dream team.

DERSHOWITZ: It was a nightmare team.

PHILLIPS: Attorney Alan Dershowitz got a lot of flak for defending Simpson.

DERSHOWITZ: My mother was furious at me. She called it the oy vey O.J. phase of my life.

PHILLIPS: Famed attorney F. Lee Bailey pinned LAPD's Mark Fuhrman in a fierce cross-exam.

F. LEE BAILEY, ATTORNEY: You say on your oath that you have not addressed any black person as a (EXPLETIVE DELETED).

BAILEY: Once he said, never in 10 years have I ever used the N- word, I knew we had him.

PHILLIPS: They did have him and the case. But, after the trial, Fuhrman, the most vilified cast member, landed on his feet. He left the LAPD and became a bestselling author and FOX News crime analyst.

GARCETTI: We are, all of us, profoundly disappointed with the verdict.

PHILLIPS: DA Gil Garcetti was criticized for losing the case. He lasted one more term and then took a giant leap.

GARCETTI: My focus is on photography and other things not related to the criminal justice system or even to the law. Just look at those eyes.

PHILLIPS: The former DA is now a globe-trotting photographer with critically acclaimed exhibits and pictures published in six books. But Garcetti hasn't strayed too far from the law or politics. He became a script consultant for TV drama's like "The Closer."

KYRA SEDGWICK, ACTRESS: I will be investigating your victim for murder and you can leave.

PHILLIPS: And his son is now the mayor of Los Angeles.

O.J.'s dream team took many different paths.

PHILLIPS (on camera): Twenty years later, do people still come up and say, you're the guy?

DERSHOWITZ: People send me e-mails to this day damning me to hell.

PHILLIPS (voice-over): But Dershowitz says the hate didn't hurt his career. Today, he is still a prominent defense attorney, a Harvard law professor and author.

F. Lee Bailey fell from grace more than a decade ago.

BAILEY: I did get the blame for the acquittal. I got punished, not as much as O.J.

PHILLIPS: After the trial, he was disbarred for misconduct in a client's case.

BAILEY: That's it. I have no further desire to practice law.

ROBERT KARDASHIAN, ATTORNEY: This letter was written...

PHILLIPS: O.J. pal Robert Kardashian, who had a supporting role on the defense, he battled cancer and died in 2003, at the age of 59.

TOOBIN: It was only years later that most Americans discovered that he was the father of Kim and company.

PHILLIPS: His greatest legacy, perhaps, his daughter Kim, seen on the arm of Kanye or on reality TV's "Keeping Up With the Kardashians."

But it was America's favorite house guest who dominated reality TV in the early 2000s. Kato Kaelin embraced his instant fame, taking parts in "Celebrity Boot Camp."

KAELIN: I'm shooting. Hold on.

PHILLIPS: "Give Me My Reality Show," and the very fitting "House Guest," which never did get off the ground.

KAELIN: Hi. I'm TV's Kato Kaelin.

And I'm dropped off in the middle of nowhere with a suitcase and no money. And I have to knock on doors to say, hi, I'm TV's Kato Kaelin. Can I live here?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you remember what happened to O.J. when you lived with him?

(LAUGHTER)

PHILLIPS: Today, Kaelin has his own online interview show.

KAELIN: And speaking of credits, you have a new song out, right?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I do.

PHILLIPS: And is launching a clothing line.

KAELIN: The media called me the biggest slacker in the world and a freeloader. And I said, you know what? Embrace your inner slacker. Kato Kouch Potato, so we came up with Kato Potato line.

PHILLIPS: A collection of loungewear, complete with pockets for snacks and a remote control.

(on camera): Was there ever a time you thought, whoa, this is because of a grisly double murder that this kind of came to me?

KAELIN: And I became famous overnight from a terrible thing. I get it. I know that. But that's the cards I was dealt. I am playing it.

PHILLIPS (voice-over): A cast of characters played their part. Lives changed forever, and the trial of the century cemented in pop culture.

KAELIN: I always think that my epithet is going to read, my 15 minutes are up. And -- but I do.

(LAUGHTER)

PHILLIPS: Coming up, O.J.'s life behind bars.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He is very depressed right now, more depressed now than ever.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We, the jury, in the above entitled action find the defendant, Orenthal James Simpson, not guilty of the crime of murder.

PHILLIPS (voice-over): O.J. Simpson may have been found not guilty, but his courtroom dramas were far from over. Even before the verdict, the Goldman and Brown families filed a lawsuit against him.

F. GOLDMAN: The civil wrongful death suit is our only opportunity of justice.

MORET: I was struck by O.J. Simpson in the civil case. He was so cavalier, I mean, so casual. And he looked at me one day and said, look -- look at her, and he was talking about a woman who was in the courtroom, like, wow, isn't she good looking?

And I thought, you are kidding me.

PHILLIPS: It all culminated in another highly anticipated verdict.

F. GOLDMAN: Thank God.

Finally, we got a court to acknowledge the truth. He killed Ron and Nicole.

PHILLIPS: In total, the jury slapped O.J. with $33.5 million in damages. The Juice had his freedom, but not much else. He had to find a way to make money, so he went on tour.

PARDO: They said, you cannot get him a gig anywhere in the United States. Even O.J. said, there is no way you are going to get me a gig.

PHILLIPS: But Norman Pardo did. As O.J.'s manager, he booked him at everything from hip-hop shows to autograph signings.

PARDO: He was on stage. They were chanting his name. He broke down and even said, because they were yelling O.J., O.J., Juice, Juice, and they wouldn't stop.

PHILLIPS: The public's fascination with O.J. was not just confined to planned appearances.

PARDO: In Philadelphia, I put him in a Rolls-Royce convertible. I said, just put the top down. We are going to pull him down South Street and see what would happen. It was like taking the president through town.

PHILLIPS: And Pardo caught those moments on tapes.

O.J. SIMPSON, FORMER NFL PLAYER: Since I have been in Miami, I have gone out with a Cuban girl, a Venezuelan girl, and a white girl.

PHILLIPS: Unguarded scenes of O.J. that are included in a just- released documentary.

PARDO: It just ended up that this is footage nobody has ever seen of him, this just regular guy, not in a suit and a tie, just sitting there.

PHILLIPS: In his never-ending quest to raise money, O.J. would try everything, from an ill-fated book titled "If I Did It," to selling his own sports memorabilia. And it would be those dealings with memorabilia that would finally put him behind bars.

At a hotel casino in Las Vegas, collectibles dealer and former Simpson friend Bruce Fromong set up in room 1203. He prepared to sell O.J.'s items he says he owned to an unnamed buyer.

BRUCE FROMONG, COLLECTIBLES DEALER: There were signed photographs. There were some footballs. There were three ties that he had worn during the trial.

PHILLIPS: Fromong had just spread the items out on the bed, when all hell broke loose.

FROMONG: That's when they came busting through the door. There was no knock.

PHILLIPS: Fromong saw a group of men, two with guns.

FROMONG: And the last person through the door was O.J. Simpson.

PHILLIPS: A third party, who set up the encounter, secretly recorded everything on audiotape.

FROMONG: I knew I had been set up by somebody.

SIMPSON: Don't let nobody out of this room, mother (EXPLETIVE DELETED)

You think you can steal my (EXPLETIVE DELETED) and sell it?

FROMONG: And my first thought was, O.J., how could you be so stupid?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We, the jury, in the above entitled case...

PHILLIPS: Thirteen years to the day after he was acquitted of murder, O.J. Simpson would be convicted of 12 charges and sentenced to a maximum of 33 years in prison.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. Simpson, go ahead and stand.

SIMPSON: Yes, Your Honor, I stand before you today sorry.

FROMONG: I definitely figured that he would get three years, maybe five years; 9.5 to 33? Definitely overkill.

PHILLIPS: The Goldman family, however, felt justice was long overdue.

(on camera): Did you really send him a card saying, welcome to your new home?

F. GOLDMAN: Mm-hmm.

K. GOLDMAN: And then, actually, when they said that he was a diabetic, I wanted to send him a care package of cookies and sugar and -- all the fun we can have here.

(CROSSTALK)

(LAUGHTER)

PHILLIPS (voice-over): And those who know Simpson say prison has been hard on the formerly gregarious superstar.

BAILEY: He is overweight. He doesn't have a smile anymore.

PARDO: He doesn't want people to see him like he is right now, so we talk, and that's that.

PHILLIPS: Pardo says Simpson's favorite pastimes in prison are fantasy football and coaching the prison's baseball team.

PARDO: He doesn't feel threatened. People in there are nice to him. He is still O.J.

PHILLIPS: Just this month, O.J. filed his latest appeal and is awaiting a decision.

In the meantime, he remains behind bars, until his next possible parole in 2017.

(END VIDEOTAPE)