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67 U. Colo. L. Rev. 1037 (1996)
Testilying: Police Perjury and What to Do about It

handle is hein.journals/ucollr67 and id is 1061 raw text is: TESTILYING: POLICE PERJURY AND WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT CHRISTOPHER SLOBOGIN* O.J. Simpson's trial for the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman provided the nation with at least two pristine examples of police perjury. First, there was the exposure of Detective Marc Fuhrman as a har. While under oath at trial the detective firmly asserted, in response to F. Lee Bailey's questions, that he had not used the word nigger in the past decade. The McKinny tapes and assorted other witnesses made clear this statement was an untruth. That proof of perjury, together with the defense's innuendo that Fuhrman had planted a glove smeared with Nicole's blood on Simpson's property, severely damaged the prosecution's case.' Second, and less well known, is Judge Lance Ito's finding that Detective Philip Vannatter had demonstrated a reckless disregard for the truth in the warrant application for the search of Simpson's house. Among other misrepresentations,2 Vannatter insinuated that Simpson had suddenly taken flight to Chicago when in fact police knew the trip had been planned for months, and unequivocally asserted that the substance found on Simp- son's Bronco was blood when in fact it had not yet been tested.' A third possible series of perjurious incidents occurred at the suppression hearing, when both Fuhrman and Vannatter stated that police investigating Simpson's compound had not considered O.J. a suspect, but rather had entered the premises solely out of concern for the athlete's welfare (and therefore had not needed probable cause or a warrant). Although both Judge Ito and * Professor of Law & Alumni Research Scholar, University of Florida College of Law. 1. For one account of this series of events, see Jeffrey Toobin, A Horrible Human Event, NEW YORKER, Oct. 23, 1995, at 40, 41-42. 2. Vannatter also neglected to mention that much of the basis for his assertion that there was probable cause came from a warrantless entry of O.J.'s compound, the legality of which had not yet been litigated. See infra text accompanying notes 4-5. 3. For a description of these misrepresentations and how Judge Ito reacted to them, see Wayne R. LaFave, O.J. Simpson Case Commentaries: Challenging Probable Cause for Search Warrants, 1994 WL 530235, Sept. 30, 1994, available in WESTLAW, O.J.-Comment database (on file with the University of Colorado Law Review).

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