O.J. SIMPSON . . . ITO LOCKS UP JURY

One day after news reports that a book written by O.J. Simpson will hit the stores in February, Superior Court Judge Lance Ito has moved to sequester the jury this Wednesday. "This is something that we all tried to avoid, but it has become necessary," Ito told the 12 jurors and 12 alternates. The New York Times reported on Sunday that Little, Brown, which is part of Time-Warner, will publish O.J. Simpson's book, "I Want to Tell You." In the book, Simpson will answer questions raised in the more than 300,000 pieces of mail he has received since his arrest. TIME correspondent Elaine Lafferty says that "while Ito may have moved it earlier by a day or two" the sequestration was planned for this week anyway. Lawrence Schiller, a former Simpson neighbor as well as a journalist and film producer, will collaborate on the book.