SHAPIRO'S MEA CULPA

Simpson defense attorney Robert Shapiropublicly apologized in the courtroom to police criminalist Dennis Fung and "all my friends in the Asian-American community" for sarcastic comments he made while handing out fortune cookies last week. Once the trial got underway, prosecutors began their attempt to rehabilitate Fung by screening time-coded videotape that shows that Fung was indeed givenblood samplesby Detective Philip Vannatter the evening after the murders and that Fung's assistant Andrea Mazzola carried the blood samples out of Nicole Simpson's home. The defense last week showed a videotape of its own to support their contention that Vannatter had acted improperly by not turning over the samples until two days later.