(4 of 9)
Nicole's diary showed that she and Simpson were having fights in those last weeks. Their hostilities had taken a cruel turn. Simpson sent Nicole a letter that was a thinly veiled threat to report her to the IRS for failing to pay capital-gains taxes. Infuriated, she started to deny him access to the children. Petrocelli would explain to the jury that Nicole felt O.J. had hit below the belt with the IRS letter and that she finally rejected him, just as he was deciding to recommit himself to her. She began to treat him like a stranger. That, Petrocelli said, is when three weeks of retaliation began. In that period, the lawyer argued, Simpson grew angrier and more obsessed with his ex-wife, developing a rage that resulted in death for her and Ron Goldman.
None of the Goldman family will speak the name O.J. Simpson. It is not a public relations ploy; in strategy sessions with the lawyers, Fred Goldman, who is adept with every legal and evidentiary detail of the case, always refers to Simpson as "the killer." Goldman was devastated by the criminal verdict. "I was numb; I was blown away. I had thought a hung jury was possible, but I had never imagined an acquittal. Our family recognized the need to be there for each other, and as difficult as another trial would be, we felt we had to do this for Ron. Nothing we've gone through is as painful as what he went through. We don't care about money. We wanted a jury in a court of law to hold the killer responsible."
During the criminal trial, many observers worried about Goldman's mental state. His rage at Simpson was so great that some feared Goldman might seek to take justice into his own hands. Says Goldman: "Of course you get angry. But that is the difference between decent folks and criminals. You do not commit acts of violence. I will never accept the fact that he walks free. And I would have preferred a conviction in the criminal case. But the biggest difference between the two trials is that this was our case against him. We got to call the shots."
One of Petrocelli's first tasks was to assemble his team from among the lawyers and staff of Mitchell, Silberberg & Knupp. In addition to Gelblum, who was to serve as an all-purpose hand, he chose Tom Lambert, a senior lawyer who has tried complex securities litigation, and Ed Medvene, another senior partner, who specializes in white-collar-crime cases. These four lawyers would be the backbone of the case. Since they were representing the Goldmans, the next issue was how to deal with John Kelly, the lawyer representing the Nicole Brown Simpson estate, and Michael Brewer, the lawyer representing Sharon Rufo, Ronald Goldman's birth mother, who first filed the wrongful-death suit. Dissension and egos at first threatened to splinter the case, but Petrocelli soothed and cajoled. Besides, it was his large firm that was footing the bill; none of the other lawyers had the resources to carry a case of this magnitude. The deal was to let Mitchell, Silberberg call the shots, and let Petrocelli be the "quarterback." Kelly and Brewer would get to question some witnesses and have a short time to question O.J. on the stand. In return, they could offer suggestions and input. There was some rancor at first, but the deal held.