Obituary: Philip Vannatter / O.J. Simpson investigator
April 18, 1941 - Jan. 20, 2012
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
By Bruce Weber, The New York Times
Philip Vannatter, who as a Los Angeles police detective helped lead the investigation of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald L. Goldman and who was a major prosecution witness in the failed attempt to convict O.J. Simpson, died Jan. 20 in Santa Clarita, Calif.
He was 70.
The cause was cancer, said his wife, Rita.
Mr. Vannatter was a 25-year veteran of the department and no stranger to high-profile crimes -- he arrested film director Roman Polanski in 1977 for having unlawful sex with an underage girl -- when he was called before dawn to the home of Nicole Simpson in Brentwood on June 13, 1994.
There he found the slashed corpses of the former wife of Mr. Simpson, the football star and broadcaster; and a young acquaintance, Mr. Goldman.
Mr. Vannatter and three other detectives -- Mark Fuhrman, Ronald Phillips and Tom Lange, who was the other lead investigator -- went to Mr. Simpson's home nearby to tell him of his former wife's death, Mr. Vannatter testified.
Mr. Simpson was not at home, but Mr. Fuhrman found blood spots on his car, a white Ford Bronco.
Mr. Fuhrman leapt a fence and opened a gate to let the other detectives onto the property.
Mr. Fuhrman found a piece of evidence that was featured crucially in the trial -- a bloody glove. (A matching glove had been found at the crime scene.)
Much of what happened among the investigators was criticized in the news media and used by defense lawyers to paint a portrait of an inept and vindictive police team.
Mr. Vannatter and Mr. Lange defended their work in a 1997 book, "Evidence Dismissed," written with Dan E. Moldea, saying that the documentation they provided for Mr. Simpson's guilt was a solid "mountain of evidence" and that defense lawyers, led by Johnnie L. Cochran Jr., "used a handful of police errors and the racist views of one rogue detective, Mr. Fuhrman, to create a courtroom firestorm that, in the eyes of the jury, caused our 'mountain of evidence' to melt down like a cup of Ben & Jerry's ice cream."
First published on February 21, 2012 at 12:00 am
Read more: http://www.postgazette.com/pg/12052/1211531-122.stm#ixzz1n4NFLWZj
April 18, 1941 - Jan. 20, 2012
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
By Bruce Weber, The New York Times
Philip Vannatter, who as a Los Angeles police detective helped lead the investigation of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald L. Goldman and who was a major prosecution witness in the failed attempt to convict O.J. Simpson, died Jan. 20 in Santa Clarita, Calif.
He was 70.
The cause was cancer, said his wife, Rita.
Mr. Vannatter was a 25-year veteran of the department and no stranger to high-profile crimes -- he arrested film director Roman Polanski in 1977 for having unlawful sex with an underage girl -- when he was called before dawn to the home of Nicole Simpson in Brentwood on June 13, 1994.
There he found the slashed corpses of the former wife of Mr. Simpson, the football star and broadcaster; and a young acquaintance, Mr. Goldman.
Mr. Vannatter and three other detectives -- Mark Fuhrman, Ronald Phillips and Tom Lange, who was the other lead investigator -- went to Mr. Simpson's home nearby to tell him of his former wife's death, Mr. Vannatter testified.
Mr. Simpson was not at home, but Mr. Fuhrman found blood spots on his car, a white Ford Bronco.
Mr. Fuhrman leapt a fence and opened a gate to let the other detectives onto the property.
Mr. Fuhrman found a piece of evidence that was featured crucially in the trial -- a bloody glove. (A matching glove had been found at the crime scene.)
Much of what happened among the investigators was criticized in the news media and used by defense lawyers to paint a portrait of an inept and vindictive police team.
Mr. Vannatter and Mr. Lange defended their work in a 1997 book, "Evidence Dismissed," written with Dan E. Moldea, saying that the documentation they provided for Mr. Simpson's guilt was a solid "mountain of evidence" and that defense lawyers, led by Johnnie L. Cochran Jr., "used a handful of police errors and the racist views of one rogue detective, Mr. Fuhrman, to create a courtroom firestorm that, in the eyes of the jury, caused our 'mountain of evidence' to melt down like a cup of Ben & Jerry's ice cream."
First published on February 21, 2012 at 12:00 am
Read more: http://www.postgazette.com/pg/12052/1211531-122.stm#ixzz1n4NFLWZj
