Authorities say there was nothing improper about a prosecutor's presence at O.J. Simpson's estate as police began investigating the killings of his ex-wife and her friend.
The district attorney's office denied Thursday that prosecutor Marcia Clark arrived at the estate before a search warrant was signed. It said in a statement that she arrived afterwards "to give legal advice on the execution of the warrant, as is often done by lawyers in our office."KCBS-TV reported late Wednesday that its time-marked videotape showed Clark on Simpson's property at least 17 minutes before the warrant was signed at 10:45 a.m.
Police Chief Willie Williams said prosecutors routinely attend investigations to give legal advice.
"It's quite normal to have members of the district attorney's office at the scene of crimes," he said. "Some arrive in the first few hours, some arrive the next 10 or 12 hours, it all depends."
A source close to the investigation told The Associated Press that Clark got to the mansion at 12:30 p.m. and stayed about an hour to watch the search.
Bob Jordan, news director at KCBS, said the station stood by its story.
The time of the video transmission was recorded automatically as it was fed to the station. A technician also recorded the time independently, writing it on the label of the video box, Jordan said.
The video was received at 10:28 a.m., KCBS reported. The time written on the warrant cover sheet was 10:45 a.m. on June 13.
Legal experts said if Clark helped search the estate before the warrant was issued, that could help defense efforts to have evidence found there excluded from trial.
A Municipal Court judge rejected that motion during Simpson's preliminary hearing, but the defense can try again at his trial.
Prosecutors, meanwhile, said they weren't ready to decide whether to charge Al Cowlings with helping Simpson, his lifelong friend, flee arrest. Cowlings drove the white Ford Bronco seen during the nationally televised police chase.
Cowlings was to return to court today to learn whether charges would be filed against him. But Suzanne Childs, a spokeswoman for the district attorney's office, said the investigation of Cowling's role was continuing and prosecutors would ask for a continuance.
Cowlings was arrested after the chase ended. He was released on $250,000 bail and has yet to be formally charged.
Simpson has pleaded not guilty to the June 12 stabbing deaths of Nicole Brown Simpson, 35, and her friend Ronald Goldman, 25.
In other developments:
- KCBS quoted an unidentified source as saying that on the night of the killings, the Simpsons' 8-year-old daughter, Sydney, overheard Ms. Simpson crying and talking with an unidentified friend after she returned from a restaurant. The station said its source cited notes from a police report. The notes didn't indicate whether the friend was at Ms. Simpson's condominium or speaking to her on the telephone, KCBS said.
- Cowlings' lawyer, Donald Re, said his client had no knowledge of a passport or $10,000 in cash reportedly found in the Ford Bronco he drove while he and Simpson were chased by police. KNBC-TV and the Los Angeles Times reported that police seized the money and the passport from the car after the 60-mile chase.