O.J. Simpson was so despondent during the slow-speed highway chase that he put a gun to his head and pulled the trigger, but the gun misfired, says longtime friend Robert Kardashian.
Kardashian, who recently revealed doubts about Simpson's innocence, told ABC's "20-20" that Simpson was self-absorbed and suicidal on the day of his arrest.After threatening several times to kill himself at Kardashian's house with a gun wrapped in a towel, Simpson slipped away with friend Al Cowlings in the white Bronco, Kardashian said, according to a show transcript.
"At one point when I was talking to O.J. on the telephone - he was in the Bronco - and he said, `Bobby, I put a gun to my head and I pulled the trigger and it didn't go off,' " Kardashian told interviewer Barbara Walters.
"Did you believe him?" Walters asked.
"At first I thought it was a joke," Kardashian said. "After I hung up, I just kept hearing his voice, and I realized that he was telling the truth."
Kardashian, a lawyer who has known Simpson for 25 years and who may be a witness in the wrongful-death lawsuit, described Simpson as a spoiled athlete concerned only with himself.
Kardashian confirmed earlier reports that Simpson badly failed a lie detector test shortly after the June 1994 slayings of ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend, Ronald Goldman.
"I was devastated," he said. "I didn't know what to believe. O.J. said, `Every time I heard Nicole's name, my heart was pounding, I would, I would get emotional and' - that type of reaction."Johnnie Cochran, Simpson's lead defense lawyer in his criminal trial, called Kardashian's comments a breach of ethics.
"What he's doing is violating attorney-client privilege in this whole situation, and I'm not sure he fully understands or comprehends the import of what he's doing," Cochran said in an interview on Westwood One Radio Networks.
Cochran predicted Kardashian's comments would attract the attention of the state bar.
In court, meanwhile, Simpson suffered more setbacks at his civil trial.
A judge denied Simpson's request for papers linked to Faye Resnick's stay at a drug treatment center and police documents related to former detective Mark Fuhrman.
Superior Court Judge Hiroshi Fujisaki found that Simpson's lawyers requested the police papers too late and that the request for the Resnick documents was moot since they had been destroyed.
Simpson has said he believes the slayings may somehow be linked to Resnick's drug problem.
Jury selection is on hold until Tuesday in the wrongful-death lawsuit, filed by the families of Nicole Simpson and Goldman.