Prosecutor Chris Darden, in his first interview since O.J. Simpson was acquitted, accused Judge Lance Ito of letting the defense run the trial and said he wanted to punch attorney Johnnie Cochran Jr.
"Johnnie Cochran ran that courtroom, not Judge Ito," Darden said. "He surrendered his gavel, essentially. The law was being ignored. There was no judge."In an interview with Barbara Walters, to be broadcast tonight on ABC's "20-20," Darden also called the trial "a monumental waste of time and taxpayers' money."
He said he believes the predominantly black jury acquitted Simpson in the murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman to get even with whites for years of racial injustice.
"I didn't believe we had a snowball's chance in hell," Darden said. "I saw anger in that jury. I sensed its payback."
The belief that justice was not served by the trial will ultimately hurt blacks' efforts to attain equality, he said.
"Because of the injustice most people perceive as a result of the verdict, I think they are going to lose affirmative action," he said. "I think it's African-Americans in the end who are going to suffer, because of all the support we threw behind this man, who has never done anything for us."
Simpson, at an awards dinner Thursday night in Los Angeles, insisted his contributions were known among blacks.
"Just like during the trial, he doesn't know what he's talking about, because he doesn't know what I have been doing. But there are some African-Americans who know what I have been doing," Simpson said in an interview that aired Friday on NBC's "Today."
"I wish Chris Darden the best of everything."
Darden, in the "20/20" interview, called defense attorney F. Lee Bailey "a jerk" and "an arrogant SOB," and said he wanted to slug Cochran "with a right cross" after a debate in court about use of a racial epithet.
Darden also accused Cochran of flirting with fellow prosecutor Marcia Clark during the trial.
"I don't know if they came on to each other. But the manner in which they behaved toward each other . . . I thought was inappropriate," Darden said.
Darden dodged a question on whether he was romantically involved with Clark.
"Was I a little bit in love with Marcia Clark?," he told Walters. "I don't know - love is a scary thing for me. But I care about Marcia Clark. We still spend time together."
Darden was promoting his book about the trial, "In Contempt," in which he writes that he and Clark "were two passionate people thrown together in a trial that left us exhausted and lonely."