O.J. Simpson Trials: 1995 & 1996-97

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O.J. Simpson Trials: 1995 & 1996-97

CRIMINAL TRIAL

Defendant: Orenthal James Simpson
Crime Charged: Murder
Chief Defense Lawyers: Robert L. Shapiro, F. Lee Bailey, Robert Blasier, Johnnie L. Cochran, Jr., Carl Douglas, Robert Kardashian, Peter Neufeld, Barry Scheck, and Gerald Uelmen
Chief Prosecutors: Marcia Clark, George Clarke, Christopher A. Darden, Hank Goldberg, Rockne Harmon, William Hodgman, and Brian Kelberg
Judge: Lance A. Ito
Place: Los Angeles, California
Dates of Trial: January 24-October 3, 1995
Verdict: Not guilty

CIVIL TRIAL

Plaintiffs: Fred Goldman, the estate of Ronald Goldman, Sharon Rufo, and the estate of Nicole Brown Simpson
Defendant: Orenthal James Simpson
Plaintiff Claim: Liability for assault and battery and for wrongful deaths
Chief Defense Lawyers: Robert Baker, Phil Baker, Bob Blasier, Daniel Leonard
Chief Lawyers for the Plaintiffs: For Fred Goldman and the estate of Ronald Goldman: Daniel Petrocelli, Peter Gelblum, Tom Lambert, and Ed Medvene; for Sharon Rufo: Michael Brewer and Nick Hornberger; for the estate of Nicole Brown Simpson: John O. Kelly, Paul Callan, Ed Horowitz, and Natasha Roit
Judge: Hiroshi Fujisaki
Place: Santa Monica, California
Dates of Trial: October 17, 1996-February 4, 1997
Verdict: Simpson was found liable for the deaths of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman; the Goldman family was awarded $8.5 million in compensatory damages (the Simpson family had not sought compensatory damages); each family was awarded $12.5 million in punitive damages

SIGNIFICANCE: The two trials of O.J. Simpson revealed the challenging paradox that the American legal system does not work and then again does work. The criminal trial proved that a celebrity defendant who is served by determined lawyers can get away with murder. The civil trial proved that indisputable facts adding up to a preponderance of evidence can at least bring a modicum of solace to brokenhearted families.

Just before midnight on June 12, 1994, the brutally slashed bodies of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald L. Goldman were found outside Nicole's condominium at 875 South Bundy Drive in the Brentwood section of Los Angeles, California. Nicole was the ex-wife of football hero and TV spokesman Orenthal James Simpson, known as "O.J." Goldman was a friend of Nicole who worked as a waiter.

Before dawn, Detectives Philip Vannatter and Tom Lange of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) Robbery-Homicide Division were named lead investigators. The detectives headed for Simpson's home to notify him of his ex-wife's death. They took along with them Detective Mark Fuhrman.

While waiting to get into Simpson's walled estate (the doorbell was not answered), Fuhrman called Vannatter's attention to bloodstains on a Ford Bronco parked outside the rear gate. Vannatter ordered Fuhrman to climb the wall and let the others in. At a guest house inside the grounds, Brian "Kato" Kaelin (a friend of O.J.'s) referred them to Arnelle Simpson, O.J.'s daughter by his first wife. She told them Simpson had taken a red-eye flight to Chicago at midnight. Detective Ronald Phillips phoned Simpson in Chicago to break the news.

Meanwhile, Kaelin told Fuhrman that at about 10:40 p.m. he had heard thumps on his wall. Checking a passageway behind the guesthouse, Fuhrman found a bloody black glove that looked like a match for one he and Vannatter had seen beside Goldman's body. They observed blood on the driveway, on the path to the front door, and on the house's entryway. The senior detective declared the property a crime scene, and obtained a search warrant. The Ford Bronco was impounded.

When Simpson returned to Los Angeles the next day, the LAPD interviewed him for three hours. Vannatter noticed that Simpson had a bandaged finger. The detective had the finger photographed without the bandage, which revealed two lacerations. Vannatter also had a nurse obtain a sample of Simpson's blood. The next morning, Vannatter told Los Angeles D.A. Gil Garcetti he considered Simpson the prime suspect. By then, the police could not locate Simpson.

The Infamous Chase

That evening, nearly every television station interrupted their regular programming to go live from a helicopter above a Los Angeles freeway. Approximately 93 million viewers watched the scene as the helicopter followed a Ford Bronco. Below, Simpson's friend, Al Cowlings, reported by phone that O.J. was in the car with a pistol to his head, intent on suicide. Police cars and ordinary traffic were moving slowly behind them.

After 90 minutes, Cowlings drove Simpson home, where he was arrested. On Monday, June 20, the Los Angeles County grand jury charged O.J. with the murders. He was held without bail.

At Simpson's arraignment, his attorney, Robert L. Shapiro, was joined by America's perhaps best-known African-American trial lawyer, Johnnie L. Cochran, Jr. Simpson declared that he was "absolutely, 100 percent not guilty."

Chief prosecutor Marcia Clark, a deputy district attorney, was highly proficient in trials involving circumstantial evidence and testing for DNA—deoxyribonucleic acid, a molecule that blueprints inherited traits in every living cell. Assisting Clark was Deputy District Attorney Christopher A. Darden, an African-American prosecutor widely experienced in murder trials. By December 8, 1994, Judge Lance A. Ito had seated the jury and 12 alternates, including 15 African-Americans in all.

The Trial of the Century Begins

Opening the trial on Monday, January 24, 1995, Clark assured the jury they would hear evidence involving a trail of blood from the death scene to a pair of socks in O.J.'s bedroom. DNA testing would confirm whose blood it was. Prosecutor Darden described the defendant's years of abusive behavior toward his wife. He included 911 tapes of Nicole screaming for help, and police photos of her battered face.

The prosecution recounted the events of June 12, 1994. Karen Lee Crawford, manager of the Mezzaluna Restaurant, testified that Nicole's mother had called about her daughter's left-behind eyeglasses, and that waiter Ron Goldman had departed to return them to her. The Simpsons' neighbor, Steven Schwab, recalled walking his dog at 10:30 p.m. and encountering an agitated dog trailing its leash. The dog had bloody but uninjured paws. Schwab's neighbor Sukru Boztepe described taking that dog for a walk to calm it down, only to find it "pulling me harder" near Nicole's home, where "I saw a lady laying down, full of blood." He flagged down a passing squad car.

Officer Robert Riske, the squad car driver, testified, "We observed a white female in a black dress, laying in a puddle." Then he found Goldman's body. Riske described seeing a white envelope (later proved to contain Nicole's eyeglasses), a black glove, and a blue knit ski cap near the bodies.

Detective Mark Fuhrman took the stand. Anticipating the defense's plan to depict him as a racist, the prosecution presented the jury with a good-looking, athletic cop who had neither inclination nor opportunity to plant the glove at Rockingham. Defense attorney F. Lee Bailey grilled him aggressively as he denied making racist statements in 1985.

Kato Kaelin Testifies

Brian "Kato" Kaelin testified that Simpson had told him how, on the evening of the murders, his ex-wife had tried to prevent him from speaking with their daughter after her dance recital, and that Simpson had complained about Nicole's tight dress. Kaelin described accompanying Simpson to a McDonald's earlier that evening, but did not know the defendant's whereabouts between 9:35 p.m. and about 11:00 when Simpson left in his limousine for the airport. He recalled offering to pack Simpson's knapsack in the limo, but the defendant declined, saying, "I'll get it."

Limousine driver Allan Park testified about picking up Simpson and the airport trip. While loading the car, Park said, Simpson tried to get Kaelin away from the knapsack by saying, "No, no. I'll get it."

Criminologist Dennis Fung described gathering and examining the physical evidence—gloves, cap, footprints, and hair and blood samples. He was crossexamined by defense attorney Barry Scheck, a New York lawyer considered an expert on blood-related evidence. Implying that Fung was inept and deceitful, Scheck cited errors in note taking, leaving blood samples in a hot truck, and not conducting tests on bloodstains that Fuhrman pointed out on the Bronco but later filing false reports about them.

May came. By then, the judge had dismissed seven jurors for various reasons. Five alternates remained.

The Scientific Evidence Is Presented

LAPD forensic chemist Gregory Matheson testified that blood on the Bundy walkway could not have come from 99.5 percent of the population but could be Simpson's, and that blood found on socks in Simpson's bedroom could have come from Nicole but not from the defendant. During the cross-examination, defense attorney Robert Blasier repeated a litany of incompetencies: police did not follow proper chain-of-custody procedures for the blood samples; bodies were wrongly covered with improper blankets; officers were late reaching the crime scene; laboratory tweezers were improperly cleaned; 1.5 millimeters of Simpson's blood sample had mysteriously disappeared.

Robin Cotton, director of Cellmark Diagnostics in Germantown, Maryland, said DNA tests confirmed that blood found near the victims was the defendant's, indicating that Simpson cut himself while committing the murders. While cross-examining, defense attorney Peter Neufeld questioned Cotton's estimate that only 1 in 170 million African-Americans and Caucasians showed the same genetic pattern as Simpson. In probability statistics, she replied, numbers "mean what they mean. A number isn't an opinion."

Gary Sims, lead forensic analyst at the California Justice Department's DNA laboratory, testified that blood on the glove found at Simpson's Rockingham estate matched Goldman's blood, and that blood in the Bronco matched both victims' as well as the defendant's. Under cross-examination, Sims minimized the possibility of cross-contamination of blood samples—that is, one being tainted by another—in the laboratory.

Extremely graphic photos of the victims' bodies were presented with the testimony of Dr. Lakshman Sathyavagiswaran, chief medical examiner of Los Angeles County. The doctor described Mrs. Simpson facing her killer's slashing knife and absorbing a severe blow that probably knocked her out. Goldman was then killed, he surmised, before the killer slashed Nicole's throat. Next, Goldman was stabbed more than two dozen times before he died. Dr. Sathyavagiswaran said the deaths occurred between 9:00 p.m. and 12:45 a.m. No pathologist, he concluded, could give a more precise time.

The Gloves and the Shoe Prints

Prosecution witness Brenda Vemich, a glove buyer for Bloomingdale's department store in New York City, identified the expensive brand and size—extra large—of the bloody gloves. Prosecutor Darden asked the defendant to put them on. Wearing latex gloves (to protect the evidence), Simpson pulled and squeezed, then held up both hands with the obviously too-tight gloves only partway on. Critics declared a major prosecution blunder. Defense attorney Cochran said the trial was as good as over because of four words: "The gloves don't fit."

FBI agent William J. Bodziak, a shoe print expert, testified that the bloody print at the crime scene had been traced to a $160-a-pair Italian designer brand, Bruno Magli. They were Simpson's size, and only 299 pair had been distributed in the United States. When cross-examiner F. Lee Bailey proposed that professional assassins had left the imprints, the witness replied, "Ridiculous."

Prosecution witness Richard Rubin, a former executive of the glove manufacturer, Aris Isotoner, testified that moisture could shrink the gloves 15 percent. Prosecutor Darden presented a brand-new, extra-large pair of the same gloves. Simpson easily put them on.

Douglas Deedrick, of the FBI's hair and fiber section, testified that hairs on the ski cap matched Simpson's. Prosecutor Clark evinced testimony that the glove found at Bundy, which had only one of Nicole's hairs, probably fell off the murderer's hand early in the crime, whereas the glove found at Simpson's Rockingham estate stayed on and picked up hair from both victims.

The FBI witness said his microscopes revealed "fibers with knobs," resembling a child's set of jacks, found on the Rockingham glove and the Bundy cap. In analyzing thousands of samples over 17 years, he added, he had never seen such fibers. They matched those from the carpet of Simpson's Bronco.

The Defense Makes Its Case

Simpson family members were the first defense witnesses. O.J.'s sister, Carmelita Durio, and his eldest daughter, Arnelle, both said he was "distraught" when informed of the murders. His 73-year-old mother, Eunice, testified, "He seemed shocked."

The defense called several witnesses who testified that they heard nothing unusual in the Bundy neighborhood during that Sunday evening of June 12. One neighbor, Robert Heidstra, testified that at 10:40 p.m. he had heard two persons arguing. One shouted "Hey! Hey! Hey!" while the second voice was overridden by the frenzied wailing of a dog. Shortly thereafter, a white sport utility vehicle sped south. Cross-examination disclosed that Heidstra had told friends the voices were a younger white man's and an older black man's, and that Simpson's was one.

Johnnie Cochran objected furiously, "You can't tell by someone's voice when they're black. That's racist, and I resent it." Judge Ito sent the jury out and declared a recess as prosecutor Darden and Cochran verbally dueled—an event forbidden in courtroom protocol and one the judge had frequently warned against.

Dr. Robert Huizenga, former team physician for the Los Angeles Raiders, cited injuries he had found while examining the defendant soon after the murders, concluding that "fast walking, slow jogging would be difficult if not impossible."

The prosecutors showed the doctor a Simpson exercise video made shortly before the murders. Deputy District Attorney Brian Kelberg argued that Simpson could have been under the influence of an "adrenaline rush," which would have helped him through the physical stress of committing murder. The doctor agreed. A videotaped workout of O.J. was shown with the jury excused. At one point, Simpson told a trainer, "You got to get your space in if you're working out with your wife, if you know what I mean. You can always blame it on working out." The remark, Kelberg argued, proved "that he thinks beating a wife is of no consequence." Ito admitted the tape as evidence.

LAPD cameraman Willie Ford testified that he hadn't seen any socks in Simpson's bedroom when he videotaped the home at 4:13 p.m. on June 13. On cross-examination, he admitted he had been told to videotape only after the room had been searched. Detective Adelberto Luper said he saw the socks on the floor earlier, at 12:30 p.m.

Josephine "Gigi" Guiran, the Rockingham maid, said Simpson did not leave socks lying around. While cross-examining her, Darden suggested that the defendant's unusual sloppiness—socks on the bedroom floor, a towel on the bathroom floor—was evidence of frantic behavior that night.

To support their theory of a police conspiracy to frame Simpson, the defense called Fredric Rieders, Ph.D., to interpret FBI tests of blood on the socks and on a Bundy gate. The toxicologist said both blood specimens contained EDTA—ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid—a chemical that prevents coagulation of blood, often used for preserving blood samples. Defense witness Roger Martz, chief of the FBI's chemistry toxicology unit, disagreed, saying the bloodstains did not come from preserved blood.

Cross-examined, Martz said EDTA was a preservative in many foods. "If a person is eating EDTA," he said, "some will be in their blood."

On July 28, Cochran asked a North Carolina superior court to order Laura Hart McKinny, a screenwriter who had been advised by Mark Fuhrman, to testify regarding racial slurs Fuhrman had made while they worked on the screenplay. The judge ruled that the writer's conversations with Fuhrman were immaterial to the trial. Cochran filed an appeal.

The defense brought in police nurse Thano Peratis, who said he had obtained between 7.9 and 8.1 milliliters of Simpson's blood on June 13. The defense insisted that 1.5 milliliters had gone missing.

John Gerdes, a molecular biologist, testified that the LAPD laboratory had a "substantial" problem that "created unacceptable risks" of cross-contamination, from using outdated chemicals to wearing the same gloves for more than one test. Under cross-examination, Gerdes admitted he had never examined another laboratory so scrupulously and that he opposed DNA testing.

Detective Fuhrman a Racist

In North Carolina, on August 7, the court of appeals ruled that tape recordings and testimony of McKinny, the screenwriter whom Fuhrman advised, "could make a difference in the trial." This permitted Judge Ito to rule on whether the jury could hear the tapes.

Cochran announced that the transcripts from McKinny disclosed that Fuhrman had used the word "nigger" at least 30 times and that at least 17 times he had referred to lying, covering up for fellow officers, or planting evidence. "I am the most important witness in the trial of the century," said Fuhrman on one tape. "If I go down, their case goes bye."

"And that's what they're faced with—bye," Cochran told the press. "This is a blockbuster. This is perhaps the biggest thing in any case in this decade, and they know it."

Dr. Henry C. Lee, head of the Connecticut State Police Crime Laboratory, took the stand. Defense attorney Barry Scheck focused Lee's testimony on faint marks on the walkway at Bundy. Were the marks from a shoe? One could be from a shoe, said Lee, but not from Bruno Magli shoes. Deputy District Attorney Hank Goldberg's cross-examination tried to dispel Lee's suggestion that more than one assailant might have committed the murders.

On August 29, 1995, Judge Ito permitted screenwriter McKinny to tell the packed courtroom—minus the 14-member jury—how she had audiotaped 16 hours of interviews with Mark Fuhrman. Defense attorney Gerald Uelmen argued that the jury should hear all of the 41 times that Fuhrman—who had testified that he had not used the word "nigger" in the last 10 years—had in fact voiced that word on tape. Prosecutor Clark countered. The real "N word," she said, is not "nigger" but "Nicole." "None of this is relevant," she said. "The admission of this evidence is telling the jury, 'Disregard the case. Look somewhere else.'"

The next day, Judge Ito ruled that the jury would be allowed to hear only 2 of Fuhrman's 41 references to blacks as "niggers."

On September 5, the jury was again excused. Fuhrman took the stand and replied, "I wish to assert my Fifth Amendment privilege" to several questions asked by defense attorney Uelmen. The judge dismissed him, agreeing to instruct the jury that "Detective Fuhrman is not available for further testimony."

Prosecutor Clark objected and filed an appeal. Within three hours, Justices Paul Turner and Orville J. Armstrong of the California Court of Appeals ruled that "the proposed instruction regarding the unavailability of Detective Fuhrman is not to be given."

Rebuttals Get Under Way

The defense requested that Judge Ito either strike Fuhrman's testimony about finding the Rockingham glove or return the detective to the stand. The judge refused. Cochran filed an appeal, refusing to rest his case until the appeal decision came down. Judge Ito then ordered the prosecution to start its rebuttal before the defense had closed.

The California Court of Appeals ruled that jurors could not be informed of Fuhrman's Fifth Amendment plea. Nor might the jury draw adverse conclusions from his absence. The defense appealed to a higher court.

Prosecution witness Gary Sims, of the California Department of Justice, testified that DNA testing proved that blood found inside the Bronco had come from both Goldman and Simpson. FBI agent Deedrick challenged defense witness Dr. Lee's testimony that marks on Goldman's jeans might have come from shoe prints of a second murderer. Rather, they matched the ribbed texture of Goldman's shirt. FBI footprint expert William Bodziak observed that what Dr. Lee had characterized as "imprints" on the Bundy walkway were impressions made in the concrete when it was poured years earlier.

On September 21, 1995, the California Supreme Court rejected the defense appeal to reinstate the judge's instruction to the jury about Fuhrman.

The next day, the defense rested. Then Cochran said his client "would like to make a brief statement." Prosecutor Clark objected. "This is a bid to get material admitted through conjugal visits that is not admitted in court."

Simpson stood up. "I am mindful of the mood and the stamina of this jury," he said. "I have confidence of their integrity … that I did not, could not, and would not have committed this crime… I have four kids—two kids I haven't seen in a year. They ask me every week, 'Dad, how much longer…?'"

"All right," the judge cut in. He asked Simpson if he understood that he had a right to testify. "Yes," said Simpson.

Both sides rested. Later, a defense lawyer revealed that Simpson, coached by Cochran and attorney Robert Kardashian, had rehearsed his statement for two weeks.

Closing Arguments

Summations began on September 26. Prosecutor Clark took the Fuhrman bull by the horns: "Is he a racist? Yes. But it would be a tragedy if you found the defendant not guilty because of the racist attitude of one police officer."

Clark reviewed the timing of the thumps on Kaelin's wall; the absurdity of defense contentions that blood had been planted; the trail of blood down the Bundy walkway, into the Bronco, and into the Rockingham house; and the DNA evidence that made Simpson "one in 57 billion people that could have left that blood."

Defense counsel Cochran summed up. Referring to the defendant's attempt to put on the glove, he repeatedly said, "If it doesn't fit, you must acquit." He suggested that professional killers were the murderers. He lambasted the "untrained officers" who "traipsed through the evidence." He reminded the jury that the defendant "doesn't have to prove anything." Finally, he compared Fuhrman's racist attitude to Hitler's and advised the jurors that in acquitting Simpson they would become custodians of the Constitution.

Prosecutor Darden told the jury, "I looked in the Constitution, and you know what I saw? The Constitution said Ron and Nicole had the right to liberty, the right to life, the right to the pursuit of happiness. And I looked further to see if it said anything about O.J. Simpson. And it said that a man has no right to kill and get away with it because one of the investigating officers is a racist."

"Ron and Nicole—they're speaking to you," impassioned prosecutor Clark to the jury. "They are both telling you who did it, with their hair, their clothes, their bodies, their blood. They tell you in the only way they can."

It was Friday afternoon, September 29, 1995. Judge Ito briefly charged the jury. They retired to elect their foreman. Deliberations began at 10:00 a.m. on Monday. Less than four hours later, they reached a verdict. Ito said he would announce it the next morning.

The Verdict

On Tuesday, October 3, across the country people learned that the jury had found Orenthal James Simpson not guilty of murder.

In the days following the verdict, while O.J. Simpson promised to find Nicole and Ron Goldman's killer(s), the LAPD and Los Angeles district attorney announced that the investigation into the murders was closed.

The Goldmans and Browns Sue

While the murder trial was going on, three civil suits for wrongful death had been filed against O.J. Simpson: by Fred Goldman, father of Ron Goldman; by Ron's mother, Sharon Rufo, who had divorced Fred when Ron was six years old; and by the Brown family.

California law permitted two kinds of suits. The estate of a dead person could bring a survival suit by the victim's personal representative—parents or other immediate relatives—for punitive damages. The victim's heirs would share any money won by the suit.

The other permissible suit was a wrongful death claim. This could be brought by an heir for loss of financial support or loss of emotional support (i.e., loss of a relationship). Fred Goldman filed only for the latter. Although Sharon Rufo had had no relationship with her son since he was six, she filed her own wrongful death suit.

The Brown family decided to bring only a survival suit for the assault and battery that resulted in Nicole's death. They didn't want to put her young children through a wrongful death suit. It would be up to a jury to decide whether Simpson had attacked and battered Ron Goldman and Nicole and whether he had killed Ron; they did not have to determine whether he had killed Nicole.

Simpson and his defense lawyers found the rules and courtroom atmosphere different this time. They lost a motion to seal Simpson's depositions explaining the cuts on his hand and body and ownership of gloves and shoes. Judge Hiroshi Fujisaki allowed no courtroom cameras of any kind, and permitted only an audio feed to reporters who could not be accommodated inside. He issued a gag order to keep the lawyers on both sides from commenting on the trial. He excluded irrelevant and prejudiced evidence that Judge Ito had permitted. He did not sequester the jury.

Plaintiff lawyers Daniel Petrocelli and Tom Lambert brought in all the pertinent witnesses from the criminal trial and took the jury through the evidence. The defense had to admit that lab test results of various bloodstains were valid and proper, and it quickly became clear that no blood had been "planted" anywhere. After glove expert Richard Rubin demonstrated that the bloody gloves could easily fit if latex gloves were not put on first, defense lawyer Robert Baker avoided asking Simpson to try them on. Testimony by Kato Kaelin and limo driver Allan Park destroyed Simpson's alibi that he was napping at home between 10:00 and 11:00 p.m. Telephone records not previously revealed proved that early in the evening of the murders Simpson had received an ego-shattering "Dear John" call from girlfriend Paula Barbieri that probably enraged him. Forensic pathologist Dr. Werner Spitz described in sickening detail how quickly the victims were killed, countering the testimony of defense expert Michael Baden that Simpson hadn't had enough time. An attendant on Simpson's redeye flight told of his using the lavatory every 10 or 15 minutes yet never flushing the toilet—apparently, the jury was led to believe, treating his bleeding finger.

With the defendant on the witness stand, Petrocelli led him through each moment of the 911-call batterings of Nicole, and made him describe his movements on the day of the murders. During his two-day testimony, Simpson denied committing the murders but could not adequately explain his own injuries or his whereabouts during the time between the McDonald's trip with Kato Kaelin and the limo coming to pick him up.

The defense failed to prove its contention that one photo of Simpson in the Bruno Magli shoes was a fake, then fell apart when 31 pictures of O.J. wearing the shoes by another photographer turned up. It called no DNA expert to question the blood tests that incriminated Simpson. It offered no witness to counter the hair and fiber matches.

The judge instructed the jury that they were not bound by the verdict of the criminal trial. Nor was unanimity required. Rather, 9 of the 12 had to find that a preponderance of the evidence supported their verdict.

The jury deliberated for five days. On Tuesday, February 4, 1997, it unanimously found that 0.j. Simpson had willfully and wrongfully caused the death of Ronald Goldman and had maliciously attacked and assaulted Nicole Brown Simpson. It ordered Simpson to pay the Goldman family $8.5 million in compensatory damages, and to pay $12.5 million in punitive damages to each of the two families.

—Bernard Ryan, Jr.