Original subtitles

D'ANNE: Denise answered the phone

and she said, "D'Anne,

it's Nicole."

A.C.: He said the kids were fine.

They were at the police station.

DENISE: What the kids

could have heard.

What are they thinking?

I made a promise to Nicole

that I would do everything in my power

to protect them.

(sirens wailing)

D'ANNE: We know where he is.

He's on the 405 Freeway, coming down here to us.

When I was told I would never be able to testify,

I was gonna get

that information out there

someway, somehow.

The controversy was, Faye felt that she

had to show some of the flaws in Nicole.

It wasn't as if any of us are saints.

Nicole,

she had a safe deposit box.

Then she had a...

diary.

Essentially a list of abuse.

It still gives me chills.

DENISE: Why can't I protect her?

Why didn't she just leave?

He was guilty.

No question.

In my mind, O.J. Simpson's guilty.

I believed from the very, very beginning

that-that he was guilty.

Oh, guilty as hell.

S-Simpson?

There was no doubt in my mind that...

O.J. was guilty of these murders.

I mean, everything pointed to him.

It's like, the only thing that wasn't left behind is

"Hello, my name is O.J." tag.

I don't think anybody knows.

Weird things happen all the time

that can't be explained or that don't seem logical.

I can't say that that's not the situation here.

You show me any real evidence

and I'll go look for a real suspect.

There is nothing that points in any other direction

than O.J. Simpson.

I believe that O.J. took that knife.

I believe he was trying to scare Nicole

and he got carried away.

And I do believe he did it.

A lot of people turned around to say,

"Well, he was found innocent."

"Not guilty" does not mean you're innocent.

(exhales)

There are kids involved,

and they don't know their mother.

I knew that somebody was to blame,

and I-I knew that, somehow...

there was involvement.

I didn't know to what extent.

You know what I mean? I-I didn't...

I still don't know.

♪

(clamoring)

MAN: I found 49 cameramen, 25 anchors,

20 producers I could see,

but a lot of them were inside a truck.

(speaking Spanish)

(speaking foreign language)

MAN 2: This was a jury of, uh, millios

and hundreds of millions of people.

NEWSMAN: What's your verdict?

Is O.J. Simpson guilty or innocent?

DENISE: Oh, my God,

what a nightmare we lived.

We were driving down to go to court

and hearing the helicopters...

...and listening to the play-by-play on the radi.

"Oh, yeah, they're following the van,

and the van is going to the criminal court."

-That's Nicole's mother and sister. You get that? -Write down "10:58:38."

We would be driven underneath the courthouse into...

the basement down there.

And underground is also where the criminals go

in the buses.

So we were down there, and then they...

took us up to, you know, the criminal court.

And that was, like, every day

for 18 months.

I was the Criminal Courts reporter at City News Service.

I was there every day, all day.

There was an entire camp of news vans

and vehicles across the street.

We called it "Camp O.J."

There was

an entire separate press room

on the 11th floor full of people,

and there was a listening room.

(indistinct chatter)

There was such an insatiable appetite

from the public for details of this story.

-(honking) -NEWSWOMAN: The attention-seekers,

the curious.

Please don't forget the victim!

It was a cash cow for so many organizations.

Police, security.

Everything around that trial went from...

justice...

to a business opportunity.

On the days that I would go over to the criminal courthouse--

many days-- I would pass through

vendors selling bumper stickers or clothing.

O.J. today. O.J.

This, ladies and gentlemen,

is the O.J. watch.

Featuring...

a spinning car-- police car--

chasing a spinning white Bronco.

(laughing): Oh, it's got a compass on it, too.

Why not?

I remember that the

sort of pop culture aspects of this throughout.

I remember the Dancing Itos.

(audience laughing)

"Weekend Update" and Norm Macdonald,

you know, sort of with a cocked eyebrow

indicating how guilty he thought, uh, Simpson was.

The book is entitled God Himself Told Me That O.J. Is Guilty.

(laughter, applause)

Norm Macdonald ultimately lost his "Weekend Update" gig

because Don Ohlmeyer,

an NBC executive,

was good friends with O.J.

NEWTON: Really,

the sense of it-- of the tr--

of the case lifting off from a criminal proceeding

and becoming this kind of cultural phenomenon

was strange to observe.

Let's talk a little about O.J., please,

because I have to get it off my chest.

O.J. O.J. was big.

That's right.

Black people too happy, white people too mad.

Every time I see that walk, I think he did it. You see him?

-He used to do that... -(laughter)

Oh, no! O.J. has struck again.

-How about that? -(laughter)

(applause, whooping)

How the (bleep) I'm-a drop a glove

-at the scene of the crime? -(laughter, applause)

He hit his first wife. He didn't kill her.

-Ah! Okay. Yeah. -(laughter)

DAVID: The hardest part is,

let's say you're watching a sitcom.

Wouldn't you know it? It won't fit.

-Ooh! -Aah! Oh, my God!

-It doesn't fit. -Look at that.

If Chewbacca lives on Endor, you must acquit.

damn, I hate that Cochran guy.

You know, it's-it's just ridiculous.

And it wasn't a joke to me.

Yeah, it's two people that lost their lives

by somebody's hand.

There was so much stuff going on

and dirt and trash and this and that.

It was just ridiculous.

Everything was just real ridiculous.

It was overblown and, um...

nonsensical, really.

Because it didn't have to do...

with the murder

of Ron and Nicole.

NEWSMAN: The prosecution's diary of Nicole's terror

are a key part of the D.A.'s case.

NEWSWOMAN: Reports are, the brutal imags

were tucked away here in a safe deposit box.

NEWTON: What became more clear,

especially once the contents of the safe deposit box

were revealed,

was that Nicole had been injured on occasion.

Her diary and the letters from Simpson-

I mean, all of it just gave illumination to,

really, a protracted, violent, threatening marriage.

It was not in the defense's interest

to vilify Nicole Simpson, exactly.

Um, but it was in their interest to...

portray her as sort of an equal participant in the violence.

BLASIER: My name is Robert Blasier.

Uh, I am a defense attorney.

I was one of the attorneys

in both the criminal and civil O.J. Simpson case.

The evidence seemed to be

pretty clear that, uh,

Nicole Brown Simpson and-and O.J. Simpson

had a very violent situation between the two of them.

It wasn't, kind of, one person dominates

and the other person is submissive.

They were both very forceful-type people.

In situations where there's domestic violence,

homicides generally don't result.

NEWSMAN: For two days now, the diary,

or "divorce memo," as the defense calls it,

has been the topic of the live TV court coverag.

MAN: According to the defense, this is not a diary.

This document is

something prepared by Nicole Simpson

for use by her divorce lawyer years later.

They were trying to get rid of a lot of the evidence.

I decided to go upstairs

and I went with this young girl

and I said, "I want to speak."

It was clear that Denise Brown's comments were not spontaneous.

In fact, she came up

to the 18th floor of the Criminal Courts Buildin,

made her way down this hallway

into the office of City News Service,

and sought out reporter Shoreen Maghame.

All of a sudden, Denise is there.

It wasn't a long interview. She left pretty quickly.

And some of the other reporters who were there got wind of it

and they started coming in, asking her questions, too,

but she ended up leaving.

And I remember she said...

Her famous quote from that was...

LALAMA (reading):

Clearly, Denise Brown is a, uh,

relative of a victim

and she's not a lawyer.

JUDIE: Denise became kind of the...

spokesperson for everybody.

And, um... Mini

was more reticent to discuss any...

any of it.

I was taking care of the kids

and I was doing things.

You know, call it distraction,

call it coping, call it...

...playing.

We played.

(inhales deeply)

And we played and we played.

We're gonna play?

Are we gonna play?

DOMINIQUE: Until...

we couldn't play anymore.

D'ANNE: I remember Dominique told me, she said,

"I had to go in and ask to see pictures of..."

"...Nicole's body because

I just could not get angry at O.J."

She loved him. They were family.

There were a lot of tears and more stories of physical abuse

today in court as Nicole's sister Denise took the stand.

NEWSWOMAN: Denise Brown's ex-boyfriend

Stuart Chesler

watched her tearful testimony

of abuse.

CHESLER: This is hard for her to do.

Hang in there, Denise.

The journals, the notes,

the diaries, they did not make it in.

I was the only one that made it into the criminal trial.

DARDEN: The People call Denise Brown.

DENISE: I was asked because I was a part of

knowing about the abuse,

knowing about the domestic violence in her life.

And I was there when it happened.

Grabbed Nicole, told her to get out of his house.

Wanted us all out of his house.

Picked her up, threw her against a wall.

DENISE: It wasn't just our family, it was media, too,

and strange people.

And you're sitting there and you're talking

and then you're crying, and it was just

so friggin' scary.

And then I saw my father,

and my father was crying.

Tears were coming down his fac.

I thought, "Oh, my poor dad has to

"watch me up on the stand doing this.

Oh, my God, I just don't want him hurting."

He was hurting enough.

O.J. did not react at all.

He stayed stone-faced.

The jury was also--

Well, they had been instructed by Judge Ito

not to react at all, so they did not react.

But at the end of the day, it did absolutely no good

because one of the jurors turned around and said,

"Well, this wasn't a domestic violence case."

Why are you putting me up on the stand if you're not

going to educate these people on what domestic violence is

and that domestic violence can kill?

NEWSWOMAN: We'll have more reaction to

Denise Brown's testimony tomorrow.

Now, A Current Affair proves we don't horse around

when it comes to getting actio.

The average juror did not understand the complexity

of domestic violence.

It was easy to continue to blame.

"If she had just been a better wife

from day one..."

"...she'd still be alive."

Even in her grave, Nicole was being blamed

for his actions.

Entertainment Tonight has obtained exclusive access

to Monday's front-page story in the National Enquirer.

Nicole had six abortions

rather than bring another child into their marriage.

She started screaming at me, "Mother-bleeper!"

You know, "If you're going to do this to me,

"why don't you pick somebody pretty?

She's a mother-bleeping dog."

Nicole's writing is large and rounded.

Someone who writes this way needs attention and approval.

The evidence will be, these ladies would go out

two, three, four nights a week

and stay out till 5:00 in the morning.

There's a group of them, and you'll hear about it.

They'd go out dancing, they'd do whatever they would do.

And we know Faye Resnick was using drugs

in this period of time.

Nobody was controlling these women.

The defense put on this big smear campaign

about Nicole

and about the kind of person that she was.

It was nothing like who she was.

All the pictures that were coming out of her

were in a bikini or in a modeling shot.

You know, in an alluring kind of way.

She went from being a victim

of domestic violence and murder to being a whore.

You'd go to dinner and you'd hear someone

sitting at another table say,

"Oh, I'm sure it was that she, you know,

she was hanging around... drug dealers."

I mean, you just hear the stuff that they're--

that the defense is spewing.

And I hold him responsible because

he wanted them to do it.

Some of the people that were in our circle

were so in awe of him

or, you know, idolized him so much

that they couldn't grasp the fact that he could

do something like this.

You were in one camp or the other camp.

You were Team O.J. or Team Nicole.

And it just divided the whole community.

There wasn't a lot of people

that you could trust at this point

because you didn't know who you could trust.

You know, we didn't know who's talking to the media,

who's going to say something,

who's going to do something.

There was a group of women that were,

you know, around.

I-I just never bonded with them.

They were so different from all our friends

that we grew up with down in Laguna.

They weren't-- they weren't our people.

NEWSMAN: There's another nw book in the works about Nicol.

It's being written by one of her closest friends

Cora Fischman.

And Cora Fischman says that Nicole

was not entirely blameless.

Nicole used to tell me, I mean, she herself abused O.J.

I mean, and O.J. told me one time,

"I feel like a battered husband."

So, I mean, it was both ways.

One of the plausible or possible explanations would be

that Mr. Simpson

has successfully influenced her

to alter or change

some of her testimony.

At one point, one of Nicole's friends,

she was flailing out in front of the media

and just doing her thing and, "Ah, ah!"

And she came knocking at the door and I answered the door.

That was Nicole's friend Cora.

I don't know who did it, no.

REPORTER: She was your friend?

CORA (sobbing): Please stop...

I was not gonna put up with anybody

doing any kind of their song and dance

with the media and then thinking

that they were gonna come into Nicole's house and do what?

I didn't want to have anythig to do with her.

So I wouldn't be surprised if she became

Team Simpson after that

because, you know, she wasn't welcome.

After he got arrested, he was trying to get A.C.

to call her friends. He called me to come see O.J.

"O.J. wants to talk to you."

I said, "A.C., I don't want to talk to O.J."

You know, O.J. thought that his, you know,

with his charisma, that he's going to charm us all

into thinking that he didn't do it.

I was upset that A.C. sided with O.J.

and that he was still carrying his water.

And the fact that he would kind of...

...give O.J. a pass on her murder

kind of blew my mind.

It was like, why would someone do that?

But then I think to myself,

a lot of those guys did that.

A lot of those guys just...

She was just another girl,

and he was O.J.

A.C.: Thank you.

Thank you for coming out this afternoon.

As you know, I've been very reluctant to speak to the media.

I feel that the media has consistently

sensationalized the facts

and negatively exploded--

exploited the many aspects of this tragedy.

A.C. was there for a lot of stuff.

So that's why I didn't understand why A.C.

didn't stick up for her after he murdered her.

I just didn't get it and I couldn't

talk to him anymore.

I didn't want to have anything to do with him

because I just thought, "You know what?

"You abandoned Nicole.

"You abandoned your best frien.

And you have to live with that."

So, in my personal effort

to lend the truth and the sanity,

I've chosen to speak to the public directly,

via a 900-CALL-AC program.

I will share with the callers my life experiences with O.J.,

from our childhood through our NFL days,

my close relationship with Nicole,

and my views on the media.

I totally believe in my friend's innocence.

Yeah, I'm not the type of person that forgets easily,

and I certainly don't forgive.

During the trial, David and I weren't allowed

to be called up on the stand

because Lou and Judi and Denis,

they wanted the kids to be able to see us freely.

We were horseback riding, and Justin

was talking very freely with me,

as they both did.

He was saying how much he missed his mom.

Then he said, "Well, you know, D'Anne,

I miss my dad, too."

And I thought he almost thought I was going to reject him,

because they didn't really understand

what was going on, and I didn't.

And I said, "You know, I understand that.

He will always be your daddy."

And you could see it, he relaxed.

The kids really didn't understand

what was going on at the time.

I think that Black folk saw reasonable doubt based upon

a history, an experience of seeing racist cops convict,

plant evidence on Black folks, who we know in our lives.

Prior to Nicole's murder,

L.A. had been in a pretty tumultuous run.

There was a lot of strife between

the Black community and the police department

for the Rodney King beating et al., you know,

and we had had the riots.

There was just a lot of tension in the city.

HINTON: Black and brown communities in L.A.

had long complained about their treatment by police

to authorities, to the publi, largely on deaf ears.

You know, time and time again,

the response is that somehow

the idea of police brutality is a figment of

Black people's imagination.

Despite the undeniable evidence of the video,

there was no justice for Black people.

NEWSWOMAN: 7:00 a.m. at Camp O.J., the trucks are up.

Cameras, mics and lights are everywhere.

It is shortly before noon, Chicago time,

and history is in the making.

MAGHAME: The verdict was one of those moments

in American history

where you remember where you were when it happened.

151 million people tuned in lie

to watch the verdict.

DENISE: I remember Judge Ito

telling all of us,

"Do not make a noise, do not react.

"Nothing.

There has to be silence in my courtroom."

The only way I can explain it is like

going up a roller coaster, the anticipation.

Your heart's racing,

you know that whatever goes up comes down.

And it's that... (exhales) that you're waiting for that drop.

And then the drop happened.

On this shift, we'll take you right through the verdict.

Mr. Simpson has now come back to the courtroom.

OPRAH: We, just like

the rest of the country, are waiting to hear it live

for the very first time.

CLERK: In the matter of the People of the State of California

v. Orenthal James Simpson,

case number BA097211...

...we, the jury, in the above-entitled action,

find the defendant Orenjal-- Orenthal James Simpson

-not guilty of the crime of murder... -(cheering)

...in violation of penal code section 187(A),

a felony, upon Nicole Brown Simpson,

a human being, as charged in Count I of the information.

All of a sudden, when the verdict was read,

I heard Kim Goldman scream.

(crying)

CLERK: We, the jury, in the above-entitled action,

further find the special circumstance

that the defendant Orenthal James Simpson...

DENISE: We were all sitting there in shock.

I couldn't cry.

I couldn't do anything. I couldn't move.

DOMINIQUE: I was shocked.

I don't know.

Relieved, disappointed, angry.

I mean, did-did you really want him to be guilty?

Did you not want him to be guilty?

It's a... it's a tough question.

I remember going home

and going and picking up our kids from school,

and people were... cheering.

(cheering, screaming)

(horn honking)

There was nothing to cheer about.

Nothing.

(sniffles)

Uh, the jury heard, uh, the evidence

and rendered its verdict.

At this moment, our thoughts and prayers

should be with the families

of the victims of this terrible crime.

In the car, going home,

Judi said to all of us,

"I don't want one tear in front of the kids.

"I want you all to put on a happy face.

Remember, this is their father"

We think about the verdict,

and all I remember was her

teaching us how to be a mom.

NEWSMAN: O.J. was driven home yesterdy in this white van.

As it stopped in traffic, Simpson was approached

by a camera crew and bystander.

NEWSMAN 2: Today, reporters and onlookers crowded outside

360 North Rockingham Drive,

hoping to get a glimpse of O.J. Simpson.

When Simpson came home,

there's a massive influx of people.

(indistinct chatter)

Tourists. No, I saw license plates from Kansas

and from, you know, Ohio and all over the country

would drive out to take a road trip out to see O.J.'s house.

The department had to allocae millions of dollars

in overtime to pay officers to work these locations.

It was a circus,

a literal circus.

D'ANNE: When he got out of jail, he kept

voicing how important it was because he wanted to get home

to be with Sydney during her birthday.

So he got out and went

to the Browns, picked up Sydney and them, and took them

to Never Neverland, to Michael Jackson's property.

She was showing me, "Look, he bought me this..."

It was a big stereo system, and...

"And I asked him, 'Next time we go,

can we take Joey and Derek to Never Neverland?'"

I-I sat down with her and I said,

"Sydney, you have to understand

"that I will never let my boys go be with your dad,

"because I believe your dad killed your mother.

And I can't let my children go there."

She just kind of looked at me and said, "Yeah, yeah, I know."

And she got up and she ran out of the room.

Lou and Judi were so afraid of losing those two kids.

You know, 'cause a-at any time, he could have said, "That's it,"

you know, "they're minors,

you don't get to see 'em anymore."

So they played the game

so that they would be able to be with their grandchildren.

I, unfortunately, I just, I couldn't lie.

I couldn't play the game.

The children, what will happen next with them?

Sydney asked me today, she says, "Do I have to leave?"

And I said, "Maybe."

But at least they have one parent to, uh,

to back up, uh, their life.

DENISE: The problem with that one parent, though,

is that he is a batterer.

And that is the only thing-- nobody can take that away.

It was a wild time, for three years.

It wasn't just the criminal trial.

Then we also had a civil trial.

It's something we wanted to hear since...

two and a half years.

And...

it finally came.

We know justice will be done someday.

Before that, we also had a child custody trial.

When, uh, Simpson was arrested, he had signed an agreement

that, uh, the Browns would retain custody of the kids.

After that, the Browns decided, even though Simpson

was acquitted, they knew in their minds

that he had murdered the kids' mother.

Even though they knew they didn't have

a legal right at that point,

they fought to keep the kids because they knew

they'd raise the kids better than Simpson would.

Part of the evidence introduced by the Browns' attorney

was a fictional...

story that eight-year-old Justin wrote

about a father murdering his mother.

Children know sometimes.

They know.

It was heartbreaking to see that the things

that were very, very important

were not allowed into the child custody case,

especially the way that Nicole had been treated.

Why should custody have been changed now to someone

who is accused of the wrongful death of the children's mother?

The fact that he is a convicted wife batterer means

that he may present a risk of harm to these children.

That was the Christmas that they decided

that they were gonna take the children away from us.

We had Christmas Eve with them, and on Christmas Day

he came to pick them up.

And it was my mom and I,

we were standing out on the driveway...

Oh, God, I'm gonna cry again.

Justin...

Justin went up to my mom,

and he handed her a piece of chocolate.

(crying)

He said, "Dita, it's gonna be okay."

We started walking into the house together,

and I just thought,

"That's the nastiest thing anybody could ever do.

"Couldn't you just wait until after Christmas?

Why couldn't you wait another day?"

It was just awful. It was just to hurt my mom.

My mom was very good at putting things aside.

She never shook his hand, didn't kiss him hello.

It was just seeing him, talking to him

about the kids, talking on the telephone,

only about the kids.

Many people in this country consider you a pariah.

I'm constantly having people hugging and touching me

and buying me drinks and-and encouraging me

to take care of the kids and move on.

We would hear stories about him going to restaurants

that were popular in West Hollywood

or somewhere else and being asked to leave.

One thing in particular that struck me

was, the Brentwood News ran a column

by its editor and publisher Jeff Hall,

who wrote kind of an open letter to O.J.,

and it said,

"The trial's over.

"Could you go to Mexico for a while

and just leave us alone?"

He sort of said the quiet part out loud

that a lot of people in Brentwood, I think, felt.

Because the trial was about more than O.J.,

it was easier to kind of forget about O.J.

when the reality of, you know,

a supposedly destitute existence kind of set in.

I mean, he, you know, O.J. kind of became a joke.

Yeah, how are you doing? Yeah-- oh... thank you.

-Very nice meeting you. -Doesn't that hurt?

-Huh? -Doesn't that hurt your feelings?

No.

You're planning to move to Miami. Why?

I-I was constantly trying to move to Miami.

I was moving to Miami before this happened. I like Florida.

Do they talk with you or ask you

-about their mother's murder? -No, they don't.

-Never? -Never.

-It never comes up? -It never comes up.

Like most kids, uh, they don't look back,

they look forward.

I remember a phone call

that Simpson made to my mother, and he just says,

"I can't make a life here for the kids.

You got to let 'em move."

I mean, he was really, like, being a bully.

My mom, I guess, when, uh, the kids came back down,

had a conversation with them, and Sydney said,

"Oh, God, Dita, I would love to move to Florida.

I would love to go."

And once my mom heard that, she said, "Absolutely."

She goes, "They can go." They wanted to go.

In August of 2000,

they ended up moving to Florid.

My mom wasn't gonna fight anymore.

She was sick and tired of cour.

She didn't want to fight anymore.

She wanted the kids to be happ.

Devastating. Really hard for her.

Yeah.

I just remember her having her nights crying.

That was a piece of Nicole, you know?

And, uh...

And then they were gone.

NEWSWOMAN: Simpson did not go quietly into the sunset.

When he left his home in Southern California

and moved to a new life in Florida,

Simpson could not stay out of trouble.

MAN: You okay?

When they moved to Florida,

I lost touch with them.

Yeah, that was really unfortunate.

I-I just stayed away from the news as far as anything

that had to do with O.J. and any drama

or any antics that were going on.

I completely stayed away from everything.

I'm, I'm aware of a call--

one 911 call that happened in Florida from Sydney.

Just one. That's all I know of.

But I do remember, I think,

him kind of pooh-poohing at a teenager

not getting what she wants.

We were definitely worried for her safety.

Definitely scared to death, thinking,

"Oh, my God, what's gonna happen?"

You know? She's a lot like her mother.

Is he going to do something to her?

Nicole was not-- she was not a wallflower.

She spoke her mind. She spoke her piece.

Sydney does the same thing.

In Florida?

(chuckles)

That's news to me. Honestly, that's news to me.

Okay.

Oh, my God.

NEWSWOMAN: Would he finally quiet down

and stay out of the public eye?

Not exactly.

In 2001, the FBI raided Simpson's house

investigating Ecstasy smugglin.

My name is Gary Loeffert.

I'm a retired special agent with the FBI.

My name is Chris Piersza,

and I joined the FBI in 1998.

That's where we met.

That's when we started working all our cases together,

sort of as, uh, squad mates and partners.

So in 1999, uh, we had a, uh, an individual

who was laundering money, uh,

with one of our sources in the Miami area.

So the first wiretap, uh, we did was we went up

on an individual named John Thorburn.

He was basically involved in MDMA.

Uh, sales, purchases, um,

and he would distribute out by South Beach.

We quickly realized that, uh, Andrew Anderson was

supplying John Thorburn, um, with the Ecstasy.

He was higher, higher in the organization.

Anderson was our next logical target

for, uh, wiretap coverage.

So one of the steps you take is initiating a pen register.

A pen register simply gives digits dialed by a telephone.

On Anderson's, uh, numbers dialed,

the most frequently numbers dialed,

it said O.J. Simpson.

So that's how, how we first knw

that he was gonna come into our investigation.

He came to us. We never went to him.

One of the first things

that surveillance teams were reporting back to us were

that O.J. Simpson was frequently,

uh, with Andrew Anderson.

O.J. Simpson and Andrew Anderson would go to movies together.

I mean, they were, clearly, uh, very good friends.

O.J. Simpson did, uh, receive MDMA,

Ecstasy, um, and other narcotis from Andrew Anderson.

He was a user.

Widespread allegations O.J. also abused cocaine.

NEWSMAN: Newsweek wrote that Nicole believed

O.J. was a drug addict

who suffered from wild mood swings.

We executed nine search warrants on December 4, 2001.

Mr. Simpson's house was

part of a search warrant application

because of his relationship with Andrew Anderson,

and the presence of Anderson at his home many--

on many occasions, and the receiving of narcotics.

We get the warrant and like that, on the same day,

at the same time, very early in the predawn hours,

we execute the search

on Mr. Simpson's house.

A reporter, uh, was already there.

Obviously, there was a leak in the case.

We don't know where it came from,

we don't know how it happened.

Someone knew this was gonna happen at that time.

He was home, his children were home.

At the time, the search went on without incident.

He was seen through surveillane

in the rear of his home by his pool, pacing around.

We recovered, I-I think,

some small amounts of marijuana residue.

That's all that we recovered from that house on that date.

Were they tipped off? I can't tell you to prove that,

but people were warned.

LOEFFERT: After the search warrant concluded,

I spoke to the team leader,

the agent who was overseeing

the search at Mr. Simpson's residence,

and I asked about the children, you know, were they okay?

And he said, "They seemed ambivalent

and, uh,

kind of went, you know, got ready for school

and then someone took them to school.

PIERSZA: Andrew Anderson did stay several nights

at O.J. Simpson's house periodically.

And there were occasions where Andrew Anderson drove

Mr. Simpson's, uh, children to school.

I wouldn't let my kids stay at that house,

but that's what was going on there, yes.

♪

It makes me angry to think

that the kids would have been subjected to things like that.

And when we were in child-child custody case,

they said that we weren't suitable.

Is, was the-the reasoning behind it

that we weren't suitable

to be parents to them?

And then, this is what they're subjected to?

Yeah, it makes me really angry.

Makes me really angry.

Those poor kids have been

through a lot of stuff.

Who was there to protect them?

There is a lot of irony

that Nicole was portrayed as the party girl

when O.J.'s house is getting raided for drugs.

(voice breaking): God, that's so freaking heartbreaking

to think that they had to live like that.

And I didn't even know the half of it.

And then he wanted to take them.

God, I wish my mom would have said no.

God, how awful.

God, I can't even imagine what their life was like.

I know this happens to other children in the world.

I know that they see horrible things,

but, God, when it hits so close to home,

I mean, you just want to grab them and just...

DOMINIQUE: Denise's son Sean and my son

lost their aunt, who we were with all the tim.

Rocks? Let's see your rocks, Seaners.

-Let's see. -SYDNEY: There you are.

DOMINIQUE: That's a big deal

with their little hearts.

DENISE: She didn't get to see them grow up.

She didn't get to see them have kids

and have a life and graduate.

And he killed her before she could do anything.

[inhales, sobs]

I was just so sure he was gonna go to jail.

I thought he would, I...

So I didn't think my friendship with the kids would be changed.

But it was.

Maybe five to eight years after,

that was the last time that I saw Sydney.

And I want her to know

that I love her and her brother very much.

And I would never do anything to harm them.

Does she?

See, I don't even know.

I don't even know that.

I'm happy for her.

How about, how about...

(sniffles) ...Justin?

Oh. You know, I got to tell you,

Nicole would have been the best grandma ever.

♪

D'ANNE: I... (sniffles)

I'm so happy for both of them.

I really am.

God, I'm sorry for Nicole.

NICOLE: You know what? You're gonna love these tapes

when you get older,

especially when you have kids.

NEWSMAN: Near the Bundy cond, 1,500 protesters gathered.

Nicole's sister Denise helped lead the charge.

If he ever says he's going to kill you,

eventually, one day he will.

They do kill.

When I started going out and speaking, it was...

It was about the injustice that was happening to my sister.

There was such an injustice

in how they were painting her

as this party girl.

They were painting her as this person that she was not.

Denise didn't understand what she does now about abuse.

She became an expert.

She learned about what's happening, really learned,

and consulted and joined forces with other people,

and-and they got stuff done.

I could see this protective,

valiant, strong older sister

who knew that she had to be the spokesperson for the family.

That's kind of where it all started.

And she says, do you want to do this?

I said, yes, let's do it.

We would schedule

all across America at that tim.

We counted 45 states.

After reading her notes and diaries,

we realized that Nicole was a battered woman.

My hope is that domestic violence will be stopped.

My hope's that, uh, people will understand

that if he hits you once, he will hit you again.

If we can save one life,

I'll be a very, very happy person.

We were supposed to be going to, I think, Cleveland.

I get this strange call.

I said, I think this is D.C.

And he says, hi, this is Chris, uh,

from Senator Joe Biden's office.

I said, oh, hi.

And he said, is it possible

to have Ms. Brown here tomorrow morning?

They desperately needed Denise to, uh, come help them

save the Violence Against Women Act.

You know, the Violence Against Women Act was being written,

it was being, it was being pushed through Congress.

It had stalled in 1994.

The critical factor to get the bill moving again

was that Denise Brown was brought in to testify.

That was probably the scariest thing ever

besides going into the criminal court and being on the stand.

But walking in there

and seeing this and going, oh, my God.

Oh, my God, this is really crazy.

It is the women whose deaths

don't make it on the evening news

who are counting on this Congress to do what is right.

Nicole's murder really helped increase national awareness

and support for the Violence Against Women Act.

And I think also very clearly showed the way that

domestic abuse can escalate to murder.

DENISE: I thought, I couldn't help Nicole,

but maybe I can save another life.

And it's a dirty little secret that nobody wants to talk about.

I said, no, we're gonna talk about it.

I go to, um, to the prisons, I-I see the batterers.

I see the victims. I go to the shelters.

I see the little children, I see the looks on their faces.

What I did, and moving forward

and trying to help victims of domestic violence,

did he try to do anything like that?

WOMAN: Whoa!

-See that yellow flag? -Yeah.

-That's amazing-- -♪ They call me Juice ♪

♪ The Juice. ♪

DENISE: All he cared about was going on the golf course

and trying to find the killer.

"I will pursue, as my primary goal in life,

"the killer or killers

who slaughtered Nicole and Mr. Goldman."

Victims of domestic violence

were a heck of a lot more important

than trying to find the killer

when he's staring you right in the face.

You know, every day, you wake up in the morning

and you look at yourself in the mirror and there you are.

Hello. We found you.

O.J. said to me that he, uh, had a surprise for me.

I think it was his idea of a joke.

My producer said he was looking for a knife,

uh, from somebody who had ordered room service,

but he couldn't find one.

He decided to stab me with a banana.

And this is it.

(imitating Psycho score)

Sydney used to tell me when they got older

that any time anybody went on TV and made statements

that they would get more meda following them around

and they didn't like it.

I-I know they don't like being reminded of it, at all.

And certain things that have been written and so on,

they were resentful about reading.

And I don't blame them.

They just want to be normal, normal kids

and just raise families.

And I think that's primarily why they haven't been in the media.

They haven't spoken to the media,

and they don't like the media.

They say that as soon as there's anything

in the media, they get hounded.

At least that's what Sydney says.

So, Denise and I didn't talk for a long time.

Yeah, when she got more public,

we didn't talk for years.

I think it was harder for me or for our relationship

with the kids because I was so vocal on talking

about his guilt and saying he was guilty.

And then I was talking about Sydney and Justin

and I don't think they like that very much, either.

If I didn't go out and speak,

I was letting my sister down.

If I did go out and speak, I was letting them down.

I wouldn't be a sister, a real, true sister,

and love my sister as much as I did

if I wouldn't do this for her.

♪

FAYE: It was like the end of innocence.

It was like all of a sudden we had to grow up

in a terrible world.

And see terrible things.

I want to exorcise

from my mind

a girl laying on the sidewalk in a little black dress

and a pool of blood,

because that's not who she was.

JUDIE: I would like Nicole to be remembered

for a beautiful, vibrant,

authentic daughter,

wife, mother and someone

to be admired for all her good qualities.

KRIS: And just so generous and just so willing

to give of herself and her heart and her time

and help anybody that needed it.

JIM: She was humble. She was fun.

And a true friend.

She would defend you to the ends of the earth.

I know I've said it a "thousand times" thing,

but she was, she's--

She's that picture of Mom of the Year.

She's it.

I hope that by keeping her memory alive,

the person that she really was,

that maybe it could help

someone else out there

that is another Nicole

get out of something that might

ruin their lives or take their lives.

D'ANNE: Nicole was truly one of the special people

that welcomes you into her home and her family.

And I want the world to know that we missed out.

We all missed out.

I-I just...

cathartically want to talk about her,

talk about who she was, what she was to me,

what she was to other people,

and how I will never, ever regret meeting her.

No one should be remembered for their last moments,

their last hours, their last day.

Everyone should be remembered for all that went before that.

And with Nicole, there were beautiful times.

And she's a beautiful person.

And we all are finite.

So, remember while we were here, not how we left.

PRODUCER: A-cam speeds.

-Are you ready? -AD: 10/13.

Speed.

PRODUCER: Thank you, thank you.

You know, it's funny, because I was angry

for probably 13 years after Nicole's murder.

But I realized while we were here,

I still have a lot of anger in me, you know?

And then you have to sit there and you have to think,

okay, well, there was great things, too,

and there was nice people, too, and things like that.

So, it took me probably about 13 years.

What gets me is that I was getting the point to...

I was getting to know her.

And it was really a shame because I was...

I was looking forward to that, doing more of that, like,

hey, Nic, let's go do lunch, you know?

Let's do coffee, or, you know,

I'll come up and spend some time.

-And that's what I missed out on. -DOMINIQUE: Yeah.

You're so afraid that you're gonna forget someone.

DENISE: Yeah.

Because you're afraid that so much time passes

that you're not gonna remember

what their voice sounds like.

And I remember, you know?

-It feels really good to me. -Oh, that's nice.

-It feels really good to me. -Oh, I'm so glad. Yeah.

CAPTIONING PROVIDED BY A+E NETWORKS

♪

-Mwah. -(cooing)