JUST LIKE STARTING OVER

By ELAINE LAFFERTY/SANTA MONICA

Finally, the end appeared to be in sight: the O.J. Simpson civil trial had been handed over to the jury. Then suddenly, some 14 hours into deliberations, a flurry of strange problems arose, delaying and threatening to derail the four-month-old trial.

The first indication that something was amiss came Thursday, when Judge Hiroshi Fujisaki called two jurors into chambers to question them about letters sent to them by Brenda Moran and Gina Rhodes Rossborough, two jurors in the Simpson criminal trial. The letters offered moral support and touted the services of a particular media agent. Fujisaki immediately launched an investigation into the matter, since it is illegal to attempt to contact jurors. A team of Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies armed with a search warrant confiscated Moran's computer and files from her home. Moran admitted that she wrote part of the letter but said she thought it would be sent after the civil verdict was reached. Attorneys for the plaintiffs went on red alert, concerned about a possible pernicious attempt by someone to cause a mistrial. According to a source close to the trial, "The longer these deliberations go on, the more danger we have that someone could compromise our jury."

The next day, after a 90-minute hearing closed to the press, Fujisaki dismissed the panel's only African-American juror, Rosemary Caraway, 62, a retired telephone-company dispatcher, over the objections of the lawyers representing the families of Ronald Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson. The court had learned that the woman had failed to disclose that her daughter worked as a secretary in the office of Los Angeles District Attorney Gil Garcetti, who prosecuted Simpson in the criminal case.

Simpson lawyer Robert Baker moved for a mistrial, which was denied. Plaintiffs' attorney Daniel Petrocelli asked Fujisaki to sequester the jury for the remainder of their deliberations, citing the likelihood of further interference from aggressive tabloid reporters and book agents, several of whom quickly offered five-figure sums to the dismissed juror for an interview. Fujisaki declined, although he did revoke the courtroom pass of a Los Angeles TV station whose camera crew attempted to follow the jurors' van from the courthouse. He ordered the jurors to avoid all radio, television and newspapers until they reached a verdict.

In onerous deference to the newest member, an Asian-American male in his 30s, the jury will begin deliberations anew, disregarding all previous discussions. The restart frustrated everyone involved. The media has been camped out at the courthouse and at an adjacent hotel with nothing to do but report over and over that everyone was still waiting for a verdict. Members of the Goldman family tried to go about their business, but they too were tethered to their cellular phones and pagers, waiting for word. The Brown family was in worse straits, as they lost a bid to stay the decision awarding custody of Sydney and Justin Simpson to their father. Only Simpson seemed to have a strategy for coping with the tension. Fielding media requests for postverdict interviews, he reiterated that he needed money and would consider speaking only for cash. Beyond that, friends said, he was busy playing golf.

--By Elaine Lafferty/Santa Monica