01/13/97 - 07:43 PM ET - Click reload often for latest version

Letter: Nicole wrote O.J. 'beat holy hell' out of her

SANTA MONICA, Calif. - Nicole Brown Simpson wrote that O.J. Simpson "beat the holy hell out of me," in a letter introduced Monday in a surprise attack by plaintiffs in Simpson's wrongful death trial.

The letter incited some of the most angry arguments of recent days between plaintiff and defense lawyers and the judge at first waffled on whether it should be admitted at all. It is undated and defense attorney Robert Baker said it was never delivered to Simpson.

At first, Judge Hiroshi Fujisaki indicated he wouldn't allow the letter to be read for jurors. But after more argument he allowed it - with a warning to jurors that it could be used only to understand victim's state of mind.

Portions of the letter read in court showed Ms. Simpson recounting arguments the often-battling couple.

"O.J., I think I have to put this all in a letter," Ms. Simpson wrote. "I'd like you to keep this letter if we split ... I'd also like you to keep it if we stay together as a reminder."

Questioned about the letter by plaintiff attorney Daniel Petrocelli, Simpson testified he never saw it until after he was arrested and in jail in 1994.

He said he believed the letter was written at the behest of Ms. Simpson's lawyers in the months leading to their divorce in 1992, and was intended to force him to tear up their prenuptial agreement.

A part of the letter that wasn't immediately read to jurors referred to a September 1986 incident in which Ms. Simpson went to a hospital with an abrasion on the back of her head.

"There was also that time you beat the holy hell out of me. You told the X-ray lab I fell off a bike," the letter said.

She also referred to "the New Year's Eve beat-up," a reference to a 1989 fight that brought police to Simpson's estate and led to him pleading no-contest to spousal battery.

"I called the cops to save my life, whether you believe it or not," she wrote.

The letter concluded, "I've never loved you since or been the same."

The judge said he would caution the jury not to consider the letter for "the truth of the matter" discussed, but only if it would explain Ms. Simpson's conduct.

Baker argued it shouldn't be allowed.

Petrocelli said the letter explains Ms. Simpson's conduct and feelings about the relationship. He said he was using it to rebut Simpson's claim that he had rejected Ms. Simpson rather than vice versa.

By The Associated Press
