Simpson lawyers expect to see witness again

Published Tuesday, September 16, 2008

LAS VEGAS (AP) - Lawyers for O.J. Simpson were expecting to take another crack at cross-examining an alleged robbery-kidnapping victim after his first time on the stand was cut short by illness.

Today, the court expected to call Bruce Fromong again and perhaps other witnesses who could set the stage for the jury to hear from Thomas Riccio, the collectibles broker who arranged a hotel-room meeting between Simpson and memorabilia peddlers Fromong and Alfred Beardsley a year ago when the pair said they were robbed at gunpoint.

"The prosecution may change witness order a little bit, but I would expect Tom Riccio" today or tomorrow, Simpson attorney Yale Galanter said.

Fromong, 54, became "lightheaded, dizzy and started to sweat," said his lawyer, Louis Schneider, before Clark County District Court Judge Jackie Glass sent the jury out of the room and suspended his testimony.

Fromong has had four heart attacks in the past year, said Schneider, who described his client as "medically fragile." Paramedics examined Fromong in the courthouse hallway but left without taking him to a hospital.

The break interrupted a cross-examination by Simpson lawyer Gabriel Grasso, who bored in after Fromong said for the first time he heard "somebody in the room saying, ‘Put the gun down.’ "

Fromong said he didn’t know who uttered the words and acknowledged under questioning that he never mentioned it to police last September or at a preliminary hearing in November.