OJ Simpson's civil trial officially got under way yesterday with a judge imposing strict limits on the defence team's plan to depict the former football star as the victim of a conspiracy led by a racist policeman.
In a barrage of rapid fire rulings, Judge Hiroshi Fujisaki dealt Simpson's attorneys a series of setbacks in their efforts to replay in the civil court the same controversial theories that led to his acquittal in the murders of his ex-wife and her friend.
Nearly a year later, the case was back in court, but with two glaring absences Simpson himself and the TV cameras.
Simpson faces a wrongful death lawsuit brought by the victims' families that accuses him of being responsible and financially liable for the June 12th, 1994, murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman.
Due to a clash in court dates, Simpson was 40 miles away in an Orange County courtroom where he is fighting his former in laws for custody of the two young children he had with his slain ex-wife. Jury selection is to begin today.
Simpson's civil trial began with more than 36 rulings by Judge Fujisaki. Most of the decisions went in favour of the families but Judge Fujisaki also gave Simpson several victories, including allowing videotaped testimony by forensics expert Henry Lee, a star witness in the criminal trial.
In another setback for the defence, the judge rejected a defence motion to exclude evidence of Simpson's history of domestic violence against his ex-wife. Judge Fujisaki also ruled out a general attack on evidence handling procedures and said the defence could only raise allegations of planted evidence if it could provide solid proof.
Cameras and microphones have been banned from the courtroom. Unlike the criminal trial, which required "proof beyond a reasonable doubt", the plaintiffs in the civil trial will win if they can prove there is a 50.1 percent probability that Simpson committed the murders.