Furhman facing perjury investigation

The Associated Press

LOS ANGELES Ÿ The California attorney general will investigate allegations that former Detective Mark Furhman committed perjury during the O.J. Simpson trial, District Attorney Gil Garcetti said yesterday.

Garcetti asked Attorney General Dan Lungren to handle the case last week, saying it was necessary to avoid any conflict of interest in his office.

''I have every confidence that the Attorney General's Office will make a fair and proper decision,'' Garcetti said in a statement.

Simpson's attorneys contend that Fuhrman committed perjury when he testified that he had not used a certain racial epithet during the previous 10 years.

The defense later showed that Fuhrman used the term in audiotaped interviews with an aspiring screenwriter. Portions of the tapes were played in the courtroom as the defense team attacked Fuhrman's credibility.

The defense argued that Fuhrman, who is white, is a racist who planted a bloody glove and other evidence at Simpson's Brentwood mansion. Simpson was acquitted on Oct. 3 of charges he murdered his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman.

A perjury conviction carries a maximum penalty of four years in prison, said Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for the district attorney's office.

Fuhrman retired from the Los Angeles Police Department before the Simpson trial ended.

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