Bill Pavelic | William Bill Pavelic | Zvonko Bill Pavelic

March 3, 1995 Friday All Editions

BYLINE: By HELEN KENNEDY

SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 001

The credibility of O.J. Simpson’s key alibi witness crumbled into dust yes-terday when she said she “couldn’t remember” if she told a friend she was being paid $ 5,000 to back up Simpson’s alibi.
Rosa Maria Lopez - a maid at the house next door to Simpson’s - also admitted she wasn’t sure when she saw Simpson’s Bronco and that parts of her story had been molded by the defense.
Lopez’s assertion that she saw Simpson’s white Bronco parked in front of his house just after 10 p.m. - when prosecutors say he was two miles away killing his ex-wife - is crucial to his alibi.
Lopez said she saw the car sometime after 10 p.m. June 12, but she acknowl-edged she’s not sure how long after 10 p.m. She admitted yesterday that defense investigator Zvonco “Bill” Pavelic prompted her to revise her memory of the times of events.
“You would give times and he would give you other times, correct?” prosecutor Christopher Darden said.
“Yes, it’s correct,” Lopez replied through a Salvadoran translator.
“And Mr. Pavelic is the one that first suggested (that Lopez saw the Bronco at) 10:15 or 10:20, correct?” Darden asked.
“If that’s what he’s saying, that’s fine,” Lopez said serenely.
During her cross-examination, Lopez testified that she couldn’t remember when various meetings happened or how long they took.
She said she couldn’t remember what time, day, month - even which season - one key meeting took place.
“You’re not very time conscious, are you?” Darden asked.
“I’m conscious of the time I’m wasting here,” Lopez shot back, showing a rare flash of feistiness.
Darden asked, “Do you have a hard time remembering time?”
“If I don’t have it written down, how can I remember?” she replied.
Lopez, who testified with great self-assurance about minute details of the events of June 12 when she answered defense lawyer Johnnie Cochran Jr.’s ques-tions, was substantially more vague under cross examination.
Her answer to more than 60 questions was: “I don’t remember.”
“Did someone tell you that if you testified you don’t remember, it will be easier?” Darden asked.
“No,” she replied.
During the cross-examination, Darden repeatedly asked the judge to stop Coch-ran from signalling the witness and feeding her answers.
Darden himself was openly condescending - grilling Lopez about what she told “Mr. Johnnie” and “Mr. Bill.”
At one point, when he asked Lopez if Simpson’s lawyers had told her what to say during a court break, she responded: “We talked about my always telling the truth, sir.”
Darden exploded with a loud, sarcastic “Hah!” and was admonished by the judge.
During the cross examination, observers couldn’t help feeling sorry for the confused, illiterate woman who seemed oblivious to her various inconsistencies.
In an apparent attempt to show Lopez’s motive to lie on the stand, Darden dwelled on Lopez’s close ties to Simpson’s lawyers.
Lopez said she was good friends with Simpson’s maid, had been to his house several times - she even made up Simpson’s bed one time - and she was “very an-gry” at Nicole Brown Simpson for slapping her maid once.
Lopez said she didn’t know there was a $ 500,000 reward for anyone who helped Simpson beat the rap.
The dramatic high point of the day came when Lopez was asked if she had told another Brentwood maid, Sylvia Guerra - who will be called to the stand by prosecuters - that she was being paid $ 5,000 for her testimony.
Lopez said she “couldn’t remember” saying that.
Lopez was also asked if she told Guerra that Guerra could also make money by pretending she had seen the Bronco. Lopez said she didn’t remember.
When Darden - his voice dripping with sarcastic incredulity - asked if a per-son would forget saying something like that, Lopez denied making the statements to Guerra.
Prosecutors have said Guerra will testify the $ 5,000 was offered by a tab-loid.
Lopez testified that Guerra drank coffee and ate tamales in Lopez’s kitchen June 12 and that she drove Guerra home between 8:30 p.m. and 9 p.m.
But Lopez never mentioned Guerra in her direct testimony Monday, which cov-ered events of the night of June 12 in painstaking detail.
Prosecutors said Guerra will testify she had never been inside that house.