Witness: O.J. Tape Could Have Been Altered, Maybe

Wed., Sep. 17, 2008 6:03 PM PDT by Natalie Finn

Isaac Brekken-Pool/Getty Images

Did O.J. Simpson really say what he said?

An FBI audio analyst testified Wednesday in the former football star's armed-robbery trial that a recording of what supposedly went down last year in a Las Vegas hotel room could have been altered before being turned over to the police.

After testifying for the prosecution that he couldn't tell whether the garbled tape was the real deal, analyst Ken Marr said under pointed cross-examination that it might have been doctored—or not.

"With all of your expertise and all of the equipment available to you with the federal government, you cannot tell us as you sit there today whether that evidence was manipulated?" defense attorney Yale Galanter challenged.

"It might, sir," Marr replied.

The tape, parts of which have been played in court already, was made by memorabilia collector Thomas Riccio, who brokered the meeting between Simpson and sports memorabilia dealers Alfred Beardsley and Bruce Fromong after informing SImpson that those two men were in possession of some of his mementos.

The defense maintains that Riccio made more than $100,000 selling the tape to the media.

Also testifying today was the first police detective who arrived at the Palace Station Hotel & Casino to investigate a report that Simpson and five others had robbed Fromong and Beardsley at gunpoint on Sept. 13, 2007, toting away hundreds of signed footballs and baseballs, autographed pictures and other sports-themed items.

Upon looking at the hotel's grainy security footage, "I recognized Mr. Simpson instantly," Detective Andy Caldwell said.

He said the first detail that Beardsley and Fromong provided was that at least two of the men in Simpson's group were armed.

"Their primary concern was that they had guns pointed at them," Caldwell said.

Admitting that it at first "didn't make sense" to him that Simpson could be involved, Caldwell said that authorities placed all their ducks in a row before arresting Simpson two days later.

"If it was anybody else, we would have arrested him that night," the detective said. "Because of who he was, we wanted to make sure we had everything right."