Mark Fuhrman

Mark Fuhrman (born February 5, 1952) is a former detective of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD).

In 1970, aged 18, he enlisted in the United States Marine Corps, where he was trained as a machine gunner and military policeman.

He served during the Vietnam War era, though his service in the Vietnam theater was restricted to being assigned to the USS New Orleans (LPH-11), an amphibious assault ship stationed offshore.

Having attained the rank of sergeant, he was honorably discharged in 1975.

After leaving the military, Fuhrman entered the Los Angeles Police Academy and graduated in 1975.

During the trial, witnesses claimed that during the 1980s, Fuhrman frequently described African Americans with a racist epithet, claims he denied.

In response, Simpson's defense team produced recorded interviews with Fuhrman and witnesses proved that he had repeatedly used racist language during those interviews.

As a result, the defense claimed that Fuhrman had committed perjury and was not a credible witness.

The credibility of the prosecution has been cited as one reason Simpson was acquitted.

The defense claimed that Fuhrman planted key evidence as part of a racially motivated plot against Simpson.

When asked under oath (with the jury not present), Fuhrman declined to answer all questions, invoking his Fifth Amendment right.

These questions included whether he planted or manufactured evidence.

In 1981, Fuhrman requested leave for workers' compensation.

During a psychiatric interview regarding this claim, Fuhrman expressed racist sentiments, stating that he stopped enjoying military service because of alleged insubordination from Mexican-Americans and African-Americans, whom he described as "niggers".

In a 1982 psychiatric interview, he claimed that he had "tortur[ed] suspects and con[ned] internal affairs detectives", that he would choke suspects and break their arms and legs "if necessary", and that he had pounded suspects' faces to "mush".

Fuhrman claimed that he was afraid he would kill someone if he were returned to street patrol.

Although several psychiatrists recommended that he be removed from duty completely, and others recommended that he not be allowed to carry a gun, the City of Los Angeles argued that Fuhrman's statements were merely part of an elaborate ruse to win a pension.

Fuhrman received workers' compensation and remained on paid leave until 1983.

During this time, Fuhrman attempted to leave the police force permanently and receive a stress disability pension.

In 1983, Fuhrman lost his case, and a subsequent appeal to Superior Court was rejected; therefore, Fuhrman returned to active duty as a police officer.

In 1985, Fuhrman responded to a domestic violence call between retired NFL football player O. J. Simpson and his wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and in 1989, a statement by Fuhrman about this call resulted in Simpson's arrest for spousal abuse.

Fuhrman was promoted to detective in 1989.

He is primarily known for his part in the investigation of the 1994 murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman in the O. J. Simpson murder case.

In October 1994 he worked to prove the innocence of Arrick Harris, an African-American male who Fuhrman believed had been falsely implicated for murder.

Brown and Ron Goldman were murdered outside Brown's Brentwood, Los Angeles condominium on the night of June 12, 1994.

Robert Riske and his partner were the first police officers on the scene in the early morning of June 13, and Riske found a bloody left-hand glove at the scene.

In 1995, Fuhrman was called to testify regarding his discovery of evidence in the Simpson case, including a bloody glove recovered at Simpson's estate.

Fuhrman retired from the LAPD in 1995.

Fuhrman retired from the LAPD in early 1995, after serving as a police officer for 20 years.

During Simpson's and Brown's eight-year marriage, Simpson repeatedly physically abused her and threatened to kill her, leading her to call the police on several occasions.

Fuhrman responded to one of these calls and encountered Brown hiding in her Mercedes as Simpson was trying to break the windshield with a baseball bat.

In 1996, he pleaded no contest to perjury for his false testimony related to his use of racial epithets.

Fuhrman has claimed that he is not a racist and apologized for his use of racist language.

Some of his former coworkers who are minorities have expressed support for him.

Fuhrman maintains that he did not plant or manufacture evidence in the Simpson case, and Simpson's defense team did not present any evidence to contradict this claim.

Since his retirement from the LAPD, Fuhrman has written true crime books and hosted talk radio.

Fuhrman was born in Eatonville, Washington, and attended Peninsula High School in Gig Harbor, Washington.

Fuhrman's parents divorced when he was seven years old, and his mother remarried briefly.

In a 2016 interview with Ezra Edelman in O.J.: Made in America, Fuhrman claimed that he twice asked Simpson to put the bat down, and when Simpson refused, Fuhrman got his baton out and threatened him with violence if he continued.

Simpson then obeyed and apologized, and Fuhrman offered Brown the chance to press charges so he could arrest Simpson, but she declined.