Former Los Angeles Police Department detective Mark Fuhrman, who was convicted of lying on the witness stand during the O.J. Simpson trial 30 years ago, is now barred from law enforcement under a California police reform law designed to strip officers of their badges if they commit a crime or behave in a biased manner.
Fuhrman, who is white, was one of the first two detectives assigned to investigate the 1994 murders in Los Angeles of Simpson’s ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman.
The murder and Simpson’s trial exposed divisions in America over race and policing.
Fuhrman reported finding bloodstained gloves in Simpson’s home, but his credibility was heavily attacked during the trial as the defense argued possible racial discrimination.
Under cross-examination, Furman testified that he had never made racist remarks in the past 10 years, but audio recordings made by an aspiring screenwriter revealed that Furman had made such remarks repeatedly.
Fuhrman retired from the LAPD after Simpson’s acquittal in 1995 and, at age 72, was in doubt about returning. The decertification was likely intended to make it clear that California would not tolerate such officers.
The former detective was charged with perjury and pleaded not guilty in 1996. He later became a television and radio commentator and wrote a book about the murders, “Murder in Brentwood.”
Simpson was later found liable for the deaths in a separate civil lawsuit and later served a nine-year prison sentence on unrelated charges.
He died of prostate cancer in April in Las Vegas at age 76.
Furman declined to comment when reached by phone on Friday.
“That was 30 years ago. You guys are really up to date,” he told an Associated Press reporter.
When I was told that San Francisco Chronicle When I told him he’d been officially disqualified in May, he replied, “That’s great. Have a nice day,” and then hung up the phone.
California’s decertification law was passed in 2021 and goes into effect in 2023 following the 2020 police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
The law comes 18 years after lawmakers stripped the State Police Standards Board of its powers.
This left the decision of whether to fire officers up to local governments, but critics pointed out that officers often could simply find work in another department.
The state Police Standards and Training Board disqualified Fuhrman on May 14 under government regulations that include disqualification for felony convictions, according to online records. Roughly 100 officers have been discertified since 2023.
Records show Fuhrman last worked for the LAPD in 1995. Police said Friday they did not have any information about the retired detective.
The records do not specify whether Furman has been convicted of any crimes other than perjury, and a department spokesman said no additional information was available as of Friday.
Furman’s disqualification was first reported on Friday. San Francisco Chronicle.
