OJ detective charged with perjury

The former detective Mark Fuhrman pleaded no contest when charged yesterday with felony perjury for allegedly lying when he said during the OJ Simpson trial that he hadn't used a racial slur against blacks in the last decade. The charge was filed amid reports the retired detective would enter into a plea agreement.

The complaint said the perjury came on 15 March 1995, during Fuhrman's testimony "that he had not addressed any black person as a `nigger' or spoken about black people as `niggers' in the last 10 years".

A felony perjury conviction carries a maximum penalty of four years in prison. Fuhrman, who said he found a glove on Simpson's estate covered with the blood of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and Ronald Goldman, was perhaps the prosecution's biggest embarrassment in Simpson's murder trial. Four defense witnesses contradicted Fuhrman's testimony.

Reuter - Los Angeles