Playing the LAPD Card : Defense Attorneys for Rap Star Snoop Doggy Dogg and 2 Others Plan to Attack Police Handling of Evidence as Murder Trial Begins

You heard about all the allegations of police incompetence in the O.J. Simpson case. Now get ready for Snoop Doggy Dogg.

Jury selection in the murder trial of one of the nation’s most popular rap singers is set to start today, and defense attorneys for the rapper, his bodyguard and his friend are planning a full-scale attack on the credibility of the Los Angeles Police Department.

Even Johnnie L. Cochran Jr., who signed on to represent one of the defendants before Simpson was arrested last year, will be back in court to repeat his familiar theme.

“Want me to say those famous words?” Cochran asked reporters after a pretrial hearing earlier this week, alluding to the line in his closing argument on behalf of Simpson, “If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit.” In this case, Cochran said, evidence is “going to be a problem again.”

At issue is whether 24-year-old Snoop Doggy Dogg (a.k.a. Calvin Broadus) and his associates murdered Philip Woldemariam, 20, at a Westside park in 1993 or--as the defense claims--shot him in self-defense.

The most embarrassing problem for prosecutors is that police accidentally destroyed some of the evidence in the case.

Broadus’ attorney, David Kenner, says he will show that in addition to destroying evidence, detectives also attempted to influence key witnesses to support their theory that Woldemariam was killed in a drive-by shooting by Broadus’ bodyguard, McKinley Lee. Lee, Broadus and Cochran’s client, Sean Abrams, were in Broadus’ Jeep at the time of the shooting.

“There was a tremendous amount of questionable police conduct in this case,” Kenner said. “This shooting was done in self-defense. The [evidence loss] simply impacts on our ability to corroborate a lot of that defense.”

Prosecutors argue that the lost items--which included shell casings and the victim’s bloody clothes--were insignificant.

But legal experts question whether jurors will buy that explanation in the post-Simpson era, in which the nation has been battered by defense lawyers’ image of the LAPD as an abusive, bumbling institution.

“Obviously, any time the police destroy evidence for any reason, it gives the defense the argument that they are trying to hide something,” said Gerald Chaleff, a defense attorney widely quoted during the Simpson trial. “It raises the possibility that the jurors will say, ‘We don’t trust the evidence, we don’t trust this case.’ ”

Potential jurors will be asked to fill out an extensive questionnaire, inquiring about their opinions on the Simpson case, among other things. Beginning this morning in the Downtown Criminal Courts Building, hundreds of prospective panelists are expected to be screened on whether they can participate in the case, which is expected to last six weeks.

Superior Court Judge Paul Flynn, who has denied a Court TV request to televise the proceedings, has instructed attorneys to be prepared to start opening statements the week of Nov. 6.

While the Simpson case moved quickly through the system at the behest of the defense, the Snoop Doggy Dogg case has languished.

Broadus, Adams and Lee were arrested more than two years ago. (Broadus turned himself in to police after he finished an appearance at the 1993 MTV Music Awards.) The rapper is free on $1 million bail, and Abrams is free on $200,000 bail. Lee was ordered to electronically monitored home detention after posting $1 million bail.

According to police, Broadus was sitting in the driver’s seat of his black Jeep on Aug. 25, 1993, when an argument broke out between Abrams and Woldemariam in Woodbine Park in the Palms area of West Los Angeles, leading to the shooting.

Law enforcement sources said Woldemariam, who grew up in Palms, resented Broadus and his friends for moving into the neighborhood while Broadus was recording his hit album, “Doggystyle.” The two had connections to different street gangs, Woldemariam in Palms and Broadus in Long Beach; grand jury testimony indicated that the fatal argument followed an earlier shouting match in front of Broadus’ apartment and a car chase.

Lee said he shot in self-defense after Woldemariam pointed a pistol at the vehicle. The prosecutor, Deputy Dist. Atty. Edward Nison, originally said Woldemariam was unarmed--a claim supported by two of Woldemariam’s friends, Duchaum Lee Joseph and Jason London, who witnessed the shooting.

But the prosecution’s contention appeared to crumble three months later when Joseph and London told a grand jury that they hid Woldemariam’s gun before police arrived. Woldemariam’s weapon was recovered after a friend was stopped for a traffic violation.

Prosecutor Nison dismisses the defense claim that police botched the case. In a pretrial hearing in April, the prosecutor told the judge that the LAPD’s new automated evidence system accidentally authorized destruction of the bloody clothing and casings found at the site--evidence that he termed “not very important.”

“In the abstract, [the evidence loss] has a seductiveness to it,” Nison said. “But when you look at the facts, it does not have a significant effect on the case. We are hopeful that the judge will keep this from deterring the jury’s attention.”

Police expressed frustration that the department, once again, was under attack.

“This is part of the job of the defense,” said Sgt. Stephanie Payne, a police spokeswoman. “They have to look for loopholes. We will remain professional.”

While prosecutors allege that Lee shot Woldemariam in the back, the defense maintains that Woldemariam was facing the vehicle when Lee pulled the trigger and that the bullet entered Woldemariam’s back as he turned to run. The defense will offer a computer-generated re-creation of the shooting to support its case. Interest in the case is high because of Broadus’ fame: “Doggystyle” sold 4 million copies in the United States, and MTV this week is running a special report previewing the trial. Broadus’ music is often laced with violent imagery, and he makes no secret of his brushes with the law. He served a brief jail sentence in 1990 for cocaine dealing and was arrested on suspicion of possessing marijuana and a concealed weapon in 1993.

Broadus and Abrams are listed in police files as members of the Long Beach Insane Crips, according to Long Beach police. Broadus has said in interviews that he stopped associating with the gang in high school. Lee, who is being represented by attorney Donald Re, has no gang history.

Police records show that Woldemariam was a member of the By Yerself Hustlers, a gang founded in Palms. The gang, police say, is now based in the Mid-Wilshire district. Woldemariam was arrested in February, 1992, on suspicion of possessing a loaded weapon and in October of that year on suspicion of discharging a firearm with gross negligence at Palms Junior High School, about a block from where he ultimately died.

Woldemariam’s family has filed a $25-million wrongful death lawsuit against Broadus and media giant Time Warner Inc., which distributed albums by the rapper’s record company at the time.