LOS ANGELES (AP) — Former Los Angeles police detective Mark Fuhrman who was convicted of lying on the witness stand in the OJ Simpson trial three decades ago is now barred from law enforcement under a law California police reform law intended to strip badges from police officers who act in a criminal or biased manner.
Fuhrman, who is white, was one of the first two police detectives sent to investigate the Simpson’s ex-wife murders in 1994, Nicole BrownSimpson, and his friend Ronald Goldman in Los Angeles. The Simpson murders and trial exposed divisions over race and policing in America.
Fuhrman reported finding a bloody glove in Simpson’s home, but his credibility was attacked during the trial when the defense raised the possibility of racial bias.
Under cross-examination, Fuhrman testified that he had never made racial slurs against black people in the past 10 years, but a recording made by an aspiring screenwriter showed that he had done so repeatedly.
Fuhrman retired from the LAPD after Simpson’s acquittal in 1995 and at age 72 his return was doubtful. The decertification was likely intended to make clear that California will not tolerate such officers.
The former detective was charged with perjury and pleaded no contest in 1996. He became a TV and radio commentator and wrote the book “Murder in Brentwood” about the murders.
Simpson was later found responsible for the deaths in a separate civil case and later served nine years in prison on unrelated charges. He died in Las Vegas of prostate cancer in April, at age 76.
Fuhrman declined to comment Friday when reached by phone.
“That was 30 years ago. You guys are really up to speed,” he told an Associated Press reporter.
When I said that The Chronicle of San Francisco had reported that his decertification became formal in May, he responded “good for them, have a nice day,” before hanging up.
California’s decertification law was passed in 2021 following the 2020 police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis and took effect in 2023. The law came 18 years after lawmakers stripped that power from a state commission of police standards. That left it up to local agencies to decide whether officers should be fired, but critics said they could often simply get a job in a different department.
Online records show the state Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training decertified Fuhrman on May 14 based on a government code that includes ineligibility based on a prior felony conviction. Approximately 100 police officers have been decommissioned since 2023.
Records show Fuhrman was last hired by the LAPD in 1995. The police department did not immediately return a request for comment Friday.
The filing did not specify whether Fuhrman had any convictions other than perjury, and an agency spokeswoman said she had no additional information available Friday.
Fuhrman’s decertification was first reported on Friday by The San Francisco Chronicle.
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Associated Press researcher Rhonda Shafner in New York contributed to this report.
