SIMPSON CLOSER TO RETURNING TO STAND AS TRIAL RESUMES.

Byline: Michael Fleeman Associated Press 

O.J. Simpson intends to return to the witness stand this week after more testimony from Al Cowlings, Kato Kaelin and a forensic scientist, and a final attempt to inject Mark Fuhrman into the trial.

The wrongful death trial resumes today after the two-week Christmas holiday with the completion of cross-examination of Robert Groden, Simpson's photo witness, who says a picture of Simpson wearing the same brand of shoes as the killer is a fake.

Simpson will testify near the end of the week, or early the following week, and defense attorneys are considering calling only one or two more witnesses after him, meaning the defense case could be finished in about 1 -1/2 weeks, sources said.

That means the case could go to the jury before the end of January, after just three months of testimony - far shorter than the nine months of testimony in the criminal trial.

Before Simpson is an eclectic lineup of witnesses, called to speak of Nicole Brown Simpson's alleged wild life, to raise allegations of wrongdoing and incompetence by police, to address the time line on the night of the killings and to discuss Simpson's demeanor after the time of the murders.

There will be a number of familiar faces, including the return of Kaelin, Cowlings, former Playboy Playmate India Allen and embattled criminalist Dennis Fung. All four testified earlier for the plaintiffs. Kaelin and Fung testified in the criminal trial.

Another first-trial figure, forensic scientist Henry Lee, will appear via videotape for Simpson. Lee, who balked at appearing in person in this trial, impressed the criminal trial jurors with his claims of ``something wrong'' in the police crime lab.

Appearing for the first time in court will be Simpson family friend Cora Fischman, who has portrayed Nicole Simpson as living a dangerous final few months filled with drugs, sexual experimentation and club-hopping. Simpson intends to use Fischman's testimony to suggest that somebody from this crowd could have killed his ex-wife.

And Simpson will make a last-ditch attempt to raise the specter of Fuhrman, by seeking to introduce the criminal trial testimony of screenwriter Laura Hart McKinney, whose taped interviews of Fuhrman have the ex-detective repeatedly using a racial epithet.

Defense sources said, however, Simpson's attorneys likely won't even try to read into the record any of the epithet testimony - the judge has made it clear that's off limits - but will try to use McKinney's testimony about Fuhrman's claims of evidence tampering in non-Simpson cases and a police ``code of silence.''

Superior Court Judge Hiroshi Fujisaki has restricted the defense's efforts to bring up Fuhrman, whom the defense contends may have planted a bloody glove behind Simpson's house. Fujisaki has barred the use of Fuhrman's previous testimony or any mention of Fuhrman's no-contest plea to perjury for lying about never using the epithet.

Fuhrman lives out of state and cannot be legally forced to testify in the Simpson civil trial.