WITNESS SAYS SIMPSON PHOTO LIKELY FAKE.

Byline: Linda Deutsch Associated Press 

The most powerful new piece of evidence against O.J. Simpson - a picture showing him wearing Bruno Magli shoes - is probably a forgery, a photo expert said Wednesday.

Police say whoever killed Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman on June 12, 1994, left footprints of Bruno Magli shoes in the blood on the walkway by the bodies.

``My conclusion is there is a high likelihood of forgery,'' said Robert Groden, a Dallas photo technician who has spent years analyzing pictures of the John F. Kennedy assassination.

The 1993 picture, taken by free-lance photographer Harry Scull, shows Simpson walking across the field while working as a commentator at a Buffalo Bills football game.

Plaintiffs billed the picture as the most incriminating new piece of evidence against Simpson after his acquittal on murder charges in October 1995.

From the minute the picture was published, Simpson labeled it a fake and denied he ever owned a pair of the Italian shoes. He said they were ``ugly-assed,'' suede and he wouldn't wear them in Buffalo in September.

Groden showed jurors a display of contact sheets and an original print of Simpson provided by Scull and said the size of the frame on the Simpson picture was longer than any others on the roll.

He noted it was also in the No. 1 position on the roll - the most convenient place to try a forgery because it has to be in alignment with only one negative instead of two.

``This is one of the most curious things I found,'' he said of the picture size. ``Frame 1 is longer. . . . It's very slight but it's there.''

The original was passed around to jurors and Groden showed them blowups of the contact sheet - a picture of the negative strips - to illustrate his contention that the image of Simpson was out of alignment with other photos on the roll.

Groden testified that he flew to Buffalo at the request of defense lawyers. ``I viewed what was purported to be cut negatives of three separate rolls of film and contact sheets,'' he said.

Because the pictures had been cut apart, he said it was difficult to compare them with others on the roll. But he said he was able to compare measurement of frames, color balance and alignment and found that there were differences between that picture of Simpson and the others.

Court recessed until Friday before Groden could be cross-examined. Superior Court Judge Hiroshi Fujisaki sternly warned jurors not to try examining photographs or film on their own.

A hearing, outside the jury's presence, was held when plaintiffs objected to Groden's qualifications. Fujisaki ruled that could be handled with ``vigorous cross-examination.''

Earlier, rookie police Officer Daniel Gonzalez denied following a secret police ``code'' to cover up for Mark Fuhrman and other colleagues, but admitted leaving ``stupid little things'' out of his official reports.