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Retired judge Lance Ito has endorsed Christopher Darden in his bid for a seat on the Los Angeles County Superior Court.
Both Ito and Darden are remembered for their participation in the murder trial of former football star and actor O.J. Simpson in Los Angeles County Superior Court — as presiding judge and one of the prosecutors, respectively — from November 1994 to October 1995.
During the trial, which was televised nationally, the judge, lawyers and witnesses became household names. In subsequent years, the participants were portrayed by actors in dramatizations such as “The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story” (2016).
Years before the “Trial of the Century,” Darden and Ito worked together as prosecutors in the District Attorney’s Office in what was then known as the Hardcore Gang Division.
Ito, 73, served as a judge from his appointment by Gov. George Deukmejian in 1987 to his retirement in 2015. He presided over other high-profile cases, including the indictment of brothers Lyle and Erik Menéndez for murdering their parents and the trial of financier Charles H. Keating Jr. for his role in a savings and loan scandal.
Darden, 67, has been an attorney for more than 40 years and worked as a county prosecutor for 15 years. He also worked for the district attorney’s Special Investigation Division; served as a faculty member of Southwestern University School of Law; was a legal commentator for CNBC, CNN, Court TV, and NBC; authored a best-selling book about the Simpson trial, “In Contempt” (1996); and started his own firm, Darden & Associates.
Simpson, now 76, was accused of the 1994 murder of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman. He was acquitted but was later found liable in a civil trial.
Kim and Fred Goldman, the sister and father of Ronald Goldman, have also endorsed Darden.
“Christopher Darden was a friend to my family during one of the darkest times in our lives,” Kim Goldman said in a statement. “He helped change the focus of a ‘celebrity murder trial’ and made it about the victims. My family has never forgotten that, and I am sure it is remembered by countless other family members for whom he has been an advocate and a champion.”
Darden’s other endorsers include former District Attorney Gil Garcetti, Inglewood Mayor James Butts Jr., the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, and several sitting judges.
Darden is one of three candidates on the March 5 ballot for Superior Court Office No. 130. The other candidates are Leslie Gutierrez, an L.A. County deputy district attorney; and attorney Osman M. Taher.