Photograph by Robert Scheer
Gerald Uelmen, who wears three hats as an author, attorney and law professor, takes a telephone call in his Saratoga kitchen.
By Sue Fagalde Lick
Martha Uelmen was on her way back from the ladies' room at a restaurant in Omaha recently when she overheard a waiter excitedly telling his coworkers that his customer was one of O.J. Simpson's attorneys. She went back to their table and reported another "sighting" to her husband, Gerald Uelmen, the former Santa Clara University Law School dean who was part of O.J. Simpson's defense team.
Sightings--instances when people recognize Uelmen--have become commonplace since the trial captured America's attention, from the murder of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman on June 12, 1994 through Simpson's acquittal on Oct. 3, 1995. Five days into the trial, the Uelmens, 10-year residents of Saratoga, got an unlisted telephone number and ditched the vanity license plate that said "UELMEN."
"The loss of privacy has been difficult," Martha Uelmen says. A family-law attorney, she still gets calls from strangers seeking representation on cases that have nothing to do with her specialty, she says.
It was especially overwhelming for Gerald Uelmen when he was in Los Angeles. He would come home as often as possible for a "breath of fresh air," Martha says. Luckily, much of his work could be done long distance. "Thank heavens for the phone and fax."
Once the trial ended, the attention started to fade, but it started up again with the recent publication of Uelmen's book, Lessons from the Trial: the People vs. O.J. Simpson. Uelmen spent two weeks storming the country on a whirlwind book tour and continues to average two interviews a day, along with occasional speaking engagements.
"I don't mind so much," he says, speaking in his quiet Saratoga home with his shaggy white terrier Mitzi at his side, "but it's harder on my wife; she likes her anonymity. People recognize us in the grocery store, and she doesn't want them to see what's in our shopping cart.
"There's been a pretty good smattering of hate mail," he continues. "It doesn't all come from crackpots. Some of it comes from people who are obviously educated and generally thoughtful people, but they just have very strong opinions about this case, and they let me know."
As if life weren't interesting enough, the Uelmens were in Omaha in June for the opening of Gerald's play, Bryan, a one-man show based on the life of William Jennings Bryan, famous as the attorney in the Scopes trial who argued that states had the right to require that creationism be taught in their public schools.
Uelmen was writing the play, his first, during the O.J. Simpson trial. He has always been fascinated by the format of one-person shows based on historical characters. The play is an effort to resurrect Bryan's image.
"His reputation was ruined by a play, Inherit the Wind," Uelmen says. "He was portrayed as a bumbling bigot, and that's the image of him that seems to have stuck."
Uelmen's play includes the Scopes trial, but it covers the lawyer's whole life. Bryan, who was famous for his oratory, served in the U.S. Congress and ran unsuccessfully for president three times. Working on the play provided respite from the Simpson trial for Uelmen.
"The play was a real R-and-R kind of experience for me. It was a wonderful way of just not thinking about the case at all.
"I found it really exhilarating. The creative opportunity to make something come alive just really got the juices going. I enjoyed it thoroughly. It was a very different writing experience, but very, very rewarding."
The play stars Don Fiedler, whom Uelmen admired in his years playing Clarence Darrow in another one-man show. Bryan opened at the Omaha Community Playhouse and was scheduled to go on to Lincoln, Neb., Bryan's hometown. It will be staged again in Chicago in August during the Democratic National Convention, commemorating the 100th anniversary of Bryan's "cross of gold" speech that won him the presidential nomination in 1896.
Bryan will come home to SCU for a performance in early October.
Uelmen hadn't planned to join the league of attorneys writing books about the Simpson trial. But he was stunned by the reaction to the acquittal.
"The public reaction to the verdict was a very sobering experience. It kind of took me by surprise.
"I didn't expect that it would be as vociferous as it was, that people would want to hold onto it so long and be so committed to their positions.
"I find that you can't change anybody's mind. Everybody has their mind made up, and most of them one way, although the racial divide in that respect was fascinating. That really is what motivated me to write the book," says Uelmen, who is convinced Simpson is innocent.
He finished rewrites on the play in November and wrote his book in December and January. "Once I decided to do it, it was like opening a floodgate. It was all there."
Lessons from the Trial gives a forthright inside view on many aspects of the trial, including the questionable treatment of blood samples and other evidence, the use of television cameras in the courtroom, the controversy over police officer Mark Fuhrman's testimony, why Simpson didn't testify in his own defense, and how Uelmen came up with the "If it doesn't fit, you must acquit" line Johnnie Cochran used in his concluding argument.
Although of particular interest to lawyers, the book is aimed at a general readership. "I really wanted to write something you didn't have to be a lawyer to understand. I think people can comprehend these issues."
Uelmen, 55, who has published two books of legal humor, Disorderly Conduct and Supreme Folly, is finishing an academic work on drug abuse and has already mapped out his next book, a history of famous trials.
The Simpson trial was one of at least 32 "trials of the century" that Uelmen found in his research. They differ considerably from the normal course of the law, he said, but have much in common with each other.
Although much of Uelmen's life has centered around writing, his main focus is teaching. Before taking the job as SCU law-school dean in 1986, he taught at Loyola Law School in Southern California.
He was SCU law dean for eight years before stepping down in June 1994. His original plan was to take a year's sabbatical, then return to Santa Clara as a full-time professor. However, as he was packing to leave the dean's office, he received a phone call from longtime friend Robert Shapiro, who asked him to join the Simpson defense team. Uelmen had already arranged to spend his year doing research, teaching at Stanford Law School and doing some consulting work. He set those plans aside.
A teacher who likes to keep in practice, he previously worked on the defense of Daniel Ellsberg in 1973 and Christian Brando in 1991. Knowing the Simpson case would be big, he set aside his plans. "One of the reasons that I was excited going into the case was knowing that we'd be talking about it in legal education for the next 20 years. In that respect it really exceeded my expectations."
Uelmen returned to SCU this year, teaching criminal procedure, evidence and criminal law. "Just about every issue we talk about in those courses was litigated in one fashion or another in this trial, so the trial is constantly being brought up as an example."
Do students clamor to get into this classes now that he's famous? Uelmen laughs. "I hope not. More blue books to read." Nor has the case changed his basic approach to teaching, he says.
Asked if he considers himself a writer, teacher or lawyer, he says, "I really think of myself as a lawyer engaged in teaching. A lot of law-school teachers are kind of refugees from the practice of law. They didn't like law practice and they were looking for something else. Even though I love teaching and I love the freedom that it gives me, I love being a lawyer, too."
He is following the ongoing civil case against O.J. Simpson and said he argued one motion relating to constitutional issues. This case will take even longer than the criminal trial, he predicted, not venturing a guess at the result.
One difference this time is that there will be no television cameras giving a national view of the proceedings, he said. He was disappointed in the television coverage of the criminal trial. While in most cases, he believes the presence of TV cameras has no more impact than print reporters taking notes, "in a case like this, it just turns out to be like gasoline on a fire."
"It kind of escalates the whole aura of notoriety. It gets literally out of control. I don't think it generally enhances the depth of anyone's consideration of what's going on. I found a lot of the pundits and commentators were very shallow, and they were reporting it like a football game."
He has had more experience with the media in publicizing his book, doing everything from five-minute news spots to four-hour interviews on TV and radio. "The shallowness of television really struck me, how superficial it all is."
Life these days has settled down only a little. He spends two days a week in the classroom and writes at home, where there are fewer interruptions. Every day brings calls from the media. He also consults with another lawyer in San Francisco.
This summer, the Uelmens plan a trip to Europe, where their two daughters live. They also have a grown son in the area. "By and large, they tried to remain oblivious to it all," he says of his children.
August will bring a return to teaching, as well as the performance of Bryan at the Democratic convention.
To relax, Uelmen turns to music. He admits to singing loudly, if not with professional quality, and he also plays the accordion. "I enjoy it, but I have a limited repertoire."
Both busy with their work, the Uelmens have only sporadically been involved in Saratoga activities. They belong to Ascension Church, and Martha is active in the Sunnyvale-Cupertino and Santa Clara County bar associations.
While Gerald Uelmen has many accomplishments to boast of, his wife concedes that he will never completely shake the identity as one of O.J. Simpson's lawyers. "It certainly will be part of his identity for a very long time," she says.
"I hope that the involvement in this trial isn't the lead line in my obituary," Gerald Uelmen says. "I hope I'll be remembered as a teacher who inspired his students."
Would he take on another trial of the century?
"It's not the kind of thing you plan on, and I certainly didn't plan on this one. It kind of dropped from the sky." If another such case drops from the sky, he would consider participating.
It would allow him to gather more lessons he could pass on to his students.
This article appeared in the Saratoga News, July 3, 1996.
©1996 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved