Laura Hart McKinny

Factual Questions
1

She was the (aspiring) screenwriter who had the damning interview tapes with Mark Fuhrman using “the N-word”. Fuhrman claimed he’d been adopting a persona; I think he also said McKinny was his ghostwriter, and he was dictating his own screenplay to her.

I remember one of the Dream Team ripping her a new one, damning her as unable to write her way out of a paper bag (not his exact words, but I felt awful for her anyway). Or maybe it was Ito, dismissing the transcripts as evidence. I also remember Fuhrman being asked point-blank if he’d used That Word (I’m not being sarcastic; I don’t like it either) outside of this free-association context, and his saying “I take the Fifth”. (Quoth Mr. Rilch: “It’s over.”)

What effect did all that have on the trial? Not on public opinion; I know what it did to the LAPD’s image. I’m just wondering if his use of slurs was admitted as evidence, and why McKinny’s competence as a writer was called into question.

When they first brought her in, I was beside myself with anticipation. “Finally,” I thought: “A courtroom drama that has an actual writer as one of the players! What a looking-glass world!” Instead, it became a dis by proxy to everyone with an unsold screenplay. I wonder if whoever insulted her ever saw The Player?

2

Bump-a-rolla

3

Rilchiam,

Sorry, but I don’t know the answer to your question–What effect did this have on the trial? I have some thoughts and comments on Ms. McKinney (I had forgotten her name, but remembered her hair–those curls). Anyway, the fact that she announced herself as an “Award-winning screenwriter.” Guess what? So am I. Won 11th and 12 places last year in the Writers Digest competition. No site link, but its still there. Big deal. It means that, yes, for 902 entries, 11 and 12 ain’t bad, but it has not gotten me a damned thing (so far) other than two cheesy certificates. Ms. McKinney probably won something similar. So I feel that perhaps some of the scorn tossed at her was in response to this hyping of her resume. IIRC, at first commentators referred to her as a “screenwriter,” then later changed that to “aspiring screenwriter.”

Second, I have read a few snippets of her screenplay, if memory serves, entitled “Women Against Men,” or perhaps vice-versa. Granted, pullings lines out of context can make almost anyone look bad, but these lines of dialogue were pretty bad (“Who do you think I am, Daniel-Fucking-Boone?” or something like that). Her story dealt with the problems women face in the male-dominated world of being a cop. A worthy subject, don’t get me wrong.

And this I don’t agree with, but as I mentioned, I recall that Ms. McKinney, IMHO, was a striking, attractive lady, with long curly tresses falling often in front of her face. A lot of people dogged her for her looks, saying something like, “Yes, dear, you do look like a troubled, put-upon, suffering poet with your hair and your gaunt face.” This I remember reading in Variety. I think the dialogue quotes (being a Kentuckian, I only remember, even vaguely, the Daniel Boone line) also came from the same article. Maybe, it’s online. Read this just after the trial, late 95, early 96 issue, I’d say.

Anyway, sorry to hijack. I hope someone will answer your question, or give a reply more cogent than my own ramblings.

Sincerely,

Sir

4

Rilch,

Jesus, I’m sorry. I pulled this up and answered with opinions, not noticing that it was in GQ. I’m sorry, and hope the mods won’t hold my idiocies against your thread.

Sir

5

Not at all, Sir. I appreciate your description of her, and her credentials.

But my god, someone padded their resume? In LA? In the film industry? My god, that’s a bigger scandal than police corruption or spousal abuse!

6

In this case, I don’t think she padded her resume, as much as almost inventing it from whole cloth. But, yes, as I’ve been attempting to get an agent the last couple months, I’ve mentioned that I was “award winning,” though I was honest enough to parenthetically explain what awards. Stupid me!

I’ll leave off, before this gets bumped to IMHO, and read any further answers with interest.

Sir