THE TROUBLE WITH FUHRMAN

Judge Ito will spend the next day or two in his chambers while he struggles to decide whether the jury will hear the Mark Fuhrman tapes. After both sides made their arguments this morning, he was clearly torn: "I need to sit down and look at each one of these individual situations and make the appropriate ruling," Ito said. Meanwhile, Elaine Lafferty reports, the prosecutors are wrestling with whether to distance itself from the embattled former detective. So far, they haven't. "They should move away from Fuhrman and, frankly, it is surprising to me that they've indicated that they are just not going to do that. This could be the worst mistake of the trial. Apparently, the prosecution believes they can't afford to lose Fuhrman. It may be fatal to their case."