INTO THE SPOTLIGHT / WENDY PUTMAN PARK : THE O.J. SIMPSON MURDER TRIAL : Limo Driver’s Lawyer Also His Mother

Kato Kaelin has an attorney. So does defense witness Rosa Lopez. It’s only fitting that limousine driver Allan Park, whose testimony in the O.J. Simpson case this week was crucial to the prosecution’s timeline for the murders, would seek legal advice before taking the stand.

Who is Park’s high-powered lawyer? His mom.

Meet Wendy Putman Park, Los Angeles criminal defense attorney. She represented Manson Family member Patricia Krenwinkel in her parole hearings. She saved the life of a pit bull terrier, Ugly, after he was sentenced to die for killing another dog in Orange County eight years ago.

Now she’s serving as counsel to her youngest son.

“As an attorney, I told him what I tell every one of my clients,” she said. “Just tell the truth.”

And as a mother?

“I told him not to drink any carbonated beverages before he went on the stand, so he wouldn’t belch or hiccup,” she said. There was also this: “Sit up straight.”

Although Putman Park declines to reveal the discussions that she had with her son about the Simpson case, citing attorney-client privilege, it became clear during Park’s testimony that it was his mom who helped him remember important details that may haunt the Simpson defense.

In testimony earlier this week, Park said he had looked carefully at the curb outside Simpson’s house when he arrived at the estate to take Simpson to the airport on June 12 and did not see the defendant’s white Ford Bronco parked there. Simpson’s attorneys say he could not have murdered his wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman, because he was home at 10:15 p.m., when prosecutors say the killings occurred.

Park testified that he saw the number of Simpson’s house painted on the curb just a few feet from where police found the Bronco the next morning, making it unlikely that he had simply overlooked Simpson’s car as he drove past the residence. (After making two passes by the Rockingham Avenue gate to Simpson’s estate, Park ended up waiting outside the other entrance to the property, around the corner on Ashford Street. The Bronco was found parked outside the Rockingham gate the next morning.)

Park said he had remembered that detail about the number after discussing his actions that night with his mother.

He also mentioned his mother another time during his testimony, saying he had called her from the limo to get the number of his boss when Simpson did not answer the intercom at his gate.

As he did at the preliminary hearing, Park testified methodically and carefully that he had glanced frequently at his watch and clock in the car that evening because he was concerned about picking up Simpson and getting him to the airport on time.

Bolstering that account, prosecutors produced phone records showing exactly what time he made the calls from his limo.

While Park was on the stand Tuesday and Wednesday, his mother sat in the audience and watched. She closed down her Santa Catalina Island law firm so she could attend the proceedings.

“I wanted to be there to give him moral support,” Putman Park said. “I’m very proud of him. I thought he was a marvelous witness. I wish I could use him in my cases.”