Twenty years ago this Thursday morning– June 12, 1994– Ronald Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson were found murdered in Brentwood, a posh suburb of Los Angeles. I covered the case for New York magazine, and later wrote about it again on Foxnews.com. Here’s a flashback to June 3, 2004, when Dr. Rob Huizenga, hired to be Simpson’s doctor, finally shed light on his involvement and testimony.

From 2004:

In the first interview he’s given since O.J. Simpson’s trial for double murder in 1994, Dr. Robert Huizenga — Simpson’s personal physician at the time and a witness for the defense in the “Trial of the Century” — spoke with me yesterday about the case. The respected Los Angeles doctor and author had surprising things to say on the eve of the 10th anniversary of the unsolved murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman.

Huizenga was brought into the case by attorney Robert Shapiro a couple of days after the murders. It was also after Simpson had already been examined by police doctors and had his blood taken for testing. Indeed, Huizenga — who’d just written a book about the affect of anabolic steroids on professional football players — suddenly replaced Simpson’s regular doctor, a rheumatologist, at Shapiro’s request.

“My take, and what I say now, is that Simpson was innocent in the trial,” Huizenga told me, referring to the criminal trial in which a jury acquitted Simpson. A civil jury later held him responsible for the murders. “That doesn’t mean he did or didn’t do it. Let’s face it, the evidence is completely suspicious. Some guilty people are set free.”

Huizenga saw Simpson once on the morning of June 15 at Shapiro’s request. “Shapiro said to me, ‘Take every test. Let the chips fall where they may.'” The doctor saw Simpson again on June 17, two hours before the infamous Bronco chase commenced, and later in prison. At the time, the notoriety was scary, he said. “I got hundreds of letters saying ‘You’ll die for representing this man’ — which I didn’t — to ‘You’re the best person in the world.’ It was eye opening.”

But what was most alarming, Huizenga told me, was how prosecutors treated him. His direct questioning by the state was from Deputy District Attorney Brian Kelberg, who worked for Marcia Clark.

“I told them that Simpson appeared to be limping when he came into my office. Instead of asking me about that, they said, ‘He wasn’t limping, you’re lying, we have tape of him from two months before.’ It’s odd that the prosecutors didn’t even bother to ask about the sequelae,” he said, tossing some much-needed Latin into our conversation. In other words: Clark’s team never asked why Simpson had been limping, or what would have brought him to that point.

Huizenga is not wrong to question that moment in his testimony 10 years later. On the stand he told Kelberg that Simpson walked into his office three days after the murders “like Tarzan’s grandfather.” Instead of exploring how Simpson could have come to be in that condition, Kelberg replied: “…perhaps Mr. Simpson was faking a limp in your office?”

“They assumed I was lying,” Huizenga said to me. “They didn’t ask me if it was possible that he’d been in the greatest fight of his life just a few days before.”

“I was dumbfounded by their approach,” Huizenga said. “And they’ve become celebrities since then.” He continued: “But they were set on a course. They wanted to prove I was stupid instead of saying, ‘You’re an honest person, what happened here?'”

Huizenga testified in the trial that he tested Simpson for several drugs, among them anabolic steroids. All the tests came back negative. The FBI lab had tested Simpson a couple of days earlier for the same drugs, without the steroid component. During the trial, a Harvard forensic psychiatrist with a connection to the case conjectured to me that Simpson might have killed his ex-wife Nicole and Ron Goldman in some kind of steroid rage. Huizenga says now that it’s unlikely based on the tests.

“Of course, the original tests had much higher detectable limits. We set ours much lower. Look at all the pictures that were taken. They were all from my office. All the cuts on his hands, none of that would have been known without us. They” — he said, referring to the police and FBI — “did a terrible job.”

Early in the trial year, Simpson’s pal Al Cowlings dictated tapes for a book he was going to publish about Simpson dating up through the trial. Cowlings, I reported then, said that in the Bronco Simpson exhibited a massive amount of sweating, and recalled that he looked like someone who was going through steroid withdrawal.

Huizenga reminded me that in mid-July 1994, once Simpson was in prison, he underwent exploratory surgery for cancer. “What we found was that he had a lymph node under his armpit, and that he was sweating profusely. Ironically, the jail doctor who examined him said he hadn’t seen any lymph nodes. But they were the kind associated with rheumatoid arthritis, and that would have caused the sweating.”

Nevertheless, Huizenga did testify that Simpson had abruptly stopped using a drug called sulfasalazine for his rheumatoid arthritis about a month before the murders. This jibed with an interview I had in 1995 with Christian Reichardt, chiropractor boyfriend of Faye Resnick, who’d convinced Simpson to give up his medications in favor of a vitamin drink he’d concocted. Could withdrawal from sulfasalazine have caused Simpson to fly into rages? It’s unlikely. But at the trial, under direct examination by defense attorney Shapiro, Huizenga volunteered the following:

“He [O.J. Simpson] received multiple cortisone injections, which is — certainly was done in the past, I think all would agree, far too freely and may have certain sequelae downstream.”

There’s that word sequelae again. During later cross examination, it’s interesting to note that Kelberg never bothered to ask Huizenga about the cortisone injections, or what side effects they had. He never asked about the sequelae, sticking instead to a lengthy and boring discussion of cuts.

If only Kelberg had asked. Looking back at Huizenga’s testimony, it’s clear that he was doing everything he could to send out clues to the hapless prosecution, anything, that is, short of just blurting out his thoughts in open court. If only they’d been smart enough or paid closer attention.

Of all the luminaries who spoke for and showed up for Jane Fonda’s American Film Institute Lifetime Achievement Award last night, the most moving came from two different parts of the double Oscar winner’s life: her son, actor Troy Garity, and famed Vietnam vet Ron Kovic, who wrote “Born on the Fourth of July.”

Garity, keeping back tears, spoke poignantly about being the son of “Hanoi Jane.” He joked, “My firs 13 birthday parties were Hollywood fundraisers.” Garity was joined by his wife, Simone, and his older sister Vanessa. Also speaking on behalf of the Fonda family was Jane’s famous actor brother Peter Fonda, who toasted her from his table on the floor of the Dolby Theater with recollections of their Oscar winner Hollywood icon dad, Henry Fonda.

Kovic, a surprise speaker from the stage in his wheelchair, reminisced about protesting  the Vietnam war with Fonda in the 1970s. “I love you, Jane,” he said.

Fonda, glowingly beautiful at age 76 in a Vera Wang gown, told the crowd: “It’s more important to stay interested than interesting.” She bemoaned the fact that she hadn’t asked more questions of the legends she acted with when she had the chance. She said the only younger star who ever asked her questions was Meryl Streep, on the set of “Julia” in 1977.

In his opening remarks of the night, AFI head Bob Gazzale told the glittering crowd that Fonda had picketed the annual AFI dinner at least twice. Once was over American involvement in Vietnam. Another time, she and Shirley MacLaine protested the lack of women in key Hollywood roles. Gazzale pointed out that led directly to the AFI changing its policies.

The crowd dressed in formal attire could not have been more star oriented. Michael Douglas (who gave Fonda the award) was joined by wife Catherine Zeta Jones. Among the presenters was Sir Howard Stringer, Sally Field, Sandra Bullock, Lily Tomlin, Meryl Streep, Cameron Diaz, Jeff Daniels, Eva Longoria, Eve Ensler and comedian Wanda Sykes– who made some unpublishable jokes about the cause of Michael Douglas’s throat cancer and HPV. Sykes was also dressed like “Barbarella.” Much of what she said will be cut from the televised version.

HBO brought a contingent from “The Newsroom,” in which Fonda stars, including Jeff Daniels, Emily Mortimer (with actor husband Alessandro Nivola), Sam Waterston, Rosario Dawson, Alison Pill and Marcia Gay Harden. Other guests included director David O. Russell, married actors William H. Macy and Felicity Huffman, and Morgan Freeman, Corey Stoll, Kathryn Hahn, Diane Lane, Samantha Mathis, Dylan McDermott, plus cinematographer Haskell Wexler and Fonda’s great friends, producer Paula Weinstein and actresses Melanie Griffith and Rosanna Arquette.

Last year’s AFI recipient, Mel Brooks, vowed humorously not to return, but did anyway. He told me that because of the new “Star Wars” movies, he was thinking of actually making “Spaceballs 2: The Search for the Money,” the never made but much wanted sequel to “Spaceballs.”

Fonda was seated at the main table with significant other, famed record producer Richard Perry. Perry had some of his own guests from the music world including Clive Davis and Arnold Stiefel, longtime manager of Rod Stewart, and great songwriter Carole Bayer Sager (with husband Bob Daly, former Warner Bros chief and AFI leader). Also at their table: Jackie Collins and indefatigable philanthropist Barbara Davis.

Streep’s speech is one I hope they keep intact for the TV broadcast. She remembered her work on “Julia,” her very first film, and how Fonda– hilariously– taught her how to hit her mark and stand under the right light. She thanked Jane for her “generous heart” and “presentness.”

In fact, before Meryl Streep was The Greatest American Actress, that distinction was owned by Jane Fonda, winner of two Best Actress Oscars– for “Klute” and “Coming Home,” with several more nominations.

A terrific after party nearly ended on a sour note as Hollywood regular Robert Wolders, boyfriend of Fonda’s step mother Shirlee, fell off a raised platform and hit his head. Fonda and daughter Vanessa rushed to his aide as paramedics swooped in. Luckily, Wolders recovered well enough to sit up after the Fondas’ ministrations.