Officer Robert Riske is employed by the Los Angeles Police department, and assigned to a West L.A. patrol unit. Officer Riske has been employed by the LAPD as a police officer for four years, and has been a patrolman for a West L.A unit for 2-1/2 years. His duties as a patrolman include patroling and answering radio calls; this includes driving a patrol car.

On the night of June 12, 1994, or the early morning hours of June 13, 1994, Officer Riske received a radio call directing his attention to the residence location of 874 South Bundy. After receiving this radio call, he responded to this location. The residence of 874 South Bundy was described as a single family residence. When arriving at this location, Officer Riske and his partner observed a couple with a dog; they were one house north of the location. This couple north of the 874 South bundy location, flagged down Officer Riske and his partner as they arrived in front of the location.

Riske believed the couple was standing in front of 870, and at this point this couple directed Riske's attention to 875 South Bundy. Riske said that when the couple directed his attention to 875 South Bundy, they had a dog with them. Riske examined the dog and noticed that the dog had blood on all four of its legs.

Officer Riske was shown several photographs of the crime scene, and asked if he recognized them. He was shown a photograph (People's 1), and confirmed that the photograph was of the 875 South Bundy location. He was then shown a series of five photographs ( -A, -B, -C, -D, and -E), and he confirmed that in all these photographs-with the exception of photograph -F, where all you can see is the face of the victim, they depicted the victims as he found them at 875 South Bundy.

Riske was asked when he arrived initially at the South Bundy location; he answered at 12:13 A.M. He recalled that he got the radio call at 12:09 A.M., when he was notified to proceed to the 874 South Bundy location. He then again confirmed that the photographs shown as People's 1, are exactly how the crime scene looked when he arrived at 12:13 A.M. Riske was then shown a series of photographs (People's 27), and again confirmed that these photographs depicted the crime scene as he found it at 12:13 A.M. .

Riske testified that he took precautions to make sure the crime scene was preserved as he found it in the photographs. He said that he secured the crime scene with a yellow crime scene police tape. They secured the entire inner block of Bundy, and then put up a crime scene tape from 873 to 877 South Bundy. Therefore, Riske is saying he roped off from one house above to one house below the crime scene. This tape, he continued, also included the rear area of the building known as 875 South Bundy. Riske was then shown another photograph (People's 28), and confirmed that the photograph depicted an area at the location. Riske said the area depicted in the photograph was also encompassed in the taping.

After taping off all these areas, Riske insured that no one was permitted to walk into any of the areas enclosed by the tape, and the area was preserved in that manner until the investigating officers arrived. [NOTE: Riske and his partner did NOT do an extensive investigation, only a quick walk-through. Although there were 14 officers at the scene before Fuhrman arrived, ONLY Riske and his partner were inside the yellow tape. This is important. None of those officers had the opportunity to see what evidence might have been hidden under any shrubs, etc. As the first investigating officer to arrive, Fuhrman was the first to get a walk-through, and he DID go inside the tape. The photographer took a photo of him pointing to the glove at 4:00 A.M.!] He said that this was standard procedure. Riske said that even though no one passed across the tape at any of its perimeters, but he did admit that he and one other officer, crossed the tape and searched the residence at the South Bundy location. When he did this, he took care not to step in the blood or disturb any of the evidence. When he said "disturb any evidence", he meant blood drops and bloody footprints. Riske confirmed that all the evidence was preserved in the manner that he found it. He was shown another series of photographs (People's 26, photographs -A, -B, -C, -D, -E, and -F) and confirmed that these photographs showed the evidence as he found it when he first observed it.

When Riske and the other officer went to the door of the residence at 875 South Bundy, when he and his partner first arrived, the door was open. He and the other officer went into the residence to check for other victims, and possible suspects. Riske confirmed that the door was standing open "three-quarters of the way". When entering the residence he did not notice any bloody footprints on the carpeting or any evidence of disturbance or struggle inside the house. He continued to say that he secured the house and made sure that no one was permitted in or out after he found out that there were no other victims inside.

While inside the house, Riske noticed that there were other occupants inside the residence that were not victims in the sense of being attacked that night in the house. He said that there were two juveniles, or children, upstairs who were sleeping when he found them. When he found them he woke them up and escorted them out of the back of the residence. After this point they were transported to West L. A. Station. Riske also testified, that when he went to check the inside of residence of 875 South Bundy, he noticed that all the lights were on in the house except those lights in the children's rooms, a couple of bathrooms, and the exercise room upstairs. So he said therefore the house was fully lit. When he went into the master bedroom, it was fully lit, and connected to the master bedroom was a bathroom that was dark, but that there were candles lit in the bathroom. The bedroom lights were on. Also in the bedroom he noticed that the bed was unmade and that the covers were piled in the middle of the bed. Apparently he said it looked as if someone had been sleeping in it.

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