LOS ANGELES — Mark Fuhrman, the former Los Angeles police detective whose testimony, credibility and incendiary racist language became central to the O.J. Simpson murder trial, has died at 74.

Fuhrman became one of the most recognizable law enforcement figures in America when he discovered a bloody glove outside Simpson’s Brentwood estate during his investigation into the 1994 killings of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman.

During the ensuing 1995 trial, defense attorneys accused him of planting the glove as evidence, citing the detective’s turbulent background to argue he staged a racially motivated plot to frame the former football star.

Fuhrman later moved to Idaho, where he was still living at the time of his death. The Kootenai County Coroner’s Office confirmed that he died on May 12, but declined to provide any details about the cause.

At the Simpson trial, witness Kathleen Bell testified that Furhman told her that he would intentionally pull over interracial couples just to find reasons to arrest them, adding that he said black people should be “gathered together and burned.” Fuhrman denied ever using the N-word when questioned under oath, but the defense later introduced recorded interviews in which he repeatedly used racial slurs and described violent conduct as a police officer.

“We got females . . . and dumb n— (in the department), and all your Mexicans that can’t even write the name of the car they drive,” Furhman was heard saying in the recordings.

The revelations devastated his credibility and altered the public image of the LAPD for years to come.

When called back to testify, Fuhrman invoked the Fifth Amendment, refusing to answer questions about whether he had manufactured evidence. From his elevated seat on the witness stand, Fuhrman sat silent as Simpson’s defense team peppered him with question after question.

For Carl Douglas, one of those defense attorneys, that moment stands among his clearest memories of the trial. Asked to described Fuhrman’s legacy, he let out a deep sigh.

“I’ve been a lawyer 45 years — never had I heard of a detective from the Robbery-Homicide Division taking the 5th Amendment in a murder trial,” he said. “That will likely be one of the stains of his life that will always be remembered.”

Fuhrman’s involvement in the case was likely a “substantial factor” in Simpson’s acquittal, Douglas said, adding that the detective’s family was “suffering from his loss.”

“As I learned about some of the things he said in his background, he epitomizes the worst aspects of the LAPD culture at its very worst under chief Daryl Gates,” he said. “And it has taken 40 years for the stench of that culture to leave that department, and regrettably remnants of that culture.”

Although no evidence ever emerged proving Fuhrman planted the evidence, controversy surrounding his testimony devastated the prosecution’s case.

“This is now the Fuhrman trial,” Fred Goldman, Ron Goldman’s father, said at the time. “It is not the trial of O. J. Simpson, the man accused of murdering my son and Nicole.”

In 1996, Fuhrman pleaded no contest to perjury for falsely denying his use of racist language. He was sentenced to three years probation and fined $200, becoming the only person criminally convicted in connection with the Simpson case.

In a later interview with Diane Sawyer, Fuhrman apologized for his language, saying the recorded remarks were part of an effort to develop material for a screenplay. He maintained he was not racist and did not plant the glove at the crime scene.

Born Feb. 5, 1952, in Eatonville, Wash., Fuhrman served in the U.S. Marine Corps during the Vietnam War era before joining the LAPD in 1975.

After retiring from the LAPD in 1995, Fuhrman became a conservative commentator, true-crime author and television personality.

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