I suspect you might know this, but Fuhrman saw the fingerprint with his boss Ronald Philips (because they were the ones available, Fuhrman and Phillps took the case and were first on the scene) they both saw the bloody thumbprint on the gate and entered it into their notes. When the high profile case was transferred to the two supposedly better qualified dectectives Tom Lange and Philip Vannatter, in the hand-over process, he pointedly mentioned the print and told him it was in the notes.
The two detective ignored the notes, forgot about the print, and it was washed off.
When questioned later why he didn’t tell Lange and Vannatter to get the print recorded, he bristled at the question, and said he told them about it and had it prominently featured in the case transfer notes, which was more than enough. For him to have said “You better get that recorded blah blah blah...” would have been insulting and unprofessional to Lange and Vannatter. (kind of like one surgeon handing off a patient to another, and saying something like “You better stitch up that bleeding vessel using the Heinerockker Techinque” (just made that up, don’t skewer me!) to which the other surgeon might sarcastically respond “Yeah. Sure. I’m sure if you hadn’t reminded me of exactly what to do, that patient would have bled to death.”
Shameful, but not Fuhrman’s fault. They should have let him keep the case that morning, and none of this would have happened. Instead, they gave it to two “celebrity” detectives, and the rest is history.
Philip Vannatter was such a moron. Never believed a word he said.
Furhman also told Marsha Clark about the thumb print. I guess she ignored it because the two hot shot detectives ignored it.
I have always wondered what happened to the blood missing from the vial. The old man on oxygen who took the sample said under oath in a video deposition that he must have made a mistake and recorded the amount wrong. Then he said he’d never made that mistake before.
I believe Lange and Vanatter did try to manufacture some evidence. For instance, the blood was put on the sock when there was no foot in it. Probably to make up for washing off the thumb print.
This case was bungled from the start