They contended that the blood sample had been mishandled by lab scientists and technicians and that the case against Simpson had been tainted by LAPD misconduct related to racism and incompetence, in particular noting actions and comments of Detective Mark Fuhrman. The trial was considered historically significant for the wide division in reaction to the verdict by the public. Observers' opinions of the verdict were related to their ethnicity, and the media dubbed this the "racial gap". A poll of Los Angeles County residents showed that most African-Americans thought that the "not guilty" verdict was justified, while the majority of Whites thought it was a racially motivated jury nullification by the mostly African-American jury. More recent polling shows this "gap" has narrowed since the trial. In 2013 more than half of polled black respondents said that they believed Simpson was guilty. After the trial, Goldman's father filed a civil suit against Simpson. On February 4, 1997, the jury unanimously found Simpson responsible for the deaths of both Goldman and Brown. The Goldman family was awarded compensatory and punitive damages totaling $33.5 million ($ million in dollars), but have received only a small portion of that figure. In 2000, Simpson left California for Florida, one of the few states where personal assets such as homes and pensions cannot be seized to cover liabilities that were incurred in other states. Background Simpson–Brown marriage Nicole Brown met O.J. Simpson in 1977 when she was 18 and working as a waitress at the Daisy (a Beverly Hills private club). They began dating although Simpson was already married. Simpson filed for divorce from his first wife in March 1979. He and Brown married on February 2, 1985. Brown and Simpson had two children together, daughter Sydney (b. 1985) and son Justin (b. 1988). According to Dr. Lenore Walker, the Simpson-Brown marriage was a "textbook example of domestic abuse". Brown signed a prenuptial agreement and was prohibited from working while married. She wrote that she felt conflicted about notifying the police of the abuse because she was financially dependent on Simpson. Brown described an incident in which Simpson broke her arm during a fight; in order to prevent him from being arrested, she had told emergency room staff that she had fallen off her bike. She wrote about him beating her in public, during sex and even in front of family and friends. Of the 62