Prosecutors commissioned construction of a full-size model of the 335-square-foot Palace Station Hotel-Casino room that Mr. Simpson and five friends raided, departing with a trove of keepsakes that Mr. Simpson said were rightfully his.

The replica, built of fiberboard in a basement conference room at the Clark County Regional Justice Center complete with a mock bed, two nightstands, armoire and desk, was rejected as inadequate by Judge Jackie Glass. The judge took the jury to the actual Palace Station room last Friday instead.

Some lawyers were surprised that District Attorney David Roger would order such a thing constructed.

“This raises the fundamental question of how we’re going to use prosecutorial resources and how we’re going to treat celebrity defendants,” said Laurie Levenson, a former federal prosecutor.

Ms. Levenson said the only crime-scene reproductions she had seen were in prison assault cases, because it is unsafe to walk a jury into an actual jailhouse.

“For every dime spent on this case, that dime is not available for another victim’s case,” she said.

Mr. Roger refuses to disclose the price of the fake room until the trial is over. But John Crundwell, head of the lumber department at a nearby Home Depot, estimated that it cost at least $2,000 in labor and building materials. Judge Glass had ruled that she would not allow a visit to Palace Station because she feared exposing the jury to a media circus, but she relented after declaring that the model “doesn’t demonstrate the hotel room,” said a court spokesman, Michael Sommermeyer. The visit was done in secret early Friday, he said.

Mr. Sommermeyer said Mr. Roger wanted the jury to feel how cramped the room was and to get a sense that all participants “probably would have noticed things going on in the room.”

Jean Rosenbluth, a former federal prosecutor, said there were other ways to give jurors the feel of a crime scene. “I probably would have relied on the best photographs I could find,” said Ms. Rosenbluth, who also noted that prosecutors often create virtual tours using computer graphics. “There are all sorts of cases where the jury doesn’t go to the scene of the crime.”

A Palace Station spokeswoman, Lori Nelson, said she was surprised to hear of the reproduction. She said Room 1203 had been vacant since the Simpson incident in September 2007 because her company had not wanted to capitalize on its notoriety.

And what becomes of the fake room now?