O.J. charged with 6 felonies
WASHINGTON – Las Vegas police arrested O.J. Simpson Sunday and charged the former football star with six felony counts in connection with an alleged hotel room robbery, placing Simpson in his most serious legal jeopardy since his acquittal on double murder charges in 1995.
Simpson, 60, was arrested Sunday morning, three days after two sports-memorabilia dealers told police that he and five other men burst into their room at the Palace Station Hotel and Casino, several of them brandishing guns, and seized various mementos, including several items autographed by the NFL Hall of Famer.
Police charged Simpson with two counts of robbery with a deadly weapon, two counts of assault with a deadly weapon, and one count each of conspiracy to commit burglary and burglary with a firearm. He was booked Sunday night in the Clark County Detention Center; a judge ordered him held without bail.
At a news conference Sunday night, police said there were no indications Simpson was carrying a weapon during the alleged robbery nor was there evidence of physical harm to anyone.
Simpson has repeatedly asserted his innocence in a series of interviews since Thursday, saying no guns were involved and he had conducted a “sting operation” to retrieve property that had been taken from him years earlier by a former sports agent.
“I’m O.J. Simpson. How am I going to think that I’m going to rob somebody and get away with it?” he told the Los Angeles Times in a story published Sunday. “You’ve got to understand, this ain’t somebody going to steal somebody’s drugs or something like that. This is somebody going to get his private (belongings) back. That’s it. That’s not robbery.”
Simpson, who lives in South Florida, said he traveled to Las Vegas after an auction-house owner, Thomas Riccio, told him that two collectors, Bruce Fromong and Alfred Beardsley, were there selling memorabilia belonging to him. Riccio met Simpson and several other men in the lobby of the hotel and escorted them to the hotel room, according to Simpson’s account.
Beardsley later told the celebrity-news Web site TMZ.com that members of Simpson’s party entered the room and inquired about buying the suit that Simpson wore on the day in October 1995 when a Los Angeles jury found him not guilty of the murders of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman. After Simpson entered the room, Beardsley said he was directed “at gunpoint” to pack up various items that Simpson said were his.
Among the items were Simpson’s Hall of Fame certificate, a picture of the former University of Southern California and Buffalo Bills running back with former FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover, family photos and a pair of cleats used by former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Joe Montana, police said. The dealers told police the items are worth about $75,000.
However, in an interview Saturday with the Associated Press, Beardsley – who has known Simpson for about 25 years – said he wants the case dropped and that he’s “on O.J.’s side.”
On Saturday, Las Vegas police arrested Walter Alexander, 46, of Mesa, Ariz., for his alleged role in helping Simpson. He was booked on four counts, all felony charges: conspiracy to commit robbery, robbery with a deadly weapon, assault with a deadly weapon and burglary with a deadly weapon.
Legal experts said Simpson and his reputed conspirators could face years of jail time if convicted on any of the charges.
Police said they had recovered two handguns that were allegedly used in the incident, some of the alleged stolen property and some of the clothing worn by the suspects.
Las Vegas police are seeking four other men, said Capt. James Dillon, who heads the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department’s robbery and homicide bureau. Lt. Clint Nichols of the department described the men as having “a social relationship” with Simpson, but denied reports that they were off-duty police officers.
Simpson was arrested at his room at the posh Palms resort, and led away in handcuffs. The arrest took place “without incident,” said Dillon.
Simpson told the Associated Press on Saturday that he did not call the police to help reclaim the items because he has found the police to be unhelpful ever since the killings of Brown Simpson and Goldman in June 1994.
“The police, since my trouble, have not worked out for me,” he said. Whenever he has called the police, he said, “It just becomes a story about O.J.”
Asked by CNN for his reaction to Simpson’s arrest Sunday, Goldman’s father, Fred Goldman, said, “I guess the obvious answer is ‘outstanding.’ He’s finally been arrested for something that if I’m lucky, if we’re all lucky, he’ll go to jail for. Unfortunately, it’s not for murder.”
Simpson’s latest legal travail comes as his controversial book, “If I Did It,” about the 1994 killings, is being published. Simpson wrote the book for a company owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., but the project was dropped last year amid public outrage.
Fred Goldman subsequently won the right to publish the book after a legal battle. Simpson owes the Goldman family more than $38 million as a result of a wrongful-death civil judgment against him in 1997, but the Goldman family has received less than $10,000 from Simpson, who has protected many of his assets from seizure.
The book, newly subtitled “Confessions of the Killer,” was ranked No. 2 on Amazon.com’s bestseller list Sunday, behind former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan’s memoir, “The Age of Turbulence.”
Calls to Simpson’s attorneys, and to Fred Goldman and Denise Brown, Nicole Brown Simpson’s sister, were not returned Sunday.