Goldmans want O.J.’s Rolex, memorabilia
SM COURTHOUSE A Santa Monica Superior Court judge on Tuesday said he will consider a motion by the father of murder victim Ron Goldman to seize the sports memorabilia that O.J. Simpson allegedly tried to steal from a Las Vegas hotel room last week.
Judge Gerald Rosenberg gave Goldman’s lawyer, David Cook, one week to travel to Nevada and document the items the former USC tailback is accused of stealing to see if they actually belong to Simpson, and if so, should be auctioned off to pay the roughly $38 million he still owes the Goldman family after a civil court jury found him liable for the deaths of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Goldman.
Simpson was acquitted in criminal court of the 1994 murders but was ordered by a civil court jury to pay $33.5 million, which has grown with interest. The award remains largely unpaid.
Meanwhile, in Nevada on Tuesday, prosecutors filed formal charges against the fallen football star, alleging Simpson committed 10 felonies, including kidnapping, in the armed robbery.
Since he took the case last year, Cook said his clients have received $1,932 and “some odd coins” from residuals collected through Simpson’s film career, which included the “Naked Gun”series,“The Towering Inferno” and “Capricorn One.”
Simpson, who has been in the spotlight recently for writing the book “If I Did It,” in which he gives a hypothetical description of the Brentwood murders (the Goldmans’ own the publishing rights and have since added “Confessions of the Killer” to the title), was sitting in a jail in Nevada on Tuesday when District Attorney David Roger filed five additional felonies against him — bringing the total to 10 — including kidnapping and conspiracy to commit kidnapping, according to court documents.
Another man facing similar charges in the case said he believes the former football great was set up. He said the memorabilia dealer who tipped Simpson off that he may have had some of his collectibles recorded the hotel-room confrontation that led to Simpson’s arrest.
“It sounds like a setup to me,” said Walter Alexander, 46, on ABC’s “Good Morning America” on Tuesday. He said Simpson had thought the memorabilia belonged to him after getting a call from the dealer.
Meanwhile, one of the memorabilia dealers who spoke publicly about the incident on Monday, describing Simpson and a group of men coming into a hotel room “commando style,” was hospitalized with chest pains, according to new reports.
Bruce Fromong was transferred to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. There is no word on his condition.
Simpson was arrested Sunday on charges suspicion of assault and robbery with a deadly weapon. He faces the possibility of life in prison if convicted in the robbery at the Palace Station casino. He was being held without bail and was scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday.
Witnesses and authorities have said that they don’t believe Simpson had a gun, but that some of the men with him during the confrontation did. Simpson has said he was-n’t armed and that he went to the hotel simply to retrieve property that had been stolen from him.
In court in Santa Monica, Cook accused Simpson of “sitting on a treasure trove of sports memorabilia,” while ignoring the mutli-million dollar judgment against him, going so far as to deliberately conceal his earnings by funneling checks through corporations in which his children sit on the board of directors.
But both Cook and Simpson attorney Ronald Slates said they were not certain what the items were that are being held by Nevada police. Slates said it was unclear whether Simpson owned any of the items.
“I need to know more,” Judge Rosenberg told Cook, giving him until next Tuesday to come up with a list of the memorabilia, which Cook said he could easily obtain from authorities and members of the media. “I need to know, specifically, what the items are and if there is some connection to Simpson that these belong to him.”
Cook, who did his best to cast Simpson as a wealthy man earning $400,000 a year from four different pensions, also filed a request to get a watch Simpson was photographed wearing. The photo appears on the celebrity Web site TMZ.com. Cook said the watch appears to be a Rolex Submariner and sells for $5,000 or more.
Judge Rosenberg told Cook it would be his responsibility to obtain the watch and have it appraised. He set an Oct. 16 hearing to determine whether the watch should be exempt from the judgment.
The judge also ordered Cook to do more research on Simpson’s income to determine if the former running back was financially able to pay the Goldmans the $50,000 he earned last year for giving 2K Sports permission to use his likeness in a video game.
Cook argued Simpson was wealthy, citing a 2003 tax form indicating income of $400,000. He also said Simpson has four pensions — three for his NFL, TV and movie work and a private stock account worth more than $2 million.
Slates painted a different picture, saying Simpson, whose pensions are protected under federal law, was spending quite a bit of money taking care of his three children, including two of whom are in college.
“I understand that my client is not the most popular person, but he has a right to be protected,” Slates said during a news conference in front of the courthouse.
Slates said Simpson has made several offers to settle, which Cook replied it would be “a cold day in hell” before that would happen.
“It is inconceivable that the father of a murder victim would sit and haggle,” Cook said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 19, 2007. Read the original PDF.