O.J. Simpson's Ex-Wife, Man Found Slain

[DADOCTOR]

O.J. Simpson's Ex-Wife, Man Found Slain

June 14, 1994


Football great O. J. Simpson's former wife and a 25-year-old man were found apparently stabbed to death outside her Brentwood townhouse early Monday morning.

Los Angeles police said they were not ruling out anyone's possible involvement in the Sunday night slayings of Nicole Brown Simpson, 35, and Ronald Lyle Goldman, a waiter at a trendy Brentwood restaurant. Sources close to the case, who asked not to be named, said the football star was considered a suspect.

However, Simpson's attorney, Howard Weitzman, insisted that his client is innocent.

"He had nothing to do with this tragedy," Weitzman told reporters. "He is in shock."

Although police refused to identify any suspect, a knowledgeable source said a blood-soaked glove believed used during the killings was found at O. J. Simpson's house in Brentwood.

Weitzman confirmed that search warrants had been served at two residences belonging to Simpson--the house in Brentwood and an unspecified condominium. To obtain such warrants, police must provide a judge with probable cause to justify the action.

Police took the former football star into custody at his house Monday afternoon--handcuffing him briefly--before transporting him Downtown to the Police Department's Parker Center headquarters for questioning. Two hours later he was released, and Weitzman said Simpson would spend the night at the home of a friend.

"No one has said to me that he is a suspect," Weitzman said. "No one has said to me that he could be or would be charged with a crime. . . . I don't believe that O. J. would even contemplate doing something like this, to Nicole or any other person."

One source close to the case said Simpson's release was "a temporary thing." The source said an arrest was being delayed until forensic tests are completed.

Police said little about the crime, declining to offer a possible motive or to say exactly when the attack is believed to have occurred. Officers said only that there were signs of a struggle and that there was no evidence that the attack occurred during a robbery or a burglary.

"Obviously, we're not going to rule anyone out (as a suspect)," Police Cmdr. David Gascon said during a news conference Monday night. "We will pursue whoever we need to pursue until we bring the party to justice."

Shortly after a passerby found the bodies of Nicole Simpson and Goldman, police began looking for O. J. Simpson, learning a few hours later that he was in Chicago.

When Simpson had gone to Chicago was not clear, although Weitzman said his client took a "red-eye" flight sometime in the "late evening" on Sunday.

Pete Phillips, general manager of the O'Hare Plaza Hotel near Chicago's O'Hare Airport, said Simpson checked into the hotel at 6:15 a.m. CDT, which meant he could have taken any of at least three flights that left Los Angeles after 11:30 p.m. Sunday.

Phillips said Simpson had made a reservation three to five days earlier, and he showed up "just about the time" his reservation had indicated.

The hotel manager said Simpson told him that Hertz, the auto-rental company for which the former football player has long been a spokesman, was holding "a function" in Chicago. "He was in here to talk to the people and play a little golf," Phillips said.

Los Angeles police said they telephoned Simpson Monday morning and asked him to return home. "He was in Chicago when we contacted him," Lt. John Dunkin said. "Where he was last night is something we don't know."

Simpson checked out of the hotel about 8:30 a.m. CDT.

"He asked the desk clerk to get him a taxi," Phillips said. "He was in a hurry to get to the airport."

The manager said Simpson was so upset that he cut into a line of other guests waiting to check out and demanded service.

"He wanted to go right now," Phillips said.

Chicago police arrived about an hour later and searched Simpson's room, taking unspecified hotel property with them when they left.

Meanwhile, Simpson took a late-morning flight back to Los Angeles. Shortly after he reached his luxury home in Brentwood, police went to the house.

Yellow police tape was spread across the driveway gate of Simpson's estate, about two miles from the townhouse where the killings took place. Police placed pieces of cardboard on Simpson's driveway, marking small reddish-brown stains leading up the driveway to a point about 50 feet from the garage. Simpson's black Rolls-Royce was parked in the driveway.

Sources said the bloodstained glove was found inside the elegant home. Weitzman said that at his request, Simpson's handcuffs were removed. The football hero--grim-faced, wearing slacks and a polo shirt--was driven to police headquarters.

"We have brought him in to conduct a follow-up investigation and to question him as a potential witness," Officer Rigo Romero said.

After about two hours, Simpson left police headquarters and was driven away.

Police said they had been called to the townhouse in the 800 block of South Bundy Drive several times in the recent past to deal with domestic dispute between Simpson and his former wife. "It's an ongoing problem," one officer said.

Simpson, 46, and his former wife--who has worked as a waitress, sales clerk and interior decorator--divorced in 1992, three years after he pleaded no contest to a spousal battery charge filed after he allegedly hit her, kicked her and told her, "I'll kill you."

Friends said the couple had been attempting to get back together in recent months, but the reconciliation attempt came to an end several weeks ago.

Goldman's co-workers at Mezzaluna, the trattoria in Brentwood, said the waiter--a trim and handsome man who had once modeled in a print advertisement for Giorgio Armani--was acquainted with Nicole Simpson.

They said the two worked out at the same gym and saw each other often at the restaurant, but it was unclear whether they had a close relationship.

Karim Souki, one of the owners of the restaurant, said Nicole Simpson--whose townhouse is about four blocks from the restaurant--had been a regular for years.

Stewart Tanner, a bartender at the restaurant, said that although authorities listed Goldman's home as in the Agoura area, the waiter had been living somewhere in Brentwood and walked to work each day.

Souki said Simpson had been to the restaurant Sunday night with her children as part of a party of 10. Later, Souki said, she telephoned to inquire about her prescription glasses.

"She said she had misplaced them, and then we found them," Souki said.

Goldman's relatives in Ventura County said he apparently was just dropping the glasses off after his shift ended.

"He obviously got caught up in something that he wasn't involved in," said his stepbrother, Mike Glass, 16.

Detectives said the Simpsons' two children--Sidney Brooke, 9, and Justin, 6--were asleep in the Mediterranean-style townhouse on Bundy when the slayings occurred Sunday night.

Police said a passerby found Nicole Simpson's body sprawled on the steps of a walkway in front of the townhouse shortly after midnight. Goldman's body was found a few feet away, in shrubbery.

"Sharp-force injuries," such as stab wounds, appear to have played a part in the deaths, but other causes have not been ruled out, said Scott Carrier, a spokesman for the county coroner's office.

The bodies were discovered by a man walking along the sidewalk who glanced up the walkway in front of the townhouse. Police were called and the area was cordoned off.

As dawn broke, neighbors and passersby gathered outside the crime scene.

Denise Pilnak, a jogger who lives nearby, remembered hearing dogs barking shortly before midnight.

"It was nonstop barking," she said. "It made me think something was going on with the neighbors."

Pauli Orchon, 35, a marketing director who lives in the neighborhood, said she was there Monday morning when officials removed the sheet they had been using to cover Nicole Simpson's body.

"She was lying on her side, just crumpled down," Orchon said. "I could see some abrasion to the side of her face. . . . There was a lot of blood on both bodies."

Orchon said she had often seen Nicole Simpson walking her dog in the neighborhood in recent weeks, and she theorized that the woman might have been doing that when the attack occurred. Orchon said passersby found a dog with a leash wandering through the neighborhood Monday morning, "and everyone says it's her dog."

Amy Goodfriend, 25, a music publisher who stopped by to see what was going on Monday, said she had been a friend of Nicole Simpson's for several years.

"She's blonde, she's tanned, she's absolutely beautiful," Goodfriend said. "I'm in shock. I can't believe this."

O. J. Simpson--best known in recent years for his Hertz commercials, his work as a football analyst on NBC and his roles in "The Naked Gun" series and other movies--was one of the game's most popular stars.

During his two years at USC, Orenthal James Simpson equaled or bettered dozens of records, culminating his collegiate career with the Heisman Trophy--awarded to the nation's best college football player--in 1968.

After he was drafted in the first round by Buffalo in 1969, he went on to establish a National Football League single-season rushing record of 2,003 yards in 1973. He finished his 11-year pro career with the San Francisco 49ers as the second-leading rusher in NFL history, and in 1985, he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Simpson has two adult children by his first marriage, which also ended in divorce.

[DADOCTOR]

Friends Recall Simpsons as a Vibrant Couple

June 15, 1994

Whether at star-studded parties, trendy clubs or just shopping at neighborhood boutiques in Brentwood, O. J. Simpson and his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, were a couple that grabbed attention.

Fit, attractive and accustomed to expensive cars and lavish lifestyles, the former Laguna Beach residents were strong-minded and witty people who seemed to command a room, even during a stormy marriage and fitful attempts to reconcile, friends said.

The former football great and the athletic Nicole Simpson, who divorced him in 1992, were seen together frequently during much of the last year as they made what appeared to be a sincere attempt to reunite, especially on O. J.'s part, friends said. But Nicole Simpson--who was killed late Sunday night outside her home--apparently told Simpson in recent weeks that they could not hope to resolve their differences, police sources said.

"They were definitely courting each other again," said one friend, who declined to be named, recalling times when the couple were seen at popular Brentwood restaurants and at the Brentwood Mart, a mall of shops and eateries on 26th Street. In addition, they had begun sharing more time together with their two children--Sidney Brooke, 9, and Justin, 6--the friend said.

"They were very visible. . . . He had the highest regard for her, and for her as a mother," the friend said.

Simpson, 46, and his former wife, 35, who grew up in the Monarch Bay community of Dana Point, were together at a number of high-profile bashes after their divorce, including a fund-raising benefit for Cedars-Sinai Medical Center held in May, 1993, at the Century Plaza Hotel. Don Klosterman, former general manager of the Los Angeles Rams football team, remembered attending the fete and noticing that the couple appeared close. She held his arm, and they attracted the usual amount of attention, Klosterman said.

"Walking in, you'd see them arm in arm," he said. "She's a very, very attractive lady. . . . There always seemed to be a lot of laughter (around them). Like any couple, they were going to have misgivings with each other at times, but I've never seen it flare at all. They were just a great couple together."

Klosterman, a longtime friend and golfing partner of Simpson's, described him as a charismatic personality who never showed a tendency toward anger.

"In all the years that I've known him, I've never seen him lose his temper or his composure," Klosterman said. "He was always up . . . kidding people. He has a great sense of humor. He is a lot of fun to be with, and always has been."

Like others in Simpson's circle, Klosterman expressed disbelief at the growing evidence that police sources say could link the Hall of Fame athlete to Nicole Simpson's murder. That evidence includes a bloodstained glove recovered from his Brentwood home, as well as drops of blood found on Simpson's driveway.

"I just can't conceive that he would be involved in anything like this," Klosterman said. "It's so inconsistent with his demeanor and his behavior that I've known through the years."

Yet it was no secret that the relationship had been rocky at times. Three years before their divorce, Simpson pleaded no contest to a spousal battery charge after he allegedly kicked and hit his wife, yelling, "I'll kill you," at their estate on Rockingham Avenue. That incident occurred shortly after 3 a.m. on New Year's Day, 1989.

In January, Nicole Simpson bought a $625,000, Mediterranean-style condo two miles from the home on Rockingham. Since then, police said, officers have had to intervene in several domestic disputes between Simpson and his former wife. One officer described it as "an ongoing problem."

Late Sunday night, Nicole Simpson and a male friend, 25-year-old Ronald Lyle Goldman, were slain at the gate of the condo. Friends said they were close friends who were often seen together, but police said they apparently had no romantic involvement. Investigators theorized that Goldman--a waiter at a nearby restaurant--was killed after he returned a pair of glasses that Nicole Simpson had left at the restaurant earlier that night.

Although Nicole Simpson and Goldman knew each other, one family friend of the Simpsons said: "There was no romance (between them). That's a fact. (He) was just in the wrong place at the wrong time."

Nicole Simpson began dating Simpson shortly after graduating from Dana Hills High School in Dana Point, where she was called a popular student and "campus beauty" by instructor Harlen Chambers, who said she was a member of the homecoming court in 1976, her senior year. She was married to Simpson for seven years, often traveling with him, before filing for divorce. In ending the marriage, she cited irreconcilable differences.

John Pentz of Newport Beach, the student body president at Dana Hills High School in 1976, said he was shocked to learn of her murder.

"She was a real nice girl, extremely beautiful, very friendly," Pentz said, adding that the students of the time were divided into two categories, surfers and socials. "She hung out with the surfer crowd, she wasn't very involved in other school activities."

Pentz said fame never went to her head. Even when she and her husband were recognized on a first-name basis when they visited their favorite South Laguna haunts, the two would stop to chat with old friends, he said.

Nicole Simpson's family issued a statement Tuesday night from their Dana Point home describing her as "a kind, generous and loving daughter, sister and friend."

"Her sense of caring and her nurturing spirit made her a most sensitive and adoring mother," the statement said.

Two neighbors, interviewed just outside the community's gates, said friends and relatives making their way to and from the family's home Tuesday appeared distraught, their faces tear-stained. The women, who asked not to be named, said they believed the Simpsons' two young children were staying with the grandparents.

"What are they going to tell the children? The whole neighborhood just feels for them," said one resident. "They're a very close-knit family, very nice people," said another resident.

Nicole Simpson was funny, sometimes opinionated and an aficionado of the good life, friends said. She drove a white Ferrari, spent much of her time working out at Brentwood athletic clubs or jogging on San Vicente Boulevard, and liked to dance at Renaissance, a popular club on Santa Monica's Third Street Promenade.

Usually, she danced there on Thursday nights, often until 2 a.m., said Ray Barron, 37, a bartender at Renaissance who also lives in Brentwood.

"She was very charming, very attractive, fun to be with," Barron said. "There was always a group of guys hitting on her. (She was) a sexy dresser, a good-looking woman. . . . You could see how somebody could become very attached to her."

Even on nights when 500 people jammed the club, Nicole Simpson seemed to stand out, Barron said.

"She was a nice lady--she wasn't sleazy by any means," Barron said. "I always thought she was very classy."

Barron, who met Nicole late last year, said he later got to know her because they own the same type of dog--an Akita, a Japanese breed known for its fierce protectiveness. Not long ago, her dog, Kato, escaped the yard and he returned it to her, Barron said. Nicole gratefully invited him into the house for coffee.

There were pictures of her children in the condo, but no obvious sign of her marriage to Simpson.

"She never, ever mentioned O. J.," Barron said. "She really didn't go too deep into her personal life."

But other friends said she maintained strong feelings for Simpson. Pam Schwartz, a close friend of the Simpsons, said another friend saw them together Sunday at a dance recital for their daughter, Sidney.

Schwartz said she talked to Nicole Simpson on Saturday afternoon during a rehearsal at Paul Revere Junior High, where the ex-wife said: "I've always loved O. J."

During the years they were together, the Simpsons liked to throw frequent, celebrity-filled parties, first at a beachfront home they owned in Laguna Beach, then later at the estate on Rockingham, friends said.

Rocco Cedrone, 56, a friend of Simpson's since his days as a Heisman Trophy winner at USC in the 1960s, remembers attending the elaborate 1985 wedding for the couple at Simpson's home. The event took place in a tent that held about 150 guests, plus a band, flowers and gourmet food.

"I've been to some of the great weddings of our times, and this ranks right up there," said Cedrone, who owns a menswear store, Rocco, in Beverly Hills. "He always had a large crowd up at the house. The atmosphere was always upbeat, whether people were playing pool, playing tennis, watching sports.

As Simpson and his ex-wife began trying to patch up their relationship, word spread through Brentwood and in entertainment and sports circles. A saleswoman at one upscale clothiers on San Vicente Boulevard recalled Simpson coming in near Christmas, talking happily about the couple getting back together.

"He said he was going to reconcile," said saleswoman Jodi Kahn of the shop Theodore. "He seemed like he was really happy."

[DADOCTOR]

Victim Thrived on Life in Fast Lane, His Friends Recall

June 15, 1994

Life for Ronald Lyle Goldman was a nonstop merry-go-round of working out at a trendy gym, serving dinner at a trendy restaurant and dancing at trendy nightclubs, those who knew him said Tuesday.

He had model good looks, a body sculpted by daily weightlifting sessions and tennis, and a magnetic personality that friends said made them want to hang around him, just to see what he would be up to next.



Goldman, 25, also had an increasingly close relationship with 35-year-old Nicole Brown Simpson, whom he had exercised with, accompanied to dance clubs and often met for coffee and dinner during the past month and a half.

He told others that he was just friends with Simpson. But he boasted of her stunning good looks and talked about the special kick it gave him to see heads turn when the two of them pulled up in her white Ferrari in front of The Gate, a fashionable West Hollywood dance club, with him behind the wheel.

The bodies of Goldman and Simpson were found outside her Brentwood townhouse early Monday morning. Police sources have said they do not believe that he was romantically involved with Simpson or that their friendship contributed to their deaths. Some of Goldman's friends said he was merely returning a pair of sunglasses Nicole Simpson had left at the nearby restaurant where he worked as a waiter.


"He definitely would have told me if he was seeing O.J. Simpson's ex-wife," said Mike Pincus, 25, of Agoura Hills, who had known Goldman since they were in kindergarten together in Chicago. "That's just the kind of guy Ron was. Whenever he was dating someone, we all knew about it."

Pincus and others said Goldman, an aspiring model, often dated beautiful women who were drawn to his dark good looks. He had moved from Chicago in 1987 and quickly became enamored of the California lifestyle, becoming an avid surfer, volleyball player and nightclub hopper.

At one point, Goldman appeared on the Fox television dating show "Studs." Asked by the host how he would rate himself on a scale of one to 10, Goldman held his hand up at eye level and joked: "I'm way up here. There really isn't a scale for me."

Craig Clark and Goldman met five years ago when both were waiters at the Pier View restaurant in Malibu. After work on weekends, the two would hit one club after another, from the Sagebrush Cantina in Calabasas to the Westside or even Orange County, winding up early Monday morning with breakfast. "Anywhere that was hot," Clark said.

Even so, Goldman did not drink or take drugs and stuck religiously to a low-fat diet, friends said.

Clark said that when Goldman moved to Brentwood 18 months ago he cut back on socializing but still spent weekend nights on the town, often getting in for free because he knew the clubs' owners. Goldman recently promoted a nightclub party himself, inviting the guests to a hot Century City club called Tripp's.

"From the minute I came out here, life with Ron was a big roller coaster ride," said Pincus. "You never knew what you would be doing the next day, but you always knew it would be fun."

Six weeks ago Goldman was driving the Ferrari, with its highly recognizable L84AD8 license plate, when he joined Clark for lunch at Cafe Montana in Santa Monica. Clark said that Goldman told him it was Nicole Simpson's car, but that he did not say she was his girlfriend. "He said they were friends," Clark recalled.

Goldman's relationship with Simpson was platonic, said Jodi Kahn, a friend of his who also was acquainted with Nicole Simpson. "It was very innocent," she said.

Although Goldman seemed to thrive socially, he also was struggling to find himself, family members said. He had lots of dreams, according to friends, but few of them panned out. He had completed a year of college in Chicago before moving to California and took some classes here, but he did not get a degree.

A neighbor who lived nearby on Gorham Avenue in Brentwood said Goldman was struggling to make the rent until he got a new job this year as a waiter at Mezzaluna, an upscale restaurant.

He had been working as a waiter at the Cheesecake Factory when he was sought out to pose for an advertisement, according to Kim Goldman, his sister, a 22-year-old student at San Francisco State University. That inspired him to pursue a career in the fashion business, and he put together a modeling video.

"He's a good-looking guy and people approached him," she said. "He thought he could use some extra money and he figured there was nothing wrong with taking advantage of his looks."

Before becoming a waiter, he had worked as a tennis coach and employment headhunter. When he was younger, he had been a camp counselor and had volunteered to help disabled children. Goldman had become licensed recently as an emergency medical technician but decided not to pursue that and he had told friends that he eventually wanted to own a bar or restaurant in the Brentwood area.

"He tended to get into something and then say, 'Oh, well, maybe not.' " his sister said. "He was in the process of trying to pinpoint where his niche was."

Although "he did a lot of different things . . . the one thing you could say about him is . . . he's really good with people," she said. "People are just drawn to him."

Friends and family members said that despite his apparent affection for the fast lane there was another, more down-to-earth side to Goldman. They said that his true love was tennis and that his great talent was working with children--teaching them to play the game he loved or helping out at a center for kids with cerebral palsy.

Kim Goldman said that what her brother wanted most was to marry and have a family.

"Because we grew up with a lot of upheaval, he wanted some stability," she said. "But he took it one day at a time. He rolled with the punches and he did the best he could with what he had."

She said her brother was "very loving. He didn't have a mean bone in his body."

[DADOCTOR]

Simpson Held After Wild Chase | He's Charged With Murder of Ex-Wife, Friend

June 18, 1994

O.J. Simpson, the football great who rose from the mean streets of San Francisco to international celebrity, was arrested Friday for the murders of his ex-wife and a male friend after leading police on a gripping, two-hour chase through the rush-hour freeways of Southern California.

The dramatic capture of one of the best-known and best-loved public figures in America came shortly before 9 p.m., about 10 hours after he was to have turned himself in to Los Angeles police. Simpson's lawyer, Robert L. Shapiro, said Simpson, 46, had agreed to surrender earlier, but bolted at the last minute with Al Cowlings, a longtime friend and former teammate at USC and with the Buffalo Bills.

A massive manhunt involving scores of law enforcement officers ended in the cobblestone driveway of Simpson's Tudor-style mansion, as Los Angeles Police Department officers in bulletproof vests converged on the white Ford Bronco in which Simpson and Cowlings had fled.

As the truck sat parked, its hazard lights blinking silently in the balmy June night, Cowlings got out of the driver's seat and walked into the house. Then, for nearly an hour, a distraught Simpson sat inside the truck, reportedly cradling a blue-steel revolver and demanding to speak to his mother.

Hundreds of supporters gathered in the upscale neighborhood, chanting "Free O.J.," and rocking police cars. Meanwhile, the LAPD Special Weapons and Tactics team and negotiators surrounded the house, eventually coaxing Simpson out of the vehicle by cellular telephone. He put the gun down and emerged about 8:50 p.m. carrying a framed family photo.

Simpson went into the house, used the bathroom, called his mother and drank a glass of juice, authorities said. He was then transported by police motorcade to Parker Center for booking and transported to Men's Central Jail. Cowlings was booked on suspicion of harboring a fugitive. He was being held on $250,000 bail.

The dramatic arrest, broadcast live on national television, capped a tragic weeklong drama that began with the slayings of Simpson's ex-wife, 35-year-old Nicole Brown Simpson, and Ronald Lyle Goldman, a 25-year-old Brentwood waiter whom she knew.

Nicole Simpson and Goldman were found stabbed to death early Monday morning outside her Brentwood condo. Police sources said the two were slain sometime after 10 p.m. Sunday as her two small children slept inside.

Although the Police Department had refused all week to label Simpson a suspect, and Simpson's lawyers said he was innocent, sources inside the LAPD made it clear from the outset that he was the focus of their investigation. The former college and professional football star was briefly handcuffed at his mansion Monday afternoon and taken to police headquarters for questioning. He was later released, and remained free as evidence mounted against him day by day.

By Friday, detectives had concluded their case, recommending that Simpson be charged with two counts of first-degree murder. The charges, which include a "special circumstance" of multiple killings, could bring him the death penalty if he is convicted.

Los Angeles Police Cmdr. David J. Gascon said Simpson had been scheduled to turn himself in to police at 11 a.m. Friday, with arraignment scheduled for that afternoon in Los Angeles Municipal Court.

But 45 minutes, and then an hour, ticked by and Simpson was nowhere to be seen. Finally, just before 2 p.m., police held a news conference to announce that Simpson had officially become a fugitive.

"He is a wanted murder suspect," Gascon said tersely, "and we will go find him."

It was unclear how the 6-foot-2, 210-pound Simpson--who had been dogged by crowds of reporters and cameramen for most of the week--had managed to escape authorities, who had felt confident that someone so famous would never attempt to flee.

Throughout the week, Simpson had appeared to be sequestered in his Brentwood home, emerging only to visit his children and to attend Nicole Simpson's funeral in Orange County. After the services Thursday, a man resembling Simpson was photographed ducking past hordes of news reporters into the home--escorted by an off-duty LAPD sergeant.

Police sources said Friday, however, that the man who resembled Simpson was a decoy, who was under the escort of LAPD Sgt. Dennis L. Sebenik, a 25-year veteran who works in the LAPD Harbor Division. Police said they want to interview Sebenik.

Unbeknown to department leaders, Sebenik was serving as a member of Simpson's security detail even as police were investigating the former football star.

Sebenik said he manages a "legitimate security company" and had been hired to provide security for Simpson. He would not comment on why an off-duty Los Angeles police officer was protecting a man widely reported to be a suspect in a double homicide.

Gascon said department officials were investigating Sebenik's conduct.

"I'm not going to rush in here and defend anything that might have occurred, but I'm not going to rush to judgment either," Gascon said. "We have no interest in excusing what is obviously going to be a difficult situation to explain."

Shapiro said Simpson had been told Friday morning that he would have to surrender that day. Because of Simpson's "fragile" emotional state, Shapiro said he had asked several doctors to join him at the San Fernando Valley home of Simpson friend Robert Kardashian, where a heavily sedated Simpson had spent Thursday night.

Shapiro said Simpson had spent the morning in the throes of what appeared to be a suicidal depression. He updated his will, the lawyer said, called his mother and his children and gave three sealed letters to a friend at the house.

One, addressed "To whom it may concern," reiterated Simpson's denial that he had any part in the murders, and reflected his anguish at the events of the past week.

"I think of my life, and feel I have done most of the right things," the letter said. "So why do I end up like this? I can't go on. No matter what the outcome, people will look and point. I can't take that. I can't subject my children to that."

Shapiro said the plan for Simpson's surrender had not been an unusual one, adding that he had made similar arrangements for other clients in previous cases. But the surrender, he said, had been delayed for nearly an hour by a medical examination of Simpson.

Police, impatient about the delays, called the house to say that they were coming to make the arrest. But Shapiro said he did not pass on that news to Simpson, who was with Cowlings in another part of the house.

It was apparently at that point that Simpson and Cowlings slipped away, Shapiro said.

From that point on, the afternoon was a frenzy of police activity and public astonishment.

In downtown bars people watched television sets, once primed for the championship basketball series, now tuned only to the breaking news story. At the Spectrum Club in Santa Monica, exercisers pedaled stationary bikes to TV sets tuned to coverage of O.J. Simpson's temporary disappearance. Downtown streets were deserted. Even West Hollywood's Sunset Strip, generally bumper-to-bumper with night-clubbers and party-goers, was empty.

At Tower Records on Sunset Boulevard, 15 television monitors were tuned to the Simpson story, and customers were transfixed.

"It's paralyzed our business," said manager Gary Wilde. "They're just standing there in awe."

What they saw was nothing less than the running to ground of one of the most famous murder suspects in U.S. history. Every move was chronicled on live television, a jump-cut documentary of an icon's demise: now he was reported missing, now feared dead, now alive and headed south on Interstate 5.

Before the police could finish announcing that he had disappeared, the drama had shifted back to the scene of the crime.

Shortly after 2 p.m.--at almost the same moment that authorities were announcing to an audibly shocked press corps that Simpson was a fugitive--Nicole Simpson's grieving father rushed from his daughter's tile-roofed condominium, begging a teen-ager to dial 911.

LAPD Sgt. Bob Brounstein said a man claiming to be Simpson had called the house at least twice, saying he was coming over to the scene of the murders to kill himself.

"I'm going to go join Nicole," the caller allegedly said. But Simpson never turned up at the residence.

"We have a big mess," Sgt. Doug Abney told an anxious crowd. "This is a false alarm."

Then, just before 6 p.m., Highway Patrol officers spotted Cowlings' white Ford Bronco heading south through Orange County on Interstate 5.

A phalanx of police vehicles took off in pursuit, blocking traffic on the freeway and entrance ramps as Simpson and Cowlings wound their way through Orange County and back to Simpson's Brentwood home.

During the pursuit, LAPD Detective Fred Lange, the lead investigator on the case, contacted Cowlings on the phone, and was told that Simpson was in the back seat with a gun to his head, that he would never surrender and that he wanted to see his mother.

As TV news choppers broadcast the astonishing spectacle--the white Bronco slowly wending its way across Southern California, a cadre of 20 black-and-white squad cars in its wake--traffic came to a halt along the freeways from Disneyland to Los Angeles and commuters jammed the overpasses to cheer and wave at Simpson as he passed. Some held up huge signs exhorting, "Go O.J." Meanwhile, scores of callers from across the country pleaded with him over the airwaves on KNX-AM news radio to pull over and turn himself in.

The disappearance of Simpson threatened to create a public relations nightmare for the LAPD and the district attorney's office, whose decision not to arrest the ex-football star earlier had been second-guessed in some quarters. Police sources had been saying all week that the evidence against Simpson was strong enough to warrant his arrest, and yet the department held off, hoping to build an airtight case before taking him into custody.

Gascon said the department was "very unhappy" with Simpson's disappearance and stressed that police had not given Simpson special treatment in their handling of the investigation.

Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti, who described himself as "upset and angry" about Simpson's disappearance, also defended the Police Department's performance, saying investigators had done a commendable job at building the case against the former athlete.

In the four days after the killings, police sources say, evidence steadily mounted linking Simpson to the crimes.

Bloodstains on the walkway where the bodies were found matched Simpson's blood type, they said, and two bloodstained gloves were recovered, one at the scene, its match outside his Brentwood home.

Polices sources also said that a trail of blood drops stretched across Simpson's cobblestone driveway. And Friday, they said that bloodstains inside his home matched Nicole Simpson's blood type. The blood evidence appeared to figure against Simpson but is not necessarily conclusive, sources said. Even the rarest blood types are shared by many people.

Garcetti said that a murder weapon, which he described as a "substantial knife," had yet to be found.

It was shortly after midnight Sunday that the blood-soaked bodies of Nicole Simpson and Goldman were found sprawled on a Spanish-tile walkway outside her Brentwood condominium. Coroner's investigators said both their throats had been slit, and their corpses bore multiple stab wounds.

Within hours, police began looking for Simpson, who, they later learned, had taken an 11:45 p.m. flight to Chicago.

Notified of his ex-wife's death, Simpson returned to Los Angeles, arriving shortly before noon.

As police bore in on Simpson during their investigation, he changed lawyers, hiring Shapiro on Tuesday. But Shapiro said his client grew increasingly distraught and began undergoing treatment for depression.

At his news conference Friday, Shapiro said he and Simpson's doctors feared that the football great might attempt suicide. One of Simpson's last acts before disappearing had been to write the three letters to his children, his mother, who was hospitalized in San Francisco Friday night, and to the public.

Although the letters to his children and mother were not released, close friend Kardashian, who joined Shapiro at the news conference, read the public letter to a hushed group of reporters on live television.

In it, Simpson expressed regret for the life that he would never have with his current girlfriend and thanked a list of former teammates, golfing buddies and good friends. He acknowledged the much-publicized fights with his ex-wife and their recent decision not to reconcile after years of turmoil, but characterized them as the natural ups and downs of long relationship.

He urged the news media to leave his children in peace. And he denied that he was the man who committed the brutal killings.

"I have nothing to do with Nicole's murder," Simpson wrote. "I love her, always have and always will.

"Don't feel sorry for me," the letter concluded. "I have had a great life, great friends. Please think of the real O.J., and not this lost person."




The Sequence of Events

FRIDAY

MORNING

8:30 a.m.: Robert Shaprio, lawyer for O.J. Simpson, receives call from LAPD officials telling him to surrender his client.

9:30 a.m.: Shapiro goes to an undisclosed home in the San Fernando Valley, and informs Simpson he will have to surrender by 11 a.m.

Murder charges are filed against Simpson in the slayings of Nicole Simpson and Ronald Goldman; arraignment is scheduled for the afternoon.

11 a.m.: Simpson is scheduled to surrender.

AFTERNOON

Shortly afternoon, accoridng to Shapiro, the lawyer receives call from LAPD officials telling him that police must annonuce that Simposon is a fugitive. he gives police directions to the house.

Police arrive at the San Fernando Valley house. Shapiro, who is with Simpson's doctors and others in a room at the house, says Simpson and Al Cowlings, a former college and pro football teammate of Simpson who had been with him, had left the house.

1:50 p.m.: LAPD Cmdr. David Gascon announces that Simpson has not surrendered for arraignment as scheduled and is a fugitive.

2 pm.: Police respond to 911 call at the scene of the slayings, after a man identified as Nicole Simpson's father comes out of the house asking people to call 911.

3 p.m.: LAPD officer at Nicole Simpson's condominium tells reporters, "O.J. Simpson is not here."

Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti, at news conference, says anyone helping Simpson to flee will be prosecuted as a felon. "We will find Mr. Simpson and bring him to justice." Police are searching for his former teammate, Cowlings. Garcetti says prosecutors have not decided whether to seek the death penalty in the case.

4:45 p.m.: Police issue an arrest warrant for Cowlings.

EVENING

5 p.m.: Shapiro holds press conference, during which a longtime Simpson friend, Robert Kardashian, reads a letter from Simpson: "Don't feel sorry for me," ends the note. "I've had a great life, great friends. Please think of the real O.J. and not this lost person. Thanks for making my life special. I hope I helped yours. Peace and love. O.J."

5:51 p.m.: Simpson reportedly makes a 911 call from the cellular phone in his Ford Bronco. His location is traced to the Santa Ana Freeway in Orange County near Lake Forest, where his ex-wife, Nicole, was buried Thursday.

5:56 p.m.: CHP begins pursuit.

7:30 p.m.: After moving onto the Artesia Freeway, the Bronco turns north on the San Diego Freeway in Torrance, soon encountering crowds standing on the roadway and overpasses.

7:57 p.m.: Simpson and Cowlings arrive at Simpson's Brentwood home and negotiations for surrender begin.

8:47 p.m.: Police issue an all-clear after taking Simpson into custody.

9:37 p.m.: Simpson arrives at Parker Center in police custody.

[DADOCTOR]

Simpson Not Guilty | Drama Ends 474 Days After Arrest

The ex-football star expresses gratitude and returns to his Brentwood estate where friends and family celebrate. Relatives of the victims react with pain and grim silence to the jurors' decision.

October 4, 1995

Bringing one of history's most riveting courtroom dramas to a stunning climax, O.J. Simpson was acquitted of two counts of murder Tuesday, verdicts that set the football Hall of Famer free 474 days after he was arrested and charged with a brutal double homicide.

At 11:16 a.m., Simpson returned home to his Brentwood estate, embracing his longtime friend Al Cowlings in the same driveway where the two were arrested on June 17, 1994. As night fell, crowds of well-wishers and detractors gathered beyond police barricades while the Simpson entourage partied inside the famous home.

Within hours of the verdicts--broadcast live and bringing businesses across the country to a temporary standstill--family members of the victims retreated in grief, and the first of the anonymous jurors emerged to give The Times an interview in which he dismissed the prosecution's physical evidence as "garbage in, garbage out."

While jurors scattered to their homes, prosecutors, defense lawyers and family members of the victims and defendant gathered in an extraordinary series of news conferences.

In a statement read by his eldest son during one of the media sessions, Simpson expressed relief, gratitude and a commitment to finding whoever murdered his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Lyle Goldman.

"I am relieved that this part of the incredible nightmare that occurred on June 12, 1994, is over with," Simpson said. "My first obligation is to my young children, who will be raised in the way that Nicole and I had always planned."

Simpson vowed to pursue "as my primary goal in life" the killer or killers responsible for the murders, concluding: "I only hope someday that--despite every prejudicial thing that has been said about me publicly, both in and out of the courtroom--people will come to understand and believe that I would not, could not and did not kill anyone."

After 266 days of sequestration at the Inter-Continental Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles, jurors deliberated a mere three hours before accepting Simpson's contention that the charges against him were unproven.

Their verdicts, which were delivered in a courtroom so tense that some spectators trembled visibly in anticipation, united jurors and Simpson in a strangely triumphant moment.

Simpson smiled thinly and mouthed the words "thank you" as the not guilty verdicts were read. Two jurors smiled back. Another, Lionel (Lon) Cryer, raised his left fist in a salute toward Simpson as the panel left the courtroom.

But the same finale was greeted with shock by the family of Nicole Simpson, and it wrenchingly broke the spirits of Goldman's relatives.

Nicole Simpson and Goldman were knifed to death outside her Brentwood condominium on June 12, 1994, a foggy summer evening in an otherwise quiet neighborhood. O.J. Simpson pleaded not guilty to the crimes, but he was the only suspect, and members of both victims' families came to believe that he was responsible for the murders.

In court, Fred Goldman, the victim's father, stared in pain at the ceiling, his wife in one arm and his daughter in the other, both sobbing openly as the verdicts were read. In the quiet courtroom, Kim Goldman's gulping sobs were the only sound that accompanied the reading.

"Oh my God," Patti Goldman said, turning to her shaken husband.

"Murderer," he said under his breath, repeating that later as he left the courtroom.

Kim Goldman, Ronald's sister, fought to keep herself from speaking out while court was in session--Superior Court Judge Lance A. Ito had warned that any outbursts would be grounds for ejection. But after the verdicts were delivered, she could not contain herself. She quietly burst out a short string of expletives, then turned to the people sitting near her on the courtroom bench and apologized.

"I'm sorry," she said, repeating that twice more as her long red hair cascaded over her tear-stained cheeks.

Later, Fred Goldman said the night of the murders "was the worst nightmare of my life."

"This," he added, "is the second."

Prosecutors Solemn, Defense Celebrates

For the police who investigated the case and the prosecution team that brought it to trial and spent six months presenting what Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti labeled a "mountain of evidence," the quick verdicts were a devastating repudiation.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Christopher A. Darden turned toward the panel as it was being polled and glared at its members, his mouth half open in disbelief and dismay. None of the jurors would meet his gaze.

Next to him, Deputy Dist. Atty. Marcia Clark refused even to turn toward the jurors. She looked over her right shoulder and pursed her lips, expressionless but for the exhaustion in her eyes.

The two lead police investigators, Tom Lange and Philip L. Vannatter, sat a few feet away. They showed no emotion and declined to comment at length afterward. Asked whether he could believe the verdicts, Vannatter responded only: "No, not at all."

Afterward, at a news conference featuring the district attorney team and the Goldman family, downcast prosecutors publicly thanked each other for their efforts but were obviously shaken by the swift dismissal of a case in which they summoned 72 witnesses during 99 days of testimony.

Clark, her voice thick and her eyelids heavy, expressed her sympathy and love for the victims' families and thanked the members of her team for doing a "beautiful job."

Darden stepped to the lectern next. The young prosecutor, who distinguished himself in the trial's closing arguments, said he was not bitter about the verdicts, but when he began to thank his colleagues, he faltered: "I'm honored to have. . . ." he said. Then he paused, his voice tightening up.

With a small wave of resignation, he stepped away from the microphone and crumpled in the arms of the Goldman family.

Although Darden said he accepted the jury's verdicts, his boss, Garcetti, conceded that he was angry.

"We are, all of us, profoundly disappointed," he said.

"This case was fought as a battle for victims of domestic violence," Garcetti said. "We hope this verdict does not discourage the victims, who are out there throughout our communities, throughout this country, from seeking help."

For the defense team, the trial's end represented an enormous legal triumph: Johnnie L. Cochran Jr., the defense's lead trial lawyer, hugged colleagues and denounced pundits who viewed the verdicts as an indication of the predominantly black jury's distaste for the LAPD rather than a reflection of its evaluation of the evidence.

"I just want to say how grateful we all are for this verdict," Cochran said at the defense's news conference. "We think the verdict bespeaks justice. We were always optimistic. That optimism proved right."

He and the defense team were joined at the news conference by Simpson's family--his mother, sisters and grown children--who effusively expressed their gratitude and relief. His mother, Eunice, said her belief in her son had never wavered, and her grandson, Jason, read his father's statement.

Cochran said his client did not attend the news conference for security reasons--Nation of Islam guards were present at the courthouse and have provided security for the Simpson family and defense team in recent days.

But one of Simpson's sisters, Shirley Baker, said family members were ecstatic: "I just feel like standing on top of this table and dancing a jig."

A Case of Twists and Turns

The Simpson case tragically and violently began with a double murder in the normally placid Westside community of Brentwood. No credible eyewitnesses ever surfaced to the murders, but the culprit or culprits left behind a number of clues.

Bloody shoe prints from Size 12 shoes led away from the bodies, and drops of blood were found to the left of those shoe prints. A bloody glove and a knit cap were found next to the corpses.

Four detectives went to Simpson's house before dawn that morning--they said they were there to notify Simpson of the killings and to help him care for his children, who were inside their mother's home when she was killed. Once there, they jumped the fence and one of them, now retired Detective Mark Fuhrman, told his colleagues that he had found the mate to the bloody glove at the crime scene.

It was at that moment, Vannatter testified, that Simpson became a serious suspect.

Over the next few days, more pieces of evidence would fall into place that seemingly implicated Simpson: When he was interviewed by police on the day after the killings, for instance, police noticed several cuts on his left hand, one of which they believed was large enough to have left the blood drops at the scene.

Bloodstains also were found in Simpson's car, and analysis of the drops leading away from the bodies revealed that they matched his blood type. A pair of his shoes revealed that he wore Size 12.

Still more evidence would surface later: A limousine driver interviewed by police said he saw a shadowy figure darting inside Simpson's house just before 11 p.m. and Simpson then quickly answering the intercom. Simpson said he had overslept, but investigators believed that was a lie, that he actually had just returned from committing the crimes and was trying to hide his tracks.

Armed with sophisticated DNA tests, a history of domestic violence between Simpson and his ex-wife, and powerful circumstantial evidence suggesting that Simpson had the opportunity to commit the crimes, prosecutors boasted early on that convictions seemed likely, even inevitable.

Simpson and his high-priced but often divided legal team argued strenuously from the outset that he was innocent, and his lawyers launched an extraordinary assault on the police investigation.

Cochran accused police of a "rush to judgment" and attacked every aspect of the inquiry. According to Cochran and the rest of the legal contingent assembled by Robert L. Shapiro, coroners were not summoned promptly, criminalists were ill-trained and poorly supervised, and evidence in the case was hopelessly contaminated and corrupted.

A highly touted pair of DNA legal experts, Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld, were brought in from New York to take on the prosecution's physical evidence, a task they tackled with vigor. With aggressive cross-examinations of prosecution witnesses, they challenged the evidence collection techniques, and they called Dr. Henry Lee, one of the nation's foremost criminalists, who testified that "something's wrong" with the physical evidence.

Although prosecutors responded to each point, jurors dismissed early in the case said they had doubts about the integrity of some evidence after hearing the defense challenge.

Then, just as the trial was winding down, the defense team dropped a bombshell whose impact will reverberate through Los Angeles long after the spotlight has moved from Simpson. One of the detectives in the case, Fuhrman, had given a series of interviews to an aspiring screenwriter; in them, he boasted of beating suspects, singling out minorities for brutal treatment and manufacturing evidence.

Gamely fighting back, prosecutors responded that Fuhrman's evident racism and lying discredited him but should not taint the case as a whole.

Although Shapiro had once promised that race would not be an issue in the Simpson case, Cochran made no such pledge. In his closing argument, Cochran called Fuhrman a "lying, perjuring, genocidal racist," compared him to Adolf Hitler and blasted the investigation as nothing short of a sham.

Joined by Scheck, he encouraged jurors to "do the right thing" and called on them to reject the Police Department and its Simpson investigation with not guilty verdicts.

That message carried the day.

One juror, returning home Tuesday, declined to comment in detail about the case, but her brief statement echoed Cochran's argument.

"I think we did the right thing," she said. "Matter of fact, I know we did."

From the beginning of their deliberations, Cryer said, 10 panelists believed Simpson was not guilty; the other two, he said, came around after testimony of the limousine driver was read back to them. Cryer also dismissed the government's central theory of the case: that Simpson had killed his ex-wife as the final act of a violent, controlling relationship.

"The prosecution tried to build a picture of him raging that day on June 12 to a point where he was wanting to be controlling of Nicole," Cryer said. "And apparently he didn't have that control anymore, and that's why he went over there and killed her.

"To be honest with you," Cryer said, "I never bought into it. I didn't see it."

Reaction Quick and Emotional

Throughout Southern Californian and the nation, reaction to the verdicts was heartfelt, and opinions often broke along racial lines--as they often have throughout the case.

Outside the courthouse, where crowds grew larger and more unruly in the trial's closing days, demonstrators got word over radios and television sets. Dozens immediately burst into joyful shouts. Some pumped fists in the air. Some cried.

Bus riders traveling along Alvarado Avenue on the No. 18 line broke into cheers when the driver announced the verdicts over the loudspeaker system.

But in the Orange County neighborhood where Simpson's children are being cared for by their grandparents, someone posted a sign reading: "O.J., you're not welcome here."

Tuesday night, the intense emotions that swept through the region all day coalesced at Simpson's Brentwood estate, where supporters and detractors gathered outside the gates. Preachers shouted messages of love and forgiveness, and a saxophonist played "Amazing Grace" to a backdrop of helicopter noise.

The crowd's chants of "O.J.! O.J.! O.J!" drew his sister, Shirley Baker, to the estate gate, where she briefly addressed news crews. "We just want to thank all you guys," she said. "O.J. is home, and at a later time, he's going to speak with you."

But not all were there in support.

"What about Ron Goldman?" asked Shane Novak, who criticized Simpson and his lawyers for holding a party to celebrate the verdicts. "There's no one playing a saxophone at Ron Goldman's party now."

In political circles, from Washington to Sacramento, there also was no shortage of comment on the case that has preoccupied the country for nearly 16 months.

President Clinton, who watched the verdicts from the Oval Office, wrote out a short statement in longhand.

"The jury heard the evidence and rendered its verdict," he wrote. "Our system of justice requires respect for their decision. At this moment, our thoughts and prayers should be with the families of the victims of this terrible crime."

Gov. Pete Wilson echoed Clinton's sympathy for the families, but also argued that the long, contentious trial demonstrated the need for legal reforms. Wilson, who is a lawyer, said television cameras should be removed from criminal trial courtrooms, and recommended that attorneys be prohibited from asking juries for a "political message" such as the one sought by Cochran in denouncing the LAPD.

"I would urge the removal of cameras from our courtrooms," Wilson said. "To contribute to turning a serious legal proceeding into a circus-like atmosphere is not in the interest of justice or public confidence in the justice system."

Wilson also was fiercely critical of Cochran. "I find it particularly distressing, in fact it is more than that, when lawyers do not argue the issue at hand," the governor said, "and instead ask jurors to use a verdict as a means of sending a political message to law enforcement."

In Los Angeles, Mayor Richard Riordan, who broke off a trip to Asia to be at his post when the verdicts were announced, praised jurors for their "extreme sacrifices to meet the challenges of this trial." The mayor urged residents to accept the panel's decision.

"Whether we agree or disagree," Riordan said, "we must accept the decision."

Police Chief Willie L. Williams, whose department has been subjected to yearlong criticism and whose officers went on tactical alert Tuesday, said he hoped the jurors' decision was not based on "the defense team's decision to put my department on trial."

"The vast majority of the men and women of the Los Angeles Police Department day in and day out put their lives on the line serving the people of our community," Williams said. The chief urged residents to "move on . . . make sure all the races in this city work together."

Nevertheless, many legal experts said the verdicts demonstrated how badly the LAPD's credibility has eroded, particularly in the minds of many black residents.

"This just shows that you can't get black jurors to trust LAPD," said Harland W. Braun, an experienced defense attorney who represented Officer Theodore J. Briseno in the Rodney G. King civil rights case. "If you can convince jurors to eliminate any evidence that LAPD might have tainted, this is what happens."

Steven D. Clymer, who prosecuted that case and won convictions against two of the officers, said the verdicts also demonstrated the power that charges of racism can bring to a criminal trial.

"I think it's a tragic irony that O.J. Simpson, a person who probably never suffered the kind of racism that Mark Fuhrman dished out, is a beneficiary of the claims of racism," said Clymer, now a professor at Cornell Law School. "I doubt that O.J. Simpson in his adult life experienced those things. I feel it's a terrible result. I feel so bad for those families."

But John Burris, an Oakland civil rights lawyer, said he considered the verdicts well-supported by the defense case and justified by the questions raised about the LAPD's performance.

"The verdict is a perfectly sensible verdict in light of the evidence presented," he said. "It reaffirms my faith in the good sense of African Americans that police misconduct won't be tolerated."

Although Tuesday's verdicts mean that Simpson can never be tried again for the murders, they do not end the legal action spawned by the brutal murders nor Simpson's legal troubles.

The district attorney's office has indicated that it will consider perjury charges against Fuhrman, though most legal analysts say a conviction would be difficult to win. The Justice Department and the LAPD, meanwhile, are investigating possible criminal charges growing out of Fuhrman's comments in the taped interviews.

And Simpson faces an immediate future still dotted by legal challenges. Three separate wrongful-death lawsuits have been filed against him, one by each of Goldman's parents and the third by Nicole Simpson's estate.

Those cases do not require a finding of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, only that jurors conclude that a preponderance of the evidence favors one side or the other. And they are unaffected by Tuesday's acquittals.

Robert Tourtelot, the attorney who once represented Fuhrman and continues to represent Fred Goldman and his family in their lawsuit against Simpson, pledged Tuesday to pursue that lawsuit aggressively in the coming months.

"Today, the judicial system took a very big hit," he said. "A lot of people will be looking to us for justice."

Having successfully dispatched the criminal charges, Cochran and his staff will represent Simpson in those cases as well.

[DADOCTOR]

For the latest news about O.J Simpson

Click here

[DADOCTOR]

Nevada Supreme Court justices are considering whether to let O.J. Simpson and a former golfing buddy out of prison while the full court reviews their convictions for a gunpoint* heist.

MSNBC News

[DADOCTOR]

A three-judge panel of the Nevada Supreme Court has heard a motion from O.J. Simpson's attorney to release the former NFL star on bail pending his appeal of his 2008 armed robbery and kidnapping trail.

The panel is not expected to make a decision for several weeks.

It was the first time in more than 30 years the state's high court took oral arguments for bail prior to an appeal.


Simpson is serving a sentence of nine to 33 years for his involvement in a hotel room robbery of two sports memorabilia dealers in September 2007. He was convicted in October and sentenced in December 2008.


His attorney Yale Galanter argued before the court that Simpson's trial was "riddled with errors" and will probably be overturned on appeal. He also said that Simpson, 62, was not a flight risk.


Appeals Cites Dozens of Errors
Prosecutors argued that the jury had spoken and it was time for Simpson to serve his sentence.


Galanter filed a lengthy appeal earlier this year citing dozens of errors in the trial, including the seating of jurors who said they thought Simpson was guilty of the murders of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman.


Simpson was acquitted in that trial but found liable for their deaths in a civil trial in 1997.


More...

[DADOCTOR]

Web site seeks donations to help O.J. Simpson appeal conviction



(CNN) -- A new Web site is seeking donations to help free O.J. Simpson, who it says was wrongly convicted of robbery and kidnapping.

Creators of the site say the controversial former football star was railroaded by a "kangaroo court" in Las Vegas, Nevada, last year.


Simpson was sentenced in December to a maximum of 33 years for his role in an armed confrontation with sports memorabilia dealers in a hotel in 2007, and he'll be eligible for parole in nine years.


The Web site, run by a group called the Society Against Legal Injustice, says Simpson's case was mishandled and he deserves an appeal. The group lists what it calls errors in the case, including the contention that Simpson was targeted because of his controversial acquittal in the killings of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her companion Ronald Goldman in 1995.


The group put the price tag for an appeal at $1 million.


"The unfairness levied against O.J. Simpson in Las Vegas is something no citizen deserves," the site says. "O.J. Simpson is not a wealthy man anymore and is therefore largely at the mercy of the Las Vegas legal system."


The group says its goal is "to educate, promote and advocate against judicial discrimination." But the only case the nonprofit organization highlights on the site is Simpson's.



Prosecutors said Simpson led a group of men who used threats, guns and force to take sports memorabilia from dealers Bruce Fromong and Al Beardsley.



Simpson claimed he was trying to recover items that belonged to him. Most of the co-defendants in the case made deals with prosecutors in exchange for testifying against Simpson.


The two-member board of directors listed on the Web site could not be reached immediately for comment.