Simpson arrested in Vegas robbery Sports memorabilia stolen at gunpoint BY RYAN NAKASHIMA The Associated Press
LAS VEGAS — O.J. Simpson was arrested Sunday and faces multiple felony charges in an alleged armed robbery of collectors involving the former football great’s sports memorabilia, authorities said. Prosecutors were planning to charge Simpson with two counts of robbery with use of a deadly weapon, conspiracy to commit robbery, burglary with a deadly weapon, two counts of assault with a deadly weapon and coercion, said Clark County District Attorney David Roger. A conviction on the most serious charge, robbery with use of a deadly weapon, could bring a sentence of three to 35 years for each count, he said. “He is facing a lot of time,” Roger said. Simpson was at the Clark County Detention Center on Sunday night for booking. He was ordered by a judge to be held without bail, police said. “He was very cooperative, there were no issues,” Capt. James Dillon said. At least one other person has been arrested and police said Sunday that they were searching for four others in connection with the alleged armed robbery that occurred in a room inside the Palace Station casino-hotel on Thursday. Police Lt. Clint Nichols said Simpson invoked his right to an attorney immediately after being arrested. Simpson, 60, has said he and other people with him were retrieving items that belonged to him. Simpson has said there were no guns involved and that he went to the room at the casino only to get stolen mementos that included his Hall of Fame certificate and a picture of the running back with J. Edgar Hoover. 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 unresponsive to him ever since his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ron Goldman, were killed in 1994. “The police, since my trouble, have not worked out for me,” he said, noting that whenever he has called the police “It just becomes a story about O.J.” The Heisman Trophy winner, ex-NFL star and actor lives near Miami and has been a tabloid staple since his ex-wife and Goldman were killed in 1994. Simpson was acquitted of murder charges, but a jury later held him liable for the killings in a wrongful death lawsuit. Police said two firearms and other evidence were seized at a private residence early Sunday. Walter Alexander, 46, of Arizona, was arrested Saturday night on two counts of robbery with a deadly weapon, two counts of assault with a deadly weapon, conspiracy to commit robbery and burglary with a deadly weapon. He was released without bail on Saturday night, Dillon said. Besides the two firearms, police said they seized other evidence during early morning searches of two residences, Nichols said. “It was evidence of a crime that was committed,” Nichols said. “And I believe we recovered some clothing that the individual was wearing in the commission of the robbery.” Simpson said auction house owner Tom Riccio called him several weeks ago to say some collectors were selling some of his items. Riccio set up a meeting with collectors under the guise that he had a private collector interested in buying Simpson’s items. Simpson said he was accompanied by several men he met at a wedding cocktail party, and they took the collectibles. Alfred Beardsley, one of the sports memorabilia collectors involved in the alleged robbery, has said he wants the case dropped and that he’s “on O.J.’s side.” Nichols said police had a responsibility to investigate how the collectibles were taken, regardless of who they belong to. “We don’t believe that anybody was roughed up, but there were firearms involved in the commission of the robbery,” he said. Simpson’s arrest came just days after the Goldman family published a book that Simpson had written under the title, “If I Did It,” about how he would have committed the killings of his ex-wife and Goldman had he actually done it. JAE C. HONG/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Former NFL star O.J. Simpson is transferred to the Clark County Detention Center in Las Vegas on Sunday.
Simpson charged with 10 felonies Ex-athlete accused of kidnapping in memorabilia fracas BY KATHLEEN HENNESSEY The Associated Press
LAS VEGAS — Prosecutors filed formal charges Tuesday against O.J. Simpson, alleging the fallen football star committed 10 felonies, including kidnapping, in the armed robbery of sports memorabilia collectors in a casino-hotel room. Simpson was arrested Sunday after a collector reported a group of armed men charged into his hotel room and took several items Simpson claimed belonged to him. Simpson, 60, was booked on fi ve felony counts, including suspicion of assault and robbery with a deadly weapon. District Attorney David Roger filed those charges and added five other felonies, including kidnapping and conspiracy to commit kidnapping, according to court documents. Simpson, accused along with three other men, 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. According to the charges, Simpson and the others went to the hotel room under the pretext of brokering a deal with Alfred Beardsley and Bruce Fromong, two longtime collectors of Simpson memorabilia. Once in the room, Simpson prevented one of the collectors from calling 911 on his cell phone “by ripping it out of Fromong’s hand” while one or more accomplices pointed or displayed a handgun. The complaint does not specify which of the men involved was carrying the weapon. The kidnapping charge accuses the men of detaining each of the men “against his will, and without his consent, for the purpose of committing a robbery.” Fromong, a crucial witness in the case, was in critical condition in a Los Angeles hospital on Tuesday, after suffering a heart attack Monday, according to a spokeswoman at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. Beardsley has said he does not want to pursue the case. Simpson’s lawyer, Yale Galanter, said he planned to ask for Simpson’s release on his own recognizance. “If it was anyone other than O.J. Simpson, he would have been released by now,” Galanter said. Simpson has insisted that he was not armed and that he went to the hotel simply to retrieve property that had been stolen from him. “You can’t rob something that is yours,” Galanter said. “O.J. said, ’You’ve got stolen property. Either you return it or I call the police.’” Witnesses and authorities have said that they don’t believe Simpson had a gun but that some of the men who accompanied him during the confrontation were armed. Two others named in the complaint, Walter Alexander and Clarence Stewart, have been arrested and released. A fourth suspect, Michael Mc-Clinton, 49, of Las Vegas, surrendered to police Tuesday. Police describe him as “a key player” in the suspected theft. Police were seeking two more suspects, who had not been identified.
He is already saying that he was set up. Next it will be the 'race card'.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
He was always guilty in the eyes of the public and so are the Ramsey's.....he shouldn't have been so proud as to feel comfortable with the cameras.....we are voyeurs......
I am ashamed at the NEWS media calling his story news.....anyone here share Thanksgiving turkey with him?? I didn't think so.....
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
O.J. Simpson freed after judge sets bail at $125,000 BY RYAN NAKASHIMA The Associated Press
LAS VEGAS — In a scene of legal deja vu, a grayer, heavier O.J. Simpson stood handcuffed in court Wednesday to face charges that could put him behind bars for life. The prosecutor who failed to get him a dozen years ago was there to watch, and news cameras tracked his every move as if they were covering a slow-speed chase. But as Simpson made his $125,000 bail on charges including kidnapping and armed robbery, legal experts were questioning: Could a former football star who beat a double-murder rap really do hard time for a crime that sounds like a bad movie? Police have laid out a case that makes Simpson the leader in an armed holdup of sports memorabilia collectors, and they arrested a fifth suspect in the case Wednesday. Some of the facts — including a curious recording of the confrontation — don’t seem so clear-cut. Legal experts say that issues such as who had rightful ownership of the goods and the reputation of witnesses in the sometimes less-than-reputable world of memorabilia trading could cloud the prosecution’s case. Simpson has insisted he was merely retrieving items that were stolen from him earlier. Alfred Beardsley, one of the collectors who says he was robbed at gunpoint by Simpson and several other men, told NBC’s “Today” show before Simpson’s hearing that he didn’t think an audiotape made at the scene was accurate. Beardsley was arrested on a parole violation Wednesday. The other victim, Bruce Fromong, was recovering from a heart attack in a Los Angeles hospital. The man who arranged the meeting between Simpson and the two collectors, Tom Riccio, has a criminal record. “The credibility of the cohorts in the enterprise would be a key issue at trial,” said University of Southern California law professor Jody Armour. Dennis Turner, a professor at the University of Dayton School of Law, agreed. “This is a pretty shady world and pretty shady characters dealing with each other in a pretty shady way.” A key difference with the 1995 murder trial is that there are plenty of witnesses this time who place Simpson at the scene, including hotel video surveillance. Simpson has made no secret he went to the hotel room intending to take the memorabilia and told The Associated Press that a man who came with him brought a truck to cart away the goods. “It’s not like the murder case involving his ex-wife and Ron Goldman, where Simpson had a completely different story in which he said, ‘I wasn’t there,’ ” said Doug Godfrey, a professor at the Chicago-Kent College of Law. “A prosecutor only has to show intent. And the intent is, ‘Were you acting in concert with someone with a gun to take property from someone?’ If you were, you’re guilty of armed robbery.” Simpson attorney Yale Galanter said: “You can’t rob something that is yours.” Simpson furrowed his brow as the judge read the list of charges against him. Gone was the slight smirk he flashed when he was arrested. He answered quietly in a hoarse voice and nodded as the judge laid out restrictions for his release, including surrendering his passport to his attorney and having no contact with co-defendants or potential witnesses. Simpson did not enter a plea.
O.J., redux First published: Thursday, September 20, 2007
There he is again, impossible to miss on the front pages, all over TV and, this time around, on the Web, too. It's O.J. Simpson, back in police custody and now free on bail a dozen years after a trial blown hopelessly out of all proportion presented America with the creepy spectacle of a celebrity turned scoundrel very likely getting away with murder. So, yes, there's an unmistakable poetic justice in Mr. Simpson's arrest on charges of -- and how sleazy is this? -- stealing his memorabilia.
There's also a warning to heed, if only a culture that has a hard enough time focusing on more than one thing at a time can absorb it. It's to keep the proceedings of a robbery and kidnapping case from bursting out of control.
O.J. facing the prospect of the prison sentence he avoided after his arrest in 1994 for the murders of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ron Goldman, is a test for more than a justice system that was mocked so hideously in a trial that went on, or so it seemed, forever. It's also a test for the press, the entertainment media and the culture at large.
There's a lot more that confronts the world than one apparently desperate and diabolical man facing his comeuppance. There was in 1994 and 1995, too, not that a casual observer of American life would have known it. To have regarded the botched prosecution and subsequent acquittal of Mr. Simpson as the "Trial of the Century," as so many people did, required overlooking Nuremberg.
For the people who watch and chronicle American life, let's remember: The United States is in an ill-advised war where it can't seem to find a way out. The consequences of the cockamamie scam to provide mortgages to people who couldn't begin to afford them might yet push the economy into a recession. The inability to control greenhouse gas emissions has the planet in a peril that would have been hard to anticipate during O.J. Chapter One. Terrorism and the possibility of more of it are an unsettling and daily reality.
End of lecture. O.J. is a story, but not the lead. Context and perspective, please.
People today seem to be an infatuation with the rediculous. Perhaps that is their escape from the everyday BS that radiates from our TV's. Or perhaps it is just plain ignorance. In either case this type of 'entertainmnet' is the talk at the office water cooler. Clearly not what the president or local officials have been up to. Not what new laws have been proposed that are restricting our personal lives more and more on a daily base. Nope...it's reality TV, OJ, Paris Hilton or Britney Spears.
Escaping from our everyday life may be some people's way of remaining sane in an insane world, but there clearly needs to be a balance.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
People today seem to be an infatuation with the rediculous. Perhaps that is their escape from the everyday BS that radiates from our TV's. Or perhaps it is just plain ignorance. In either case this type of 'entertainmnet' is the talk at the office water cooler. Clearly not what the president or local officials have been up to. Not what new laws have been proposed that are restricting our personal lives more and more on a daily base. Nope...it's reality TV, OJ, Paris Hilton or Britney Spears.
Escaping from our everyday life may be some people's way of remaining sane in an insane world, but there clearly needs to be a balance.
My friends are insane.....
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
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