What kind of stuff was the dealer selling? I’d have to imagine that to risk getting into some legal trouble it must have been some very intrinsically or sentimentally valuable.
Did OJ have a point that it had been stolen?
The stolen items included a photo of OJ with J Edgar Hoover, his Hall of Fame certificate, and some family photos. The fact that they were stolen doesn’t seem to be in dispute.
Wikipedia has a good article on the case, and there are plenty of news articles online. The Las Vegas Sun has a good compilation of all of their articles, including video of the incident.
OK. Thanks.
If I was OJ, I’d definately feel that whatever people might say, the 33 year sentence was excessive and that my previous trial had influenced the judge.
People have been making money off OJ and his notoriety for years. The final straw was when he discovered his stolen personal items were being auctioned off at a potentially fat profit.
I’m also in the group that feels he got an excessive sentence. Anyone else would have gotten less than 5 years.
I’ve always wondered why OJ did something this stupid. He knew the courts were itching to shaft him and he foolishly walked into the trap.
Well, duh…
OJ is where he belongs and should have been since the first trial.
He was convicted of ten felonies, so I doubt that… but this is GQ. Simpson’s sentence was 9-33 years. His co-defendant got 7.5 to 27. Simpson has served 2 years already.
Dumb Question: Why didn’t OJ just file a lawsuit against the guy who stole his stuff to recovery his property? Was he hiding it from Goldman? Would the lawsuit proceeds have gone straight to Fred Goldman?
And, in addition, even beyond the Nicole Simpson / Ron Goldman case, he kept showing up in court. Setting aside things for which he was acquitted, and misdemeanors, you still had domestic violence (he pleaded “no contest”), failure to pay taxes, and pirating satellite TV signals. That history may well have also played a role in the sentance. While I suppose it’s possible that the sentance was, in some way, the judge’s way to somehow get Simpson to pay for the murders, it seems far more likely that the judge saw a man who has had repeated run-ins with the law, and a pattern of flouting the rules.
Yes. I use the expression “pulling an OJ” to desribe someone who hides their assets from a monetary lawsuit.
I thought OJ was living purely off his NFL pension, the only untouchable income he had. Did he somehow avoid paying the Goldman’s at all?
Pretty much. I seem to recall Fred Goldman saying at one point that he never saw a cent from OJ.
Of course that was before Goldman was awarded the rights to OJ’s book, "If I DID IT.
Simpson claimed that the stuff had been stolen from a storage locker, and someone advised him that a memorabilia dealer was trying to sell it. What Simpson should have done was to call the police to recover the stuff. He didn’t want the proceeds from the sale, he wanted the stuff back (it was mostly personal photos).
Maybe for some reason Simpson didn’t feel like he’d get great results by asking the police for help.
But barging into a hotel room with a bunch of armed toughs and taking the stuff back by force is a crime, no matter whether it belonged to him or not. And Simpson bore the brunt of the legal responsibility as the alleged ringleader.
If OJ had called the cops, the most likely outcome (given OJ’s still-unpayed judgement) would have been that the stuff would be sold anyway, with the proceeds given to the Goldman family.
What did happen to the “Stuff?”
It’s still in evidence until Simpson exhausts all of his appeals. Goldman successfully filed suit seeking possession of the items, and he’ll eventually get them.
That part pleases me no end. Especially if it really galls OJ.
And my earlier post, I was just speculating how OJ felt. Not my opinion, which is quite different.
While OJ probably deserves what he got, what’s happening to the thieves that stole his shit? Just because they tried to screw OJ and he ending up pulling guns on their asses I hope that wasnt an excuse to let THEM slide on some serious bullshit behavior.
To everyone who thinks the stuff was really stolen, would you like to buy a bridge?
Ahem.