(Las Vegas) The executor of OJ Simpson’s estate says he will work to prevent payment of a $33.5 million judgment handed down by a California civil jury nearly three decades ago in connection with a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the families of Nicole Brown Simpson, the ex-wife of OJ Simpson, and her friend Ron Goldman.
Simpson’s will was filed Friday in a Clark County, Nevada, court, naming his longtime attorney, Malcolm LaVergne, as executor. The document shows that Simpson’s property was placed in a trust created this year.
Mr. LaVergne told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that Simpson’s entire estate had not been accounted for. Under Nevada law, an estate must go to court if its assets exceed $20,000.
Simpson died Wednesday without paying most of the civil judgment handed down in 1997 after jurors found him liable. With his assets having to go through the court probate process, the Goldman and Brown families could be in line to receive a piece of everything Simpson left behind.
Mr. LaVergne, who represented Simpson since 2009, said he specifically did not want the Goldman family to see the money from Simpson’s estate.
“I hope the Goldmans get nothing, nothing,” he said. Review-Journal. Them specifically. And I will do everything in my capacity as executor or personal representative to try to ensure that they get nothing. »
Mr. LaVergne did not immediately respond to telephone and email messages left by The Associated Press on Saturday.
Although the Brown and Goldman families lobbied for payment, Mr. LaVergne said there was never a court order requiring Simpson to pay the civil judgment. The lawyer said Review-Journal that his particular anger against the Goldman family stemmed in part from the events surrounding Simpson’s planned book, entitled If I Did It. Goldman’s family took control of the manuscript and renamed the book If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer (If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer).
Simpson gained fame and fortune through football and the entertainment industry, but his legacy was forever changed by the stabbing murders of his ex-wife and her friend in June 1994 in Los Angeles. He was acquitted of criminal charges in 1995, in a trial that fascinated the public.
Ron Goldman’s father, Fred Goldman, the lead plaintiff, always said the issue was never the money, it was all about holding Simpson accountable. And he said in a statement Thursday that with Simpson’s death, “hope for true accountability has ended.”
The Goldman and Brown families will at least be on equal footing with other creditors and will likely have an even stronger claim, since Simpson’s estate is being settled under the terms established by the trust created in January. The will lists his four children and notes that any beneficiary who seeks to challenge the provisions of the will “shall receive, without trust, one dollar and no more in lieu of any interest claimed in this will or its assets.”
Simpson said he lives solely on his NFL pension and private pensions. Hundreds of valuable possessions were seized as part of the jury’s sentence, and Simpson was forced to auction off his Heisman Trophy, which raised $230,000.