O.J. Simpson arrested in alleged robbery

Ex- Football Star arrested in Las Vegas for alleged arm robbery


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 being transferred to a detention center for booking, Dillon said.
Dillon said he did not know whether Simpson would be able to post bail
and be released Sunday.
“He was very cooperative, there were no issues,” 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,
Lt. Clint 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 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.
After a
deal for Simpson to publish it fell through, a federal bankruptcy judge
awarded the book’s rights to the Goldman family, who retitled it “If I
Did It: The Confessions of the Killer.” On Sunday, the book was the
hottest seller in the country, hitting No. 1 on Amazon.com and Barnes
& Noble.com.

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.

Also Tuesday
night, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police arrested Michael F. McClinton, 50,
who became the fourth person charged in the incident, NBC News
confirmed.
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 five 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.

The judge may
set the bail at a hearing Wednesday in excess of $1 million because of
the kidnapping charges, a local expert told NBC News.
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.
Details of complaint
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 insists he wasn't armed
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. It was not immediately clear if McClinton was to
be released from custody also.
Some memorabilia in police custody
Some
of the missing goods, including autographed footballs, were turned in
Monday by Stewart, 53, of Las Vegas, before he was released on $78,000
bail.
Alexander,
46, of Mesa, Ariz., said Tuesday that Simpson may have been tricked
because another memorabilia dealer who tipped him off also recorded
everything on tape.
“It
sounds like a setup to me,” Alexander told ABC’s “Good Morning
America.” He said Simpson had thought the memorabilia belonged to him
after getting a call from the dealer, Tom Riccio.Riccio, who reportedly sold the audio to the
celebrity gossip Web site TMZ.com, said Tuesday that Simpson hatched
the idea himself.
“O.J.
came up with some way-out ideas before I finally agreed to the last
one, which didn’t go the way he said it would go. I didn’t do anything
wrong was the bottom line,” Riccio told Fox News Channel.
Simpson
and the other three men are charged with two counts of first-degree
kidnapping; two counts of robbery with use of a deadly weapon; burglary
while in possession of a deadly weapon; two counts of assault with a
deadly weapon; conspiracy to commit kidnapping; conspiracy to commit
robbery; and a misdemeanor, conspiracy to commit a crime.
Simpson also faces one charge of coercion with use of a deadly weapon, a felony.
Asked
whether the number of new charges seemed extreme, given the
circumstances, a leading Las Vegas defense attorney said prosecutors
often aim high.
“It’s
typical for them to allege as many crimes as they believe they can
establish probable cause for, knowing that to some degree it may not
completely pan out that way. It adds to the pressure on the defendant
for the purpose of negotiation,” said David Chesnoff, adding that the
charges make it likely Simpson will be asked to post a “very high bail.”
Simpson wealth disputed
Simpson
was acquitted more than a decade ago of the 1994 killings of his
ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Goldman’s son, Ron. He was later found
liable in a wrongful-death trial.
The
civil jury returned a $33.5 million judgment against Simpson, but it
remains largely unpaid. The Goldman family has waged a campaign to
claim Simpson’s assets since then.
Earlier
Tuesday in California, a judge gave Goldman’s father, Fred, a week to
come up with a list of sports memorabilia that Simpson is accused of
stealing from the Vegas hotel room, but he refused to order Simpson to
hand over his earnings from everything from autograph signings to video
games.
In court in
Santa Monica, David Cook, an attorney for Fred Goldman, accused Simpson
of “sitting on a treasure trove of sports memorabilia” while ignoring
the multimillion-dollar judgment. But both Cook and Simpson lawyer
Ronald Slates said they had no idea what the items were, and Slates
argued it was unclear whether Simpson really owned any of them.
Cook
also filed a new request to get Simpson’s watch, which he described as
a Rolex Submariner that he saw the former football star wearing in a
photo featured on the celebrity Web site TMZ.com. Such watches sell for
$5,000 or more, he said.
He also argued that Simpson was wealthy, citing a 2003 tax form indicating income of $400,000.
Slates
noted Simpson has expenses for his three children. “He has a right,
like everybody else, to be protected (under the law),” Slates said.
Slates also said Simpson has repeatedly offered to settle the judgment with the Goldman family.
“It is inconceivable that the father of a murder victim would sit and haggle,” Cook said.