LAS VEGAS – The executor of OJ Simpson’s estate says he will work to avoid paying a $33.5 million judgment awarded by a California civil jury nearly three decades ago in a wrongful death lawsuit filed by Simpson’s ex-wife’s families , Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ron. Goldman.
Simpson’s will was filed Friday in a Clark County, Nevada courtroom, naming his longtime attorney, Malcolm LaVergne, as executor. The document shows that Simpson’s estate was placed in a trust created this year.
LaVergne told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that Simpson’s entire estate was unaccounted for. Under Nevada law, an estate must go through the courts if its assets exceed $20,000.
Simpson died Wednesday without having paid most of the civil judgment awarded in 1997 after jurors found him liable. With his assets set to go through the court probate process, the Goldman and Brown families could be in line to receive a share of everything Simpson left behind.
LaVergne, who has represented Simpson since 2009, said he specifically did not want the Goldman family to see any money from Simpson’s estate.
“I hope the Goldmans get zero, nothing,” he told the Review-Journal. “Them specifically. And I will do everything in my power as executor or personal representative to try to make sure they get nothing.”
LaVergne did not immediately return phone and email messages left by The Associated Press on Saturday.
Although the Brown and Goldman families pushed for payment, LaVergne said there was never a court order compelling Simpson to pay the civil judgment. The lawyer told the Review-Journal that his private anger toward the Goldman family stemmed in part from the events surrounding Simpson’s planned book, titled “If I Did It.” Goldman’s family gained control of the manuscript and renamed the book “If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer.”
Simpson gained fame and fortune through show business, but his legacy was forever changed by the knife 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.
Goldman’s father, Fred Goldman, the lead plaintiff, has always said the issue was never the money, but just holding Simpson accountable. And he said in a statement Thursday that with Simpson’s death, “hope for true accountability is over.”
The Goldman and Brown families will be at least on an equal footing with other creditors and will likely have an even stronger claim once Simpson’s estate is liquidated under the terms set out by the trust created in January. The will lists his four children and notes that any beneficiary who wishes to contest the will’s provisions “shall receive, free of charge, one dollar ($1.00) and nothing else in lieu of any interest claimed in this will or in his estate.”
Simpson said he lived solely off the NFL and private pensions. Hundreds of valuable possessions were seized as part of the jury prize, and Simpson was forced to auction off his Heisman Trophy, raising $230,000.
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