LAS VEGAS – OJ Simpson’s last vigorous argument with his longtime lawyer occurred just before Easter, at the country club house Simpson rented southwest of the Las Vegas Strip.
“He was awake, alert and cold,” attorney Malcom LaVergne recalled Tuesday. “He’s on the couch… drinking a beer and watching TV. And that was the last time we had effective conversations. He’s usually the one who keeps me updated on the news… so we were just catching up on the news.”
About a week later, on April 5, a doctor said Simpson was “in transition,” as LaVergne described it. The last time LaVergne visited, last week, Simpson only had the strength to order water and opt to watch a golf tournament on TV. of a tennis match.
“Of course he chose golf,” LaVergne told The Associated Press in an interview. “He was an absolute golf fanatic.”
Simpson died on April 10 after being diagnosed last year with prostate cancer. He was 76 years old.
A post the next day from Simpson’s family on X, formerly Twitter, said Simpson “succumbed to his battle with cancer” while “surrounded by his children and grandchildren.” However, LaVergne said Tuesday that only one person was with Simpson when he died, identified by his attorney only as “a close family member.” He refused to say who he was.
“You have to remember that they shared orange juice with the world their entire lives,” the lawyer said of Simpson’s surviving adult children from his first marriage — Arnelle Simpson, now 55, and Jason Simpson, 53 — and the children Simpson had with ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson before she was killed in 1994: Sydney Simpson, 38, and Justin Simpson, 35. The family’s social media post asked “during this time of transition” for “privacy and grace.” .
“At first they shared good orange juice, but he was still famous,” LaVergne said. “And then in 1994, they kind of had to share bad boy OJ with the world. But at the end of the day, these kids just lost their father. And they have the added burden that he is one of the most famous people on the planet, who is polarizing and surrounded by controversy.”
LaVergne, who handles Simpson’s estate, shared details of his final encounters with the former hero, film actor, sportscaster, television host and celebrity murder defendant he has represented since 2009.
He deflected a question about any possible deathbed confession from Simpson as an attempt to move “from dark to sensational to fun.” He said Simpson’s body will not be studied for the effects of chronic brain trauma from possible effects of hits to the head during his 11 years as a running back in the NFL.
“Mr. Simpson, as I understand it, expressed his wishes to his children,” LaVergne said. “And then they will act on those wishes.”
Simpson wanted to be cremated, the lawyer said, and — pending a decision from his family — there were no immediate plans for a public memorial.
“There have only been tentative discussions about a celebration of life (or) ceremony,” LaVergne said.
The lawyer filed Simpson’s last will and testament in Nevada state court two days after his death, naming Simpson’s four children as the sole beneficiaries of his estate. He said details of a family trust had not yet been filed.
The lawyer declined to evaluate the assets, but said that Simpson did not own a home in the states where he lived – including Nevada, California and Florida. He said the bills were still being tallied.
Simpson was famously acquitted of criminal charges alleging he stabbed his ex-wife and her friend, Ronald Goldman, to death in 1994 in Los Angeles. These trials in California in 1996 became known as the “trial of the century”. Simpson was found responsible for the deaths in 1997 by a California civil court jury.
In Las Vegas, Simpson was jailed in 2008 for nine years after being found guilty of armed robbery in a 2007 encounter at a casino hotel with two collectibles dealers.
He has lived a golf and country club lifestyle since being released from prison in October 2017, sometimes offering social media posts about sports and golf. His last message was on February 11: wearing a San Francisco 49ers jersey and predicting that his old team would defeat the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LVIII. The bosses won.
LaVergne acknowledged that Simpson died without paying the families of Simpson’s murdered ex-wife and Goldman most of the $33.5 million judgment they received in the 1997 tort case.
Attorney David Cook, representing the Goldman family, said Tuesday he thinks the judgment owed today, including unpaid interest, is more than $114 million.
LaVergne said last week that the Goldmans would not receive a penny of Simpson’s assets and then backtracked. He said on Tuesday that he believed the amount owed was more than $200 million. He said Simpson’s assets won’t amount to that.
“They will be invited to see my homework,” he said of the Goldman and Brown families. “I want to show them what I have with the caveat that if they believe there is something more out there…they will have to use their own lawyers, their own resources, to try to chase that pot of gold. ”
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Associated Press writer Susan Montoya Bryan in Albuquerque, NM, contributed to this report.
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