Executor of OJ Simpson’s will wants to block payment of US$33.5 million to families | World News

The executor of OJ Simpson’s estate has said he will try to avoid a $33.5 million (£27 million) payment to the families of his ex-wife Nicole Brown and friend Ron Goldman.

The former NFL star and Hollywood actor was cleared of the double homicide in 1995 in what was dubbed the “trial of the century” but was later found responsible for the deaths in a civil case.

Simpson died Wednesday at age 76 of cancer without having paid most of his 1997 sentence, but the Goldman and Brown families may be in line to receive some of what he left behind.

His will was filed in a Clark County, Nevada courtroom on Friday, naming his attorney Malcolm LaVergne as executor.

The document shows that Simpson’s estate was placed in a trust created this year, but Mr. LaVergne told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that his entire estate has not yet been accounted for.

The will lists his four children and notes that any beneficiary seeking to contest the will’s provisions “shall receive, free of charge, one dollar and nothing more in lieu of any interest claimed in this will or in his estate.”

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 don’t get anything.”

See more information:
OJ Simpson died at age 76
OJ murder trial: How the dramatic court case unfolded

Hundreds of valuable assets were seized as part of the jury award and Simpson said he lived solely off his NFL and private pensions.

Simpson, nicknamed “The Juice”, was acquitted after a 1995 criminal trial watched by millions of people around the world, where he tried on a pair of blood-stained gloves allegedly found at the crime scene.

The gloves appeared to be too small, prompting defense attorney Johnnie Cochran to say, “If it doesn’t fit, you should acquit.”

Speaking to Sky News after Simpson’s death, Goldman family lawyer David Cook said: “I review and consider Simpson for what he was: that he was a bad person; he was a murderer; he escaped acquittal here.

“It remains now and in his death as the day he committed the crime, however many years ago.

“He’s still the same person. And the fact that he died doesn’t change that.”

Goldman’s father, Fred Goldman, previously told Sky’s sister network NBC News that Simpson’s death was “not a big loss.”

“The only thing I have to say is just another reminder that Ron has been gone all these years,” he said.

“It’s not a great loss to the world. It’s more of a reminder of Ron’s departure.”