Two years after O.J. Simpson was acquitted of the criminal charges of murder of his ex-wife Nicole Brown and her friend Ron Goldman, a civil jury found him guilty of their deaths and ordered him to pay $33.5 million to the families of the victims.
Simpson died last week, and he is nowhere close to paying off the amount he was ordered to pay. Simpson’s attorney and estate executor now says he wants to ensure the families never get that money.
A TV screen showing the televised trial of O.J. Simpson for murder, September 1995. (Barbara Alper/Getty Images)
Attorney Malcolm LaVergne, who has represented Simpson since 2009 and now serves as executor of his estate, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that if he has it his way, the Goldman’s will never receive a penny.
“It’s my hope that the Goldmans get zero, nothing,” LaVergne said. “Them specifically. And I will do everything in my capacity as the executor or personal representative to try and ensure that they get nothing.”
Fred Goldman, père de la victime Ron Goldman, et sa femme Patti Glass Goldman lors du procès d’OJ Simpson. Los Angeles, 30 Juin 1994. (Ted Soqui/Sygma via Getty Images)
Simpson’s estate was established in January, and he named LaVergne executor in his will. Given the proximity of the establishment of the estate and LaVergne’s stance toward the Goldmans to Simpson’s death last week, it appears Simpson remained hostile to the family of his alleged victim up until his final days.
LaVergne, who says he cannot “predict” the value of Simpson’s estate, says there was never a court order to pay the civil judgment.
LaVergne’s anger towards the Goldmans stems from their role in Simpson’s planned book If I Did It. According to the Associated Press via the Las Vegas-Review Journal, “Goldman’s family, still pursuing the wrongful death judgment, won control of the manuscript and retitled the book If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer.”
LaVergne says Simpson is due to be cremated soon.
