More than 25 years ago, O. J. Simpson was found liable in civil court for the deaths of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman, and was ordered to pay more than $33 million to their families.
They have not yet repaired the damage.
The Brown family's status remains unclear, but the Goldman family said Wednesday that despite Simpson's death, their pursuit of the Brown family will not end. David Cook, an attorney for Ronald's father, Fred Goldman, said in an interview Saturday that he could not elaborate on the fundraising plan, but said, “The sentencing will proceed as before.” Cook said in an earlier email that Simpson “died without repentance.” Mr. Goldman could not be reached for comment.
Simpson was acquitted of the murders of Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman at a criminal trial in 1995, but a civil jury in 1997 concluded that Simpson had “intentionally and wrongfully” caused their deaths. The unanimous decision included $25 million in punitive damages. .
According to court documents filed in 2022, the Goldman family received about $132,000 of the total from Mr. Simpson.
It's unclear whether this number reflects the money raised from the auction of Simpson's memorabilia, including his Heisman Trophy, which was used to pay for damages. Proceeds from Simpson's book “If I Did It,'' which explains in hypothetical terms how the brutal stabbings of Brown Simpson and Goldman happened, were also used to pay for the damages. .
It was also unclear Saturday how much of the damage the Browns had recovered. Mr. Cook did not respond to specific questions about the funds the Goldman family received. However, the total amount is still only a fraction of the outstanding amount.
Interest on the unpaid portion increases by 10% each year, and the amount currently outstanding is $114 million, Cook said.
Simpson's will was filed Friday in Clark County, Nevada court. It was signed on January 25th and places Mr. Simpson's assets into a trust.
Malcolm Lavergne, Mr. Simpson's longtime lawyer and appointed executor of Mr. Simpson's estate, said legal experts and accountants are advising on the administration of the estate, and that they will investigate all claims, but that only a few He said only one case involved Goldmans. .
Lavergne said he believed Simpson had past debts of “several hundred thousand dollars” to the Internal Revenue Service, but declined to provide further details.
He said he intends to make payments to the Goldmans and others if his advisers deem it necessary. But he added that if there was a way for the Goldmans to legally deal with the estate without getting anything, “that would be an option.”
Lavergne also helps her family with other things. He said Simpson will be cremated on Tuesday, but funeral plans have not yet been decided. LaVergne also said he received a call from a researcher studying chronic traumatic encephalopathy. Chronic traumatic encephalopathy is a degenerative brain disease associated with repeated blows to the head that has been found in the brains of hundreds of former NFL players. However, LaVergne said the family has no intention of donating Simpson's brain for CTE research.
Recovering damages from Mr. Simpson has always been a difficult challenge for the Goldman family. After a civil trial, Mr. Simpson claimed there was no way to pay that amount. Christopher Melcher, a California lawyer who specializes in family law and is not involved in any legal matters related to Simpson, said there is a limit to how much someone's wages can be garnished in a judgment like this. said.
Simpson added that the amount he paid was very low because he “denied having any source of income or assets from which to collect the judgment.”
Mr. Simpson moved to Florida in 2000, but state law prevents his home from being seized by creditors, and he continues to receive a pension of about $400,000 a year from the NFL and Screen Actors Guild, which also protects him from seizures.
In 2006, Fred Goldman told the Times that he was furious at the idea that Simpson had avoided responsibility for jury awards. “How else can you say it?” he asked, adding, “He has made every effort to avoid that sentence.”
But Melcher said even if there was no payment, the judgment itself was not without impact.
“The judgment was really a debtor's prison,” he said. “That was something that would haunt him for the rest of his life, to keep him from having nothing and not making anything without fear that Fred Goldman would be right there collecting that money. ”
Melcher said personal property claims could take time, pointing to the estate of Michael Jackson, who died in 2009, which has not yet been closed.
The Goldman family continues to wait. But Goldman's statement after the civil trial said what the family wanted most was the verdict itself.
“Money isn't an issue. It's never been like that before,” he said. “I believe the man who killed my son and Nicole is responsible.”