Goldmans want OJ memorabilia

2007-09-18 16:26

Los Angeles - If the Goldman family has its way, it may soon own the sports memorabilia OJ Simpson is accused of committing armed robbery to recover for himself.

Meanwhile, one man charged with the former football star said on Tuesday that the Las Vegas hotel room dispute seemed like a setup.

Walter Alexander, 46, said Simpson may have been tricked because the memorabilia dealer who tipped him off also recorded everything on tape.

"It sounds like a setup to me," Alexander told ABC's Good Morning America on Tuesday.

He said Simpson had thought the memorabilia belonged to him after getting a call from the dealer.

"He did believe that he was going to retrieve his own property," Alexander said.

One of the memorabilia dealers who spoke publicly about the incident on Monday and described Simpson and a group of men coming into the hotel room "commando style" was hospitalised later that day with chest pains, a staff member at Century City Doctors Hospital said on Tuesday.

Held without bail

Bruce Fromong was transferred to Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre, the staff member said, declining to give her name.

A Cedars-Sinai spokesperson did not immediately respond to a call seeking information about Fromong's condition.

Simpson was being held without bail on Tuesday in Clark County Detention Centre on six felonies, including two counts of robbery with use of a deadly weapon.

Witnesses and authorities have said that they do not believe Simpson had a gun but that some of the men with him did.

If convicted, Simpson could receive up to 30 years in state prison on each robbery count.

Simpson has been in and out of the spotlight since he was acquitted of murder in the deaths of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman.

The Goldman family, which won a civil verdict against Simpson, has waged a decade-long campaign to track down and claim his assets to fulfil the civil verdict.

It planned to file a request in Superior Court on Tuesday to obtain ownership of the sports memorabilia seized.

Criminal case

David Cook, an attorney for Goldman's father, Fred Goldman, said he believed Nevada authorities would turn over the items with a court order after Simpson's criminal case finishes.

The items include Simpson's Hall of Fame certificate, a gold Rolex watch and the suit Simpson wore on the day he was acquitted, Cook said.

"Assuming that this case is resolved one way or another, at the end of the case, the stuff will never go back to Mr Simpson," Cook vowed. "He's going to walk out of Clark County empty-handed."

Another man suspected in the alleged heist surrendered on Monday.

Clarence Stewart, 53, of Las Vegas, lived at one of the residences that police searched early on Sunday to recover some of the memorabilia.

Stewart turned over some of the missing goods, including footballs bearing autographs, police said.

He was being held on six felony charges, including robbery with a deadly weapon and two counts of assault with a deadly weapon.

A fourth man, Tom Scotto, was questioned and cleared of suspicion after police concluded he was not in the room, reducing the number of outstanding suspects to two, police said.

'Caught in a bad situation'

Both were apparently seeking attorneys and preparing to surrender, police said.

Alexander, who faces charges almost identical to Simpson's, said he went to Las Vegas for a wedding and not to see Simpson.

"I just happened to get caught up in a bad situation," he told ABC's Good Morning America.

Simpson's arraignment was set for Wednesday. Yale Galanter, Simpson's lawyer, said he was preparing a bond motion and will ask for Simpson's release on his own recognizance.

"If it was anyone other than OJ Simpson, he would have been released by now," he said.

"You can't rob something that is yours," Galanter said. "OJ said, 'You've got stolen property. Either you return it or I call the police."'

Compensatory damages

The Goldmans hope the property never finds its way back to Simpson.

In 1997, a civil jury in Santa Monica returned $33.5m in judgments against Simpson in a wrongful-death lawsuit by the families of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman.

The jury awarded $8.5m in compensatory damages to Ron Goldman's estate and a total of $25m in punitive damages, divided equally between both estates.

Despite extensive court hearings, however, most of the judgment has remained unpaid.

In 1999, seized personal property was auctioned off, raising only $430&Nbsp;000, more than half of it from the sale of his Heisman Trophy.

The house itself did not generate anything toward paying the judgment. A bank foreclosed on the home, put it up for auction and bought it back.

Tuesday's hearing was originally scheduled in connection with any money the Goldmans say Simpson earned from a video game featuring his likeness.

- AP