LAS VEGAS (AP) – Just before Easter, OJ Simpson had his last heated argument with his longtime attorney, at the country club home Simpson leased southwest of the Las Vegas Strip.
“He was awake, alert and cool,” attorney Malcolm Lavergne recalled Tuesday. “He’s on the couch … drinking a beer and watching TV. And so that was the last time we had a productive conversation back and forth. He’s usually the one who keeps me up to date with the news. .. So we were just catching up on the news at the time.
About a week later, on April 5, a doctor said Simpson was “making a transition,” as Lavergne described it. The last time LaVergne visited, last week, Simpson only had the strength to ask for water and choose to watch a TV golf tournament instead of a tennis match.
“Of course he chose golf,” Lavergne told The Associated Press in an interview. “He was absolutely obsessed with golf.”
Simpson Died on April 10 After being diagnosed with prostate cancer last year. He was 76 years old.
A post from Simpson’s family on X the following day, formerly Twitter, said Simpson had “passed away from his battle with cancer” while “surrounded by his children and grandchildren.” However, LaVergne said Tuesday that only one person was with Simpson at the time of her death, identified by the attorney only as an “immediate family member.” He refused to say who it was.
“You have to remember that he’s shared OJ with the world his whole life,” the attorney said of Simpson’s surviving adult children from his first marriage — Arnal Simpson, now 55, and Jason Simpson, 53 — and was with Simpson’s children. Ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson before she was murdered in 1994: Sydney Simpson, 38, and Justin Simpson, 35. A family social media post asked for “privacy and grace” in “this time of transition.”
“At first they shared a good OJ but he was still popular,” 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 a father. And they have the added burden of being the whole planet. is one of the most famous people, and who is polarizing and who is mired in controversy.”
LaVergne, who is handling Simpson’s estate, shared details of his last meetings with the former football hero, movie actor, sportscaster, television pitchman and celebrity homicide plaintiff he has represented since 2009. doing.
He deflected a question about Simpson’s possible death confession as “an attempt to move from seriousness to sensationalism and fun.” He said the effects of brain trauma on Simpson’s body from the possible effects of blows to the head during his 11 years back in the NFL will not be studied.
“Mr. Simpson, as I understand it, communicated his wishes to his children,” Lavergne said. “And that’s how they’re going to act on those desires.”
Simpson wanted to be cremated, the attorney said, and — pending a decision from his family — there were no immediate plans for a public memorial.
“There have been only tentative discussions about a celebration (or) celebration of life,” LaVergne said.
The attorney filed Simpson’s last will and testament in a Nevada state court two days after her death, naming Simpson’s four children as the sole beneficiaries of her estate. He said that the details of the family trust are yet to be filed.
Attorneys would not put a price on the estate, but said Simpson does not own a home in the states where he lived — including Nevada, California and Florida. He said that the accounts are still being counted.
Simpson was acquitted of criminal charges related to the 1994 stabbing death of his ex-wife and her friend Ronald Goldman in Los Angeles. These actions in California in 1996 became known as “Trial of the Century.” Simpson was found liable for the death by a California civil court jury in 1997.
In Las Vegas, Simpson was sentenced to nine years in prison in 2008 after being found guilty of a 2007 armed robbery of a casino hotel along with two collection dealers.
Since his release from prison in October 2017, he has led a golf and country club lifestyle, occasionally posting social media posts about sports and golf. His last message was February 11: wearing a San Francisco 49ers jersey and predicting that his old team would beat the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LVIII. The chiefs won.
LaVergne acknowledged that Simpson died without paying a $33.5 million judgment in a 1997 civil liability lawsuit to Simpson’s slain ex-wife and Goldman’s family.
David Cook, an attorney representing the Goldman family, said Tuesday that he believes today’s judgment is worth more than $114 million, including interest owed.
LaVergne said last week that Goldman would not receive a penny of Simpson’s assets, and then backtracked. He said Tuesday he believed the amount owed was more than $200 million. “Sampson’s assets will not match,” he said.
“They would be invited to see my homework,” she said of the Goldman and Brown families. “I want to show them what I have with the caveat that if they believe there’s something else out there … they have to use their own lawyers, their own resources to try and chase that pot of gold. will have. “
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Associated Press writer Susan Montoya Bryan in Albuquerque, NM contributed to this report.
Credit : apnews.com
