25 years ago, OJ Simpson was found guilty in civil court in the deaths of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman and ordered to pay more than $33 million to their families.
They haven’t been able to undo the damage so far.
While it is not yet clear where things stand with Brown Simpson’s family, Goldman’s family said Mr. Simpson’s death on Wednesday would not end the pursuit. David Cook, a lawyer for Ronald’s father, Fred Goldman, said in an interview on Saturday that “the judgment will continue as before” although he could not elaborate on their plans to get the money. Mr Cook said in an earlier email that Mr Simpson “died without repentance”. Mr. Goldman could not be reached for comment.
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Of that total, the Goldman family received about $132,000 from Mr. Simpson in 2022, according to court documents.
It was unclear whether that figure reflected the proceeds from the auction of Mr. Simpson’s memorabilia, including the Heisman Trophy. Mr. Simpson’s proceeds from his book, ”If I Did It” — a hypothetical account of how the brutal stabbing of Ms. Brown Simpson and Mr. Goldman might have happened — also went to the charity.
The extent of the damage to Brown-Simpson’s family was not known Saturday. Mr. Cook declined to respond to specific questions about the money the Goldman family received. But the total is still less than the borrower.
The current debt is $114 million, Mr. Cook said, adding 10 percent interest each year on the unpaid portion.
On Friday, Mr. Simpson’s will was filed at the Clark County Courthouse in Nevada. Signed on January 25, it places Mr. Simpson’s estate in trust.
Mr. Simpson’s longtime lawyer, Malcolm Lavergne, who was appointed executor of his estate, said he had lawyers and accountants advising on the estate and would investigate all the claims, one of which involved Goldman. .
Mr. Lavergne said he believed Mr. Simpson had past debts to the Internal Revenue Service of “a few hundred thousand dollars” but did not provide further details.
He said he would pay the Goldman family and other people if the advisers decided they were needed. But he added that if there was a way to legally deal with the property without the Goldmans getting anything, he would prefer it.
Mr. Lavergne is helping the family with other things. Mr. Simpson will be cremated on Tuesday, and funeral plans have not been decided. Mr. Lavergne also said he received a call from researchers studying a degenerative brain disease caused by repeated blows to the head that has been found in the brains of hundreds of former NFL players. But Mr Lavergne said the family would not be donating Mr Simpson’s brain for CTE research.
Recovering damages from Mr. Simpson has always been a difficult task for the Goldman family. After the civil trial, Mr. Simpson insisted he had no means of paying the amount. Christopher Melcher, an attorney who specializes in family law in California and is not involved in any legal matters involving Mr. Simpson, said there are limits to how much a person’s wages can be collected from such a judgment.
Mr. Simpson paid too little, he said, “because he denied having any source of income or assets against which the judgment could be collected.”
In the year In 2000, Mr. Simpson moved to Florida, where his home could not be foreclosed on by local law, and he continued to receive pensions from the NFL, the Screen Actors Guild and other sources, about $400,000 a year, which were protected. from seizures.
In the year In 2006, Fred Goldman told The Times that Mr. Simpson was outraged at the idea of shirking responsibility for the jury’s award. “How else can it be said?” “He did everything he could to avoid this judgment,” he asked.
But Mr. Melcher said the ruling itself, even without a fee, was not without impact.
“The verdict was really a debtor’s prison,” he said. “Fred Goldman wasn’t afraid that he was going to be there to collect that dollar, to have nothing, to do nothing, to haunt him for the rest of his life.”
A claim against a person’s estate can take a while, Mr. Melcher said, pointing to the estate of Michael Jackson, who died in 2009, and whose estate has not yet closed.
The Goldman family will continue to wait. But according to Mr. Goldman’s statement after the civil trial, the verdict itself is what the family desperately wants.
“The money is not the issue. It never has been,” he said. “The person who killed my son and Nicole is responsible.”