LAS VEGAS (AP) — The executor of OJ Simpson's estate says it is trying to block payment of a $33.5 million verdict awarded by a California civil jury nearly three decades ago in a wrongful-death lawsuit filed by the families of Simpson's ex-wife Nicole. Brown Simpson and his friend Ron Goldman.
Simpson's will was filed Friday in a Clark County court in Nevada, naming her longtime attorney Malcolm Lavergne as executor. The document shows Simpson's estate was placed in a trust created this year.
Lavergne told the Las Vegas Review-Journal That's all Estate of Simpson Not calculated. Under Nevada law, an estate must go through probate if its assets exceed $20,000.
Simpson He died on Wednesday After jurors found him liable for not paying the lion's share of the civil judgment awarded in 1997. With his estate set to go through the court process, the Goldman and Brown families could be in line to receive a portion of what Simpson left behind.
Lavergne, who has represented Simpson since 2009, said the Goldman family does not want to see any money from Simpson's estate.
“My hope is that the Goldmans will get zero, nothing,” he told the Review-Journal. “Them especially. And I'll do everything I can, either as executor or personal representative, to make sure they get nothing.”
Lavergne did not immediately return phone and email messages left by The Associated Press on Saturday.
Although Brown and Goldman Families were forced to pay, LaVergne said there was never a court order compelling Simpson to pay the civil judgment. The attorney told the Review-Journal that his particular anger toward the Goldman family stems from the events surrounding Simpson's planned book titled “I Did It.” Goldman's family won control of the manuscript and renamed the book “If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer”.
Simpson achieved fame and fortune through football and show business, but his legacy was forever changed June 1994 stabbings His ex-wife and her friend in Los Angeles. He was acquitted of criminal charges in a 1995 trial Enchanted the public.
Goldman's father Fred Goldman, the lead plaintiff, always said the issue wasn't money, it was just about holding Simpson accountable. With Simpson's death, “faith for real accountability has ended,” he said in a statement Thursday.
The Goldman and Brown families will be on at least equal footing with other creditors, and will have an even stronger claim as Simpson's estate is settled under terms established by a trust created in January. The will lists his four children and states that any beneficiary who seeks to challenge the will's provisions “will receive, without trust, one dollar ($1.00) and shall not receive in lieu of any claimed interest in this bequest or its assets.”
Simpson said he lived off his NFL and private pension. Hundreds of valuable possessions were seized as part of the jury award, and Simpson was forced to auction off his Heisman Trophy, fetching $230,000.
