Judge Orders O.J. Simpson To Give Up Rolex
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
SANTA MONICA, Calif. — O.J. Simpson must hand over a Rolex watch and other assets to satisfy a civil judgment that found him liable for the deaths of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman, a judge ruled yesterday.
Any future royalties from a sports video game featuring Mr. Simpson also must be delivered to Goldman’s father, Fred Goldman, Superior Court Judge Gerald Rosenberg ruled.
Mr. Simpson must also surrender any of the disputed memorabilia items recently seized by Las Vegas authorities that are found to be legally his.
The items would then be auctioned by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and the money they bring in given to Goldman. His attorney David Cook estimated the watch’s value between $5,000 and more than $20,000.
Simpson attorney Ronald Slates said his client had already handed the watch over to him and that he planned to give it to Goldman’s lawyers yesterday afternoon. He questioned, however, whether it’s a real Rolex.
“Know any Rolex watches that sell for 125 bucks?” he asked, adding that’s what Mr. Simpson told him he paid for it. The lawyer acknowledged, however, that if it is fake, “it’s a pretty good copy.”
The court order specifies a “Submariner Rolex Watch” that was identified in a photograph. Mr. Slates said Mr. Simpson can’t hand over the memorabilia that Las Vegas police seized when they arrested him on robbery, kidnapping, and other charges last month because those items aren’t in his possession.
Mr. Cook agreed that was true, but said the judge’s order requires that if Mr. Simpson ever does acquire the items he says are his, he must turn them over. They include footballs, jerseys, and other things the former football star says were stolen from him.
Mr. Slate said he doesn’t represent the company that was paid for marketing the video game Mr. Simpson appears in but, in any case, he isn’t sure there will ever be any future royalty payments. In 1995, Mr. Simpson was acquitted in a criminal trial of charges that he murdered his exwife and Ron Goldman. The 1997 civil judgment resulted from the trial of a lawsuit against Mr. Simpson.
