LAS VEGAS — The man who set up the hotel-room
confrontation that led to armed robbery charges against O. J.
Simpson testified Monday that he had received at least $210,000
from several news organizations, including ABC News, in exchange
for interviews, photographs and parts of an audio recording he
had secretly made of the events.
The witness, Thomas Riccio, a collectibles auctioneer whose
recordings of the September 2007 meeting are a major piece of
evidence in Mr. Simpson’s trial, listed for the jury the fees
he said he had collected in the days after Mr. Simpson and five
other men entered a room at the Palace Station Hotel and Casino,
argued with two other collectibles dealers and left with an
estimated $100,000 in sports memorabilia from Mr. Simpson’s
celebrated football career and those of other professional athletes.
Those fees included $150,000 from the celebrity gossip Web
site TMZ.com for excerpts of Mr. Riccio’s audio recording, as
well as $15,000 from ABC News and $25,000 from the syndicated
television show “Entertainment Tonight” for what Mr. Riccio
said were interviews about the confrontation.
But spokesmen for ABC News and “Entertainment Tonight” said
the payments were not for interviews but for other materials.
A spokeswoman for TMZ.com said the Web site does not comment
about how it acquires material.
A Mr. Riccio’s testimony began the second week in the trial
of Mr. Simpson, who is charged with armed robbery and kidnapping.
One of the two dealers in the hotel room, Bruce L. Fromong,
testified last week that at least one of the people with Mr.
Simpson had brandished a gun. Mr. Simpson has not testified,
but in earlier interviews he insisted that he did not know of
or see any guns and that he wanted only to retrieve personal
keepsakes taken years ago from his home.
The confrontation was set up by Mr. Riccio, 45, who told Mr.
Fromong and the other dealer, Alfred Beardsley, that an interested
buyer wanted to browse the items.
Mr. Riccio’s recording of the planning and execution of the
meeting — and the fact that he sold it to TMZ.com before sharing
it with the police — had been widely reported, but until Monday
he had not publicly disclosed that he had also been paid by
mainstream news organizations. Under cross-examination by one
of Mr. Simpson’s lawyers, Yale Galanter, Mr. Riccio described
his negotiations with ABC News and “Entertainment Tonight.”
He said that producers from both had told him they could not
pay him for an interview, but that when he said he would not
cooperate without pay, they offered money for photographs of
Mr. Riccio with Mr. Simpson and rights to use the audio recording.
A spokesman for ABC News, Jeffrey Schneider, said the20network
never paid for interviews. What it paid Mr. Riccio for, Mr.
Schneider said, were rights to broadcast parts of the audio
recording on “Good Morning America” and to show several photos
of Mr. Riccio and Mr. Simpson together on the day of the hotel-room
meeting. He said Mr. Riccio had been interviewed to clarify
parts of the audio that were difficult to hear. The interview
was broadcast on “Good Morning America.”
