LAS VEGAS: O.J. Simpson, the former football star who was
acquitted of murdering his ex-wife, was under investigation
Friday in what the police said might have been an armed robbery
of sports memorabilia from a room at the Palace Station Hotel-Casino
here.
Mr. Simpson denied that any crime had taken place. Instead,
he told The Associated Press, he and some people he had met
at a cocktail party staged a "sting operation" on Thursday night
intended to retrieve memorabilia, including Mr. Simpson's Hall
of Fame certificate, from a dealer he said had stolen it.
Capt. James Dillon of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department
said that Mr. Simpson, 60, was cooperating with investigators
and that charges, if any, would not come until at least Monday,
after the Clark County district attorney's office reviewed the
case. The investigation "is in its infancy," Captain Dillon
said.
Captain Dillon would not describe the items involved other
than to characterize them as "sports-related products." Some,
he said, were in police custody.
The dealer, Alfred Beardsley of Glendale, Calif., told detectives
that Mr. Simpson and four other men, including two with guns,
entered his room at the Palace Station around 8 p.m. Thursday
and left with a trove of memorabilia including photographs and
books signed by Mr. Simpson, lithographs of the San Francisco
49ers quarterback Joe Montana and Mr. Beardsley's cellphone.
"I couldn't believe it," Mr. Beardsley told TMZ.com. "For
him to come and do this sort of thing, I don't know what's wrong
with O.J."
Mr. Simpson gave a different account. He told The Associated
Press that he and his acquaintances from the cocktail party
went to Mr. Beardsley's room pretending to be interested in
buying the suit Mr. Simpson wore in court in 1995 when he was
acquitted of the murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson
and her friend Ronald Goldman. The group left with Mr. Simpson's
Hall of Fame certificate and a photo of J. Edgar Hoover, former
Federal Bureau of Investigation director, among other items,
Mr. Simpson said.
"Everybody knows this is stolen stuff," Mr. Simpson was quoted
as saying. "Not only wasn't there a break-in, but Riccio came
to the lobby and escorted us up to the room." (The reference
was to Tom Riccio, an auction house owner.)
"In any event," Mr. Simpson was quoted as saying, "it's stolen
stuff that's mine. Nobody was roughed up."
Mr. Simpson said he had traveled to Las Vegas because Mr.
Riccio had told him that collectors were selling memorabilia
belonging to him.
No travel restrictions had been placed on Mr. Simpson, who
two weeks ago told a judge in Miami that he could not be present
for a court deposition scheduled for Friday because he had to
attend a wedding in Las Vegas. The judge postponed the deposition.
A lawyer for Mr. Goldman's family, David J. Cook, vowed to
go to court early next week in Los Angeles to seize whatever
property from the investigation that may belong to Mr. Simpson.
In a civil trial in 1997, Mr. Simpson was found liable for the
deaths of Ms. Brown and Mr. Goldman and was ordered to pay $38
million to the Goldmans and $24 million to the Brown family.
To date, Mr. Cook said, the Goldmans have received less than
$10,000.
"If it's O.J.'s property, it's ours," Mr. Cook said. "If it's
Beardsley's property, then it's his. It either goes back to
Beardsley or it goes to L.A. County sheriff to sell to pay down
his judgment. Either way, O.J. Simpson is going to walk out
empty-handed."
Captain Dillon said Friday that he was "not confident" that
Mr. Simpson would remain in Las Vegas throughout the investigation.
He said Mr. Simpson had expressed "no hesitation on his part
to cooperate."
The episode came the same day as the release of "If I Did
It," a book Mr. Simpson collaborated on with a ghostwriter that
he said was a fictional account of how he might have executed
the murders for which he was acquitted. The book, originally
to be published by HarperCollins last year before an outcry
prompted the company to cancel it, was repackaged by the family
of Mr. Goldman to make money to pay down the civil judgment.
The publicity, Mr. Cook said, is sure to improve book sales.
