Even after his death from cancer at the age of 76, the case that OJ Simpson starred in for the murders of Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown continues to be of interest to the public. Even more so now, since the former NFL star died owing more than $100 million to the victims’ families after a civil court in 1997 found him responsible for both crimes despite his earlier acquittal in the most famous trial of the ’90s.
Speaking to the British tabloid Daily Mail, one of Ron’s father’s lawyers, Fred, explained that as a result of OJ Simpson’s non-payment, the debt with interest amounted to more than $100 million, a figure much higher than the initial sentence. of the civil court that had ordered the former American football player to pay $33.5 million.
The lawyer, David Cook, told the English media that he would work to collect everything they could from Simpson’s estate, even after the death of who was once one of the national sports stars even when he was accused of the murders of Goldman and Brown.
“We have to start over here,” Cook told the Daily Mail. “We’re going to work on that. There might be something out there (…) It could be in a trust, it could be probate. It could be all gone.”
Cook explained to the tabloid that OJ Simpson had long avoided paying because he filed for bankruptcy.
In fact, according to court filings dating back to June 2022, the former NFL star has only paid $133,000 since 1997, when the debt totaled more than $96 million.
Since the 1997 civil court ruling for the 1994 murders, the Goldmans have garnished Simpson’s income and sued him several times to recover money he earned from various television shows and his controversial and famous book ‘If I Did It,’ in which the former actor and professional football player narrated in a fanciful way how he would have carried out the murders if he had actually been the author of the crimes.
In 1992, court documents about Simpson’s split from his murdered ex-wife Nicole said the former player had a net worth at the time of $10.8 million, with a monthly income of $55,000.
However, OJ avoided paying the Goldmans after filing for bankruptcy in Florida.
According to the Daily Mail, OJ Simpson’s annual pension from the NFL, estimated between $125,000 and $300,000, was also protected from debt collection claims.
Therefore, attorney Cook said that, after Simpson’s death, the route forward is to examine the trusts to potentially present them in Nevada probate court to try to recover at least part of the multimillion-dollar sum.
Although Simpson was found not guilty in 1995 for the murders of Goldman and Brown in an extremely high-profile trial where racial controversies were the focus of attention, twelve years later, in 2007, OJ himself was arrested for a robbery case and kidnapping where he was sentenced to between 9 and 33 years in prison, finally being released from prison in 2017.
