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Experts Raise Questions About O.J. Case

By MICHELLE SPITZER,
AP
Posted: 2007-09-20 09:40:28
MIAMI (Sept. 20) - O.J. Simpson slipped back into familiar territory around midnight -- not just the humid South Florida night, but into the center of a media cavalcade fixated on a case that could imprison him for life.

Simpson left the Ft. Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in an SUV early Thursday morning, tailed by a pack of cameras and reporters. The same SUV later picked up his girlfriend, but Simpson was not spotted in the car.

In the airport, he refused to answer reporters' questions about the case, though girlfriend Christine Prody answered a question about how Simpson was doing with, "He's fine."

Police allege the Heisman Trophy winner led an armed holdup of sports memorabilia collectors. Simpson has insisted he was merely retrieving items that had been stolen from him.

Legal experts say the prosecution's case could be clouded by issues including who had rightful ownership of the goods and the reputation of witnesses in the sometimes less-than-reputable world of memorabilia trading.

At his arraignment Thursday, Simpson furrowed his brow as the judge read the list of charges against him. Gone was tha slight smirk he flashed when arrested.

He answered quietly in a hoarse voice and nodded as the judge laid out restrictions for his release, including surrendering his passport to his attorney and having no contact with co-defendants or potential witnesses.

Simpson did not enter a plea. His attorney, Yale Galanter, said after the hearing that the $125,000 bond was reasonable.

As Simpson flew home to the Miami area, US Airways emptied a plane so he could board first with Galanter and Prody.

Simpson sat in an aisle seat in economy class. Passengers who boarded behind him took pictures with cell phones and cameras. He nodded and smiled as they passed.

With his attorney across the aisle and his girlfriend against his shoulder, Simpson slept from Las Vegas to South Florida. When the plane touched down, he hugged Galanter.

Simpson had still not returned to his suburban Miami home by 2 a.m, hours after authorities arrested a fifth suspect in the case.

Simpson was arrested Sunday after a collector reported a group of armed men charged into a hotel room at the Palace Station casino and took several items. He spent three nights in jail after being charged with kidnapping, robbery with use of a deadly weapon, burglary while in possession of a deadly weapon, coercion with use of a deadly weapon, assault with a deadly weapon, conspiracy to commit kidnapping, conspiracy to commit robbery and conspiracy to commit a crime.

Four other men have been arrested on many of the same charges, and police were still looking for another suspect.

Charles Howard Cashmore, 40, surrendered to police Wednesday and was scheduled to appear in court Thursday morning. Cashmore brought in items that are believed to have been taken, police said without elaborating.

Authorities allege that the men went to the room Sept. 13 on the pretext of brokering a deal with two longtime collectors, Alfred Beardsley and Bruce Fromong. The meeting was set up by memorabilia dealer Tom Riccio.

According to police reports, the collectors were ordered at gunpoint to hand over several items valued at as much as $100,000, including football game balls signed by Simpson, Joe Montana lithographs, baseballs autographed by Pete Rose and Duke Snider and framed awards and plaques.

Beardsley told police he had expected that the collection would earn $35,000 at the meeting from a "client" he had never met. Instead, he said, one of the men with Simpson brandished a pistol, frisked him and impersonated a police officer, and another man pointed a gun at Fromong.

Authorities said Beardsley, of Burbank, Calif., was paroled in March 2006 after serving 11 months of a two-year sentence for stalking a woman in Riverside County.

He was arrested at his room at the Luxor hotel Wednesday for violating parole. A California corrections spokesman said Beardsley was required to get written approval before traveling more than 50 miles from home or leaving home for more than 24 hours.

Beardsley was held without bail pending an extradition hearing Thursday.

Ricci also has a criminal record, including grand larceny in Florida in 1984, when he received three years of probation; and felony arson in 1995, in California, for which he was sentenced to two years.

Riccio, who recorded an audiotape of the confrontation later released by the celebrity Web site TMZ, said he was not concerned with how his past might affect his credibility "because everything's on tape. That's why it's on tape."

But Beardsley told NBC's "Today" show before Simpson's hearing that he didn't think the audiotape was accurate.

Riccio also said he had been promised some form of immunity by prosecutors.

Two other defendants, Walter Alexander, 46, and Clarence Stewart, 53, were arrested and released pending court appearances. Stewart turned in some of the missing goods and Alexander agreed to cooperate with prosecutors, authorities said. Suspect Michael McClinton, 49, of Las Vegas, surrendered to police Puesday. Jailers were unable to say whether Cashmore or McClinton had retained a lawyer.

Police have not identified the remaining suspect they are seeking.

Associated Press writers Ryan Nakashima, Ken Ritter, Kathleen Hennessey and Chelsea J. Carter in Las Vegas, and APTN videographer Richard Matthews in Miami contributed to this report.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.
2007-09-14 10:16:10
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Recent Comments

1 - 10 of 69362
69362 comments

koolzod 03:23:21 PM Nov 14 2007

Well...

epgragtime 10:36:07 PM Sep 23 2007

ALL OF THE WHITES CONNECTED WITH THIS CASE ARE ALWAYS PORTRAYED IN THE MEDIA AS "THE GOOD GUYS" LIKE FURHMANN, KATO KAELIN ,(STILL CANT FIGURE OUT WHAT HE WAS DOING IN THE SIMPSON HOME AND HE HASNT EXACTLY SET THE WORLD ON FIRE SINCE HE LEFT)) AND FAYE RESNICK--WHATS UP WITH HER?? SHE WAS SLEEPING IN CARS AT ONE TIME. IS THE PRESS COVERING UP THINGS ABOUT THEM???

BLACKS ARE REGULARLY TRASHED BY THE PRESS. THAT INCLUDES OJ'S FAMILY, HIS CHILDREN AND LAWYERS ON THE ORIGINAL DREAM TEAM.

THE ONLY BLACK PERSON WHO GETS A BREAK FROM THE PRESS IS CHRISTOPHER (ZZZZZZZ IN COURTROOM) DARDEN

IF THIS ISNT ABOUT RACE. I DON'T KNOW WHAT IS.

epgragtime 10:17:10 PM Sep 23 2007

CAN ANYBODY ON THIS FORUM TELL BE WHETHER THE BOOK
THAT GOLDMAN PURCHASED THE RIGHTS TO--- IS IT CONSIERED FICTION
OR NON FICTION?????

usforjustice 12:52:31 PM Sep 23 2007

Check out what's really going on within the criminal justice system at: www.justiceforus.org

Pms1pms 09:36:08 PM Sep 22 2007

.

ssnorthlasvegas 06:07:00 PM Sep 22 2007

Since everyone is comments is based on color what about all those blacks, Negroes, colores who were murder because they refused to take a back seat to whomever. Wake up people the government loves separatism, we are all of a color but forsure we are Americans first, what is more important. When other countries fight with us are you going to take their side or are you going to stand as an American without color?

ssnorthlasvegas 06:03:22 PM Sep 22 2007

When you go back to the beginning, concerning his wife (Nicole) OJ did not kill his wife and Ron Goldman. If a person kills like these people were you cannot erase the blood it is going to be somewhere on his body. OJ problem is he doesn't know how to keep his mouth close, it is like he is trying to tell the story but no one is listening. Those people around him (in my opinion) are the people who murdered his wife and Ron Goldman. It has nothing to do with color, clearly Americans and others are making this a racial issue. These were two human beings, regardless of their lifestyle did not deserve to die like that. At the same time some people in Florida were murder also, so he did that too? I don't believe it had anything to do with drugs, then why is Faye R still alive, it is much deeper. I believe that is those men who were here in Las Vegas are the ones who killed Nicole and Ron. What you do in the dark will come out in the light. A person who murders does not look like OJ

racertroy32 10:32:00 AM Sep 22 2007

o j is that black boy owned by the goldman family,isn't he?

haleysharley1 11:06:14 PM Sep 21 2007

There goes a quilty man

Pms1pms 11:00:58 PM Sep 21 2007

"Whites," so defined, therefore committed 65 percent of all hate crimes in which the race of the perpetrator was known, while blacks committed 30 percent. Since whites are 75 percent of the population and blacks are 12 percent, even if all those "whites" were really white, it would mean that blacks were 2.87 times more likely than whites to commit hate crimes.

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