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Sports / Other Sports
O.J. Simpson freed from jail,after posting $125,000 bail
(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-09-20 11:29
LAS VEGAS - O.J. Simpson was freed from a Las Vegas jail on Wednesday
after a judge granted him $125,000 bail on charges he took part in an
armed robbery of his own sports memorabilia.
O.J. Simpson leaves the Clark County detention center after making bail
in Las Vegas on Wednesday, Sept. 19, 2007.? [AP]
Simpson, who was acquitted of killing his ex-wife and her friend in 1995
after a sensational double murder trial that left his reputation in
tatters, walked out of jail hours after winning his release in a hearing
before a Las Vegas judge.
He did not enter a plea to charges of armed robbery, assault and
kidnapping at the hearing, but was expected to plead innocent at his next
court appearance in October. His lawyers said they would fight the
charges.
The 60-year-old ex-athlete did not respond to reporters and onlookers
waiting for him outside the jail as he got into a car driven by his lead
attorney, Yale Galanter. The pair drove to the Palms hotel and casino off
the Vegas strip, followed by camera crews and with helicopters hovering
overhead.
Under the bail conditions, Simpson, who lives in Florida, will have to
surrender his passport but will be allowed to travel within the United
States. Galanter has said he was eager to return home.
Simpson was handcuffed and shackled at the waist and wearing blue jail
garb during the bail hearing. He addressed the court only when Judge Joe
Bonaventure asked if he understood the charges.
"Yes sir," Simpson replied in a low, hoarse voice.
More than 50 journalists attended the proceedings, along with Simpson's
girlfriend Christine Prody, eldest daughter Arnelle and sister Shirley
and her husband. The circus-like atmosphere on the broad courthouse steps
was reminiscent of the earlier trial.
Galanter acknowledged the media frenzy and Simpson's battered image
during a news conference outside court that was interrupted several times
by onlookers who shouted, waved signs and held up plastic bottles of
orange juice, a reference to his nicknames of O.J. and "the Juice."
"We understand who our client is and we know what the public perception
is," attorney Yale Galanter said of the man whose murder trial captivated
world attention more than a decade ago.
The Las Vegas charges stem from what authorities say was the armed theft
last week by Simpson of his own sports memorabilia from collectors Alfred
Beardsley and Bruce Fromong, at the Palace Station Hotel and Casino.
According to police reports, Beardsley and Fromong say they were asked by
a man named Thomas Riccio to meet at the Palace Station hotel room with a
potential buyer for some $100,000 worth of memorabilia.
Instead, they say, Simpson burst into the room with four other men, two
of them armed, and after an angry altercation stuffed the memorabilia
into pillow cases and left.
Simpson was arrested on Sunday and had been held without bail until
Wednesday's court appearance.
Simpson has told reporters he did nothing wrong and was trying to
retrieve his own personal photos, his Hall of Fame certificate and other
items he said had been stolen.
A record-setting running back in the National Football League who
parlayed that fame into a career in movies and television, Simpson stood
trial for the June 12, 1994, stabbing murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown
Simpson, 35, and her friend Ron Goldman, 25.
He was cleared by jurors despite what prosecutors called a "mountain of
evidence" against him, but two years later a civil court jury found him
responsible for the deaths and ordered him to pay $33.5 million in
damages to the victims' families.
The lead prosecutor in the murder case, former Los Angeles County Deputy
District Attorney Marcia Clark, attended Wednesday's hearing in Las
Vegas, working as a special correspondent for a syndicated entertainment
news program.
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