O. J. Simpson — “I’ve led a conflict-free life.”
NFL Star, Actor, Spokesperson, Celebrity, Son, Husband, Father, Narcissist, Abuser, Kidnapper, Armed Robber and Most Think a Murderer.
He was born July 9, 1947 in San Francisco, California and granted Parole on July 20, 2017. But not for domestic violence and murder. He was acquitted of the latter in criminal court but found liable by a civil jury.
What can one say that we haven’t heard already or know about from the slate of media coverage over the past fifty years? Our fascination with the man, “The Juice,” the author of “If I Did It,” continues with his upcoming release from prison around October 1, 2017. The “Juice is Loose” movement will be in full gear. Yet, we’ve heard very little over the last 25 years about his past aggressions and arrest for domestic violence against his second wife Nicole Brown Simpson. She is now dead. By his hand said a California civil jury. Nine incidents of domestic violence are recorded and reflected in California police records. Nicole is on record to law enforcement and friends with saying, “He is going to kill me.” O.J.’s first wife Marguerite Whitley always said that he was never abusive during their marriage; she herself was charged with abusing O.J. in 1985, but no one today can seem to find her. She has ostensibly disappeared. It’s rumored that she has changed her name and is working in a Walmart in an undisclosed location. Why is this?
Let me give you a quick refresher course in Mr. Simpson’s background.
Orenthal James “O. J.” Simpson (born July 9, 1947), nicknamed The Juice, is a former National Football League (NFL) running back, broadcaster, actor, advertising spokesman, and convicted armed robber and kidnapper. Once a popular figure with the public, he is most well known today for his trial and acquittal for the murders of his former wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman.
Simpson attended the University of Southern California (USC), where he played football for the USC Trojans and won the Heisman Trophy in 1968. He played professionally in the NFL as a running back for 11 seasons, primarily with the Buffalo Bills from 1969 to 1977. He also played for the San Francisco 49ers from 1978 to 1979. In 1973, he became the first NFL player to rush for more than 2,000 yards in a season. He holds the record for the single season yards-per-game average, which stands at 143.1. He is the only player to ever rush for over 2,000 yards in the 14-game regular season NFL format.
Simpson was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1983 and the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1985. After retiring from football, he began new careers in acting and football broadcasting.
In 1994, Simpson was arrested and charged with the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson, his former wife, and her friend Ron Goldman. He was acquitted after a lengthy and internationally publicized trial.
The families of the victims filed a civil suit against him, and in 1997 a civil court awarded a $33.5 million judgment against Simpson for the victims’ wrongful deaths.
In 2007, Simpson was arrested in Las Vegas, Nevada, and charged with the felonies of armed robbery and kidnapping. In 2008, he was convicted and sentenced to 33 years imprisonment, with a minimum of nine years without parole. He served his sentence at the Lovelock Correctional Center in Lovelock, Nevada. On July 20, 2017, Simpson was granted parole. He will be eligible for release from prison on October 1, 2017, but a precise date has not yet been set.
June 17, 1994|JOSH MEYER | TIMES STAFF WRITER
O.J. Simpson beat his wife so severely in early 1989 that she required hospital treatment, and told police at his Brentwood mansion that he could not understand why they wanted to arrest him since it was their ninth response to a domestic disturbance report from the house, according to police reports released late Thursday.
“The police have been out here eight times before, and now you’re going to arrest me for this?” Simpson is quoted in one report as yelling to two police officers who were responding to a 911 call. “This is a family matter. Why do you want to make a big deal out of it when we can handle it?”
The documents were released by the Los Angeles Police Department and city attorney’s office after Freedom of Information Act requests by the news media, including the Los Angeles Times. The reports say that when police arrived at Simpson’s North Rockingham Avenue house Jan. 1, 1989, they saw Nicole Simpson running out of some bushes, bruised and scratched.
“He’s going to kill me, he’s going to kill me,” she cried while running toward the officers, one of them wrote. “She kept saying: ‘You never do anything about him. You talk to him and then leave.”
During a fight after a New Year’s Eve party at the house, Simpson had punched and kicked his wife and pulled her hair and screamed, “I’ll kill you!” according to the documents. He had slapped her so hard, one police report said, that a handprint was left on her neck.
Four months later, when Simpson pleaded no contest to spousal battery charges, Municipal Judge Ronald Schoenberg overruled prosecutors’ requests that he serve a month in jail because of the severity of the beating and undergo an intensive yearlong treatment program for men who batter their wives.
Instead, according to the court documents and interviews with prosecutors Thursday, Simpson received no jail time and was allowed to pick his own psychiatrist and receive counseling over the phone, which prosecutors said was unprecedented.
The reports are in marked contrast to a public statement by Simpson when he was named an NBC football analyst in July, 1989. At a news conference to announce his hiring, Simpson downplayed the incident: “It was really a bum rap. We had a fight, that’s all.”
On Thursday, prosecutors said they had sought the jail time because of the severity of the beating, and that they had wanted Simpson to undergo intensive treatment for spousal abuse because they believed his problem was deep-rooted and potentially dangerous to his wife.
“I was very concerned for her safety,” Lisa Foux, who counseled Nicole Simpson as a victims’ advocate for the city attorney’s office, said Thursday. “Without appropriate intervention and consequences for batterers’ actions, (we believed) the violence (would) get more frequent, and more severe.”
Prosecutors in the 1989 incident emphasized Thursday that they were not trying to link the earlier case with the homicide investigation. Nevertheless, the prosecutor in the case, Deputy City Atty. Robert Pingle, said: “I was not happy with the sentence. I felt that the case merited jail time.”
Howard Weitzman, who represented Simpson in that case and who was his lawyer in the current homicide investigation until Wednesday, would not comment on the reports. Schoenberg could not be reached for comment.
After the case was over, Nicole Simpson talked frequently with another victims’ advocate. “Nicole repeatedly told her that she feared for her life,” said Deputy City Atty. Alana L. Bowman, domestic violence coordinator for the city attorney’s office.
Police said Thursday that they did not know exactly how many times officers had been called to the Simpson residence to intervene in domestic disputes.
When officers first responded at 3:30 on that morning in 1989, a woman later identified as a housekeeper told them over an intercom that “everything was fine” and that police were not needed, one report said.
But the officers, who had received word through police dispatchers of a frantic 911 from Nicole Simpson, demanded to see her. Then they saw her run out of the bushes.
As she told the officers her account of what happened, O.J. Simpson came outside dressed in a bathrobe, and began yelling at his wife, who was seated in a police car.
Simpson told police that he had been drinking with his wife when they began arguing, and that any injuries were the accidental result of “a mutual wrestling-type altercation.”
As the officers took a crime report from Nicole Simpson, he became angry that he was going to be arrested. He later slipped out a side exit, got into his Bentley and drove off, one police report said.
Police officials said late Thursday that they did not know if Simpson was arrested later that day or turned himself in.
My analysis.
So here we have the O.J. Simpson story. All to be continued upon his release. Much to chew on and think about. A definite record of abuse and what appears to be a very scared first wife. Perhaps Marguerite has taken money for her silence or she fears for her two children. Oldest daughter Arnelle is currently the beneficiary of O.J.’s monthly 25K NFL pension. Maybe Marguerite knows the truth about O.J. and just wants to stay out of the spotlight. What about Sydney and Justin, Nicole’s two children? I wonder what they think. They have lead a quiet life in the years since the murder of their mother. They were young children then but adults now. They must have questions. Don’t you wonder what they are thinking?
I have questions. The biggest one being that there was a definite record of abuse and violence surrounding Mr. Simpson so why wasn’t he ever fully prosecuted on domestic abuse charges? Some say that his star power prevented this. Others say he paid people off. In one police report, Nicole states, “You always come when I call but you always leave. You never do anything to him.” This is a common scenario. The police come, women are afraid and the police leave. Why?
It has been twenty two years since the O.J. trial ended that changed our media landscape forever. The fascination with this story of sports celebrity, Hollywood, sex, media and eventual murder led to the creation of Court TV. This was the forerunner to all of our law shows today and it is the number one ratings grabber for media owners and platforms. O.J. gripped the country and the world. Most people today know exactly where they were and what they were doing when the verdict was read. The domestic violence charges were tough to admit into evidence so that a jury could know the full story. They were deemed inadmissible, prejudicial even as they had nothing to do with the actual murders of Nicole and Ron Goldman. The prosecution tried but was thwarted by the defense. Today it very well could be quite different. There is much more awareness about domestic violence, more groups speaking out, more resources available, more TV shows, more books, more lawyers, all raising awareness and trying to make a dent with this horrific pandemic. Why is it not getting any better all these years later? So many questions, so many ideas and all we can do for now is to keep raising awareness, harness more voices to speak up and about domestic violence, keep it up with the government to provide funds for families, mental health and sheltering because we all have something to be brave for.