OJ Simpson's longtime lawyer and executor of his estate has backtracked on earlier remarks suggesting he would block any claims for settlement money from Ron Goldman's family members, who along with the family by Nicole Brown received millions of awards. in a civil judgment which was never paid in full.
Nevada-based attorney Malcolm LaVergne had represented Simpson, the former NFL star and acquitted murder defendant who notoriously pleaded not guilty to the murders of Goldman and Brown, from 2009 to his death from prostate cancer last week. Simpson's will was filed in a Clark County court and formally named LaVergne executor of his estate. His family had announced Simpson's death the day before.
Shortly after Simpson's will was filed Friday, LaVergne told the Las Vegas-Review Journal that he intended to fight the Goldmans in their pursuit of the unpaid settlement.
“It is my hope that the Goldmans get zero, nothing,” LaVergne said in controversial comments to the paper. “Them specifically. And I will do everything in my capacity as executor or personal representative to try to get them nothing.”
The lawyer seems to have changed tack since then. On Monday, LaVergne told The Hollywood Reporter she wanted to retract those comments, and later confirmed the retraction in a statement to CBS News.
“That 'zero, nothing' comment to a local reporter was harsh and in response to what a lawyer for Fred Goldman said (within an hour of notification of OJ's death), not Fred Goldman himself . Mr. Goldman's personal comments after the death were not offensive and understandable under the circumstances,” LaVergne said in the statement.
Simpson was acquitted in 1995 of the gruesome murders of Brown, his ex-wife, and Ron Goldman, his friend, after a much-debated criminal case that has been called “the trial of the century.” A California jury found in a subsequent civil trial several years later that Simpson was responsible for his death, and ordered him to pay $33.5 million in damages to the families of Brown and Goldman.
Even after Simpson was released in 2017 from a Nevada prison where he finally turned nine years old for multiple felony convictions, the debt was never paid until completion.
Fred Goldman, Ron Goldman's father, has relentlessly sought justice for his murder for the past 30 years. He reacted to Simpson's death in an interview with NBC News after the announcement, saying it was “not a great loss to the world,” but focusing the comments mainly on his son.
“All I have to say is it's just another reminder that Ron has been gone all these years,” Fred Goldman said. “It's not a great loss to the world. It's just another reminder that Ron is gone.”
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David J. Cook, a Fred Goldman lawyer who specializes in financial litigation and has worked with the family for decades to try to collect the multibillion-dollar civil settlement, was more accusatory in his own statements. Cook told CBS News that Simpson's death was “an unrepentant death” and that the judgment owed to the Goldmans had increased interest to $114 million. He also shared that Goldman and his legal team had been unable to access Simpson's NFL trust or pension.
“The efforts went nowhere. Did he have other money? Nothing that we could find. Do I think he was hiding money? Maybe,” Cook said. The lawyer told the Associated Press after Simpson's death that he planned to “continue” in his pursuit of a settlement.
LaVergne noted in his latest statement about the Goldmans that the combative stance he initially took on their settlement was an extension of his time as Simpson's lawyer, a role he acknowledges has changed fundamentally now that he is the executor of the property.
“They are two different roles with different rules. This is my first time as an executor of an estate, so the process has been a learning curve that I have to do very quickly because of the circumstances of this case.” LaVergne said in the statement. “My intention is to keep the rhetoric and hyperbole low, and the actions to end Mr. Simpson's estate at the center.”
He added that “transparency” will be his priority as he intends to invite Fred Goldman “very shortly” to review the family's property and claims. LaVergne said the Brown family would have the same opportunity “if their claim is still valid.”
