Attorney Malcolm LaVergne has no idea how he came to be the executor of O.J. Simpson’s estate, but he wants everyone to know that he takes the job “very seriously.” On Friday, he told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that one of his top priorities is making sure that the family of Ron Goldman doesn’t get a penny.
“It’s my hope that the Goldmans get zero, nothing,” LaVergne told the Review-Journal. “Them specifically. And I will do everything in my capacity as the executor or personal representative to try and ensure that they get nothing.”
In 1994, Simpson was accused of murdering his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ron Goldman. Simpson was acquitted in 1995, but in 1997, the Review-Journal notes, he was found liable in a civil wrongful death suit and ordered to pay the pair’s families $33.5 million. LaVergne maintains that there was never an official order forcing Simpson to pay the families.
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After Simpson’s death from prostate cancer earlier this week, an attorney for Goldman’s father, Fred Goldman, alleged that the former football player owed the family $114 million as of this year, due to accrued interest.
“He died without penance,” attorney David Cook told People on Friday. “He did not want to give a dime, a nickel to Fred, never, anything, never.”
LaVergne told the Review-Journal that his specific animosity toward the Goldmans stems from Simpson’s 2007 book If I Did It: Confessions of a Killer. A federal bankruptcy judge awarded the Goldmans the rights over the then-canceled book to help satisfy Simpson’s debt from the civil case.
On Saturday, TMZ reported that the book’s sales had begun to spike in the wake of Simpson’s death—which means that the Goldmans will likely start to see more money from it.
Fred Goldman (C), father of Ronald Goldman, his daughter Kim (L) and wife Patty listen to testimony during a preliminary hearing following the murders of Ronald and O.J. Simpson's ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson July 7, 1994 in Los Angeles.
Photo by Lee Celano/WireImage / GettyAt the time of publication, various versions of the book sat at the No. 1, 2, and 4 spots in the platform’s Criminology section and No. 8 in Murder/True Crime. As TMZ notes, the Goldmans were behind the book’s title after they won the rights; Simpson’s working title never made it to publication.
As both the Review-Journal and the Associated Press note, Simpson claimed to live on his NFL and private pensions. The civil jury award saw hundreds of his possessions seized, and he was forced to auction off his Heisman Trophy, which went for $230,000.
Arash Sadat, a Los Angeles attorney who specializes in property disputes, told the AP that in cases like this, “100%” better for claimants hoping to secure their money that the debtor be deceased.” At the same time, attorney Christopher Melcher told the publication, “I do think it’s going to be quite difficult for them [the Goldmans] to collect… We don’t know what O.J. has been able to earn over the years.”
For now, those book sales might have to be enough.
