O.J. Simpson paid the family of Ron Goldman just a small fraction of the $33.5 million wrongful death judgment he owed them at the time of his death, an attorney for the Goldman family revealed Friday.
In 1997, after Simpson was acquitted in the murders of ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Goldman, a jury in a civil trial found him responsible for their deaths and ordered him to pay $33.5 million, which — with interest over the past 27 years — has ballooned to over $100 million.
Of that judgment, Simpson paid only $133,000, Goldman family attorney David Cook told People. “He died without penance,” Cook said of Simpson. “He did not want to give a dime, a nickel to Fred [Goldman, Ron’s father], never, anything, never.”
To avoid paying the Goldmans all these years, Simpson moved from California — where he lived at the time of the murders and where the civil trial took place — to states like Florida and Nevada, where perhaps his biggest income — his NFL pension, as well as his residences — were protected from seizure by state law.
“He [still] owes on the current status of the judgment,” Cook said, adding that the judgment with accrued interest is now upwards of $114 million.
Cook also said that a legal team would need to determine the value of Simpson’s estate and whether it’s worth posthumously pursuing his debt.
“We need to get a lawyer or a number of lawyers who deal with this, very smart people to determine who it is or who it would be, and [start] taking depositions from people and/or finding out who they are and what information we need,” Cook told People. “It’s a big deal.”
In the 27 years since the wrongful death lawsuit, the Goldman family did score one victory over Simpson when they acquired the rights (via court decision) of the controversial and canceled book If I Did It, which the Goldman family ultimately published under the title If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer.
Following news of Simpson’s death following a cancer battle, Fred Goldman told Rolling Stone, “The only thing I have to say is that today is just a further reminder of how long we have missed my son, how long he’s been gone, and the only thing that is important today are the victims. That’s it. I have nothing else to say.”
