Proceeds of O.J. Simpson, Cosmopolitan Settlement Will Go to Fred Goldman

Ryan J. Farrick — June 16, 2021

OJ Simpson on trial in 1994 or 1995. Image via Flickr/user:Charles LeBlanc. (CCA-BY-2.0). No changes made. https://www.flickr.com/photos/httpoldmaisonblogspotcom/3085538728

While O.J. Simpson was never convicted in the the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and

The proceeds of the settlement reached between O.J. Simpson and The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas will all go to Fred Goldman.

According to KLAS, June 12^th marked the 27-year anniversary of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Fred Goldman’s son, Ronald Lyle Goldman.

While Simpson was eventually cleared of homicide charges, he was found liable for both deaths in a civil suit.

After the civil jury found Simpson culpable for the duo’s deaths, they awarded $33.5 million in damages to the victims’ families.

A gavel. Image via Wikimedia Commons via Flickr/user: Brian Turner. (CCA-BY-2.0).

That judgment, notes KLAS, was renewed by a court in 2015 and has since been extended to 2025. However, Simpson has paid little of the original award, which has since grown to $58 million.

Simpson, says KLAS, petitioned the court to terminate the judgment as recently as March 2021.

Nevertheless, the Eighth Judicial District Court allowed the judgment to remain intact.

“It is hereby ordered that Simpson’s Motion for Relief is denied in its entirety as there was no basis to invalidate the properly domesticated judgment at issue herein,” the panel wrote.

While Smith was in prison until 2017, it appears he is still collecting large amounts of money. His NFL pension, for instance, may pay up to $20,000 per month. Unfortunately for the victims’ families, family law typically protects private pensions from creditor claims.

But in 2017, Simpson sued the owner of The Cosmopolitan, a Las Vegas hotel and casino. In his lawsuit, Simpson alleged that the hotel’s owned had defamed him and ruined his reputation by telling a celebrity news site that Simpson had been drunk and disruptive inside the property.

Simpson said the incident never happened, while The Cosmopolitan and its attorneys maintained that Simpson’s claims were baseless since his reputation was already damaged.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal observes that, although the details of Simpson’s settlement with The Cosmopolitan are not public, Simpson had initially sought at least $30,000 in damages.

Regardless of the settlement size, Simpson will not profit—earlier this month, Clark County Judge Veronica Barisich ordered that “the proceeds of Simpson’s rights of action shall be immediately turned over to Goldman’s counsel, Larson A. Welsh, Esq.”

KLAS adds that other members of Goldman’s family—like his sister, Kim—have made it their mission to ensure that Simpson continues to pay for his alleged crimes.

According to Kim, though, it is not about the money so much as holding Simpson accountable for the murders many people believe he committed.

“[Kim] and her father, Fred Goldman, have chased down secret hordes of Simpson’s memorabilia, taken possession of his tell-all book, and spoken out against a criminal justice system that she says ignores victims’ rights,” the Los Angeles Times wrote in 2019.