At his hearing on Thursday, O.J. Simpson sought to be granted his freedom by the Nevada parole board. Oddly, Simpson appeared to be doing everything wrong, from shifting blame for his crimes, to almost losing his temper before the parole board.
Simpson retold his version of the events surrounding the armed robbery he participated in, for which he was convicted and is currently incarcerated, looking to discredit reports and blaming everyone else involved.
Simpson took issue with reports that he and his friends broke into the hotel room where Al Beardsley and Bruce Fromong were located. “We didn’t break into any room,” Simpson said, insisting that he was let in by the person who arranged the confrontation.
He also distanced himself as much as possible from the use of a gun in the hotel hold-up. “They made it clear that I didn’t have a weapon at trial,” Simpson said. “The security guys had the gun.” He also claimed that he didn’t threaten anybody. “I had no weapon, they weren’t threatened by me,” he insisted. Simpson said that he wasn’t even aware that anyone he brought showed a gun until after the event took place.
It was all the “security guys,” who were to blame, not Simpson. “Bruce and I were trying to deal with this, but these security guys took over,” Simpson said. He did at least take ultimate responsibility for them being there, although he did claim that he originally didn’t see the need for them and only agreed after his friend pressured him into it.
LawNewz founder Dan Abrams was surprised, to put it mildly, that Simpson felt the need to rehash the whole thing.
Wtf is oj doing? Is he trying to make sure it’s really close? #OJSimpsonParole
— Dan Abrams (@danabrams) July 20, 2017
Most astonishingly, however, was when O.J. was asked about the property itself. Simpson lost his cool at this point, going on about how the State of California already determined that the property was his in the first place.
“So you believe that the property was yours,” a parole board member said.
OJ nearly blew a fuse at this point. “It’s been ruled legally by the State of California that it’s my property, and they’ve given it to me!” Simpson said angrily.
Lucky for Simpson, the tension eased later in the hearing when the Nevada Parole Board asked about his request to relocate to Florida. “I don’t think you guys want me here!” O.J. said, and everyone had a good laugh.
