Even if O.J. Simpson gets out on parole, he won’t really be free, so to speak. Attorney David Cook, who represents the family of Ronald Goldman, has promised to go after the football player for the full $52 million civil judgment in a wrongful death lawsuit.
$52 million.
That’s not a typo: It has gotten bigger since the verdict in 1997. The original payout was set at $33.5 million. The judgment was renewed, however, and increased thanks to interest, Cook told LawNewz Network Host Amy Dash on Friday afternoon.
“California judgments accrue interest at 10 percent,” Cook said. “So a California judgment would double every 10 years.”
Simpson is currently seeking parole in a hearing next week. If successful, the ex-NFL player could be released only nine years into his 33-year prison sentence for a 2007 robbery in Las Vegas, Nevada.
A Los Angeles jury acquitted him in the double murder of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman, but the Goldman family successfully sued Simpson in court. A jury found him liable for the deaths, hence the ever-increasing judgment.
In trying to collect the money, Goldman’s family has been trying to get their hands on any and all of Simpson assets they can legally obtain. For example, Simpson’s NFL pension is exempt under the law, but famously, the family got the rights to his book If I Did It. They released it under the title If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer.
Simpson’s ability to pay the full judgment may be a bit compromised. After all, he’s been in prison for almost a decade. Nonetheless, Cook suspects that he’ll try to make money from his fame after getting released.
“I’ll renew, and then I’m sure (God forbid one day I’ll retire) my successor will renew it,” he said. “How’s that? This thing will live forever.”
Update – July 20, 1:09 p.m. EST: An earlier version of this article incorrectly described Nicole Brown Simpson as OJ Simpson’s “wife.” They divorced in 1992, however.
[Screengrab via LawNewz Network]
