O.J. Simpson's long-time attorney and the executor of his estate has reversed his position on potential claims for settlement money from Ron Goldman's family members. The Goldmans, along with Nicole Brown's family, were awarded millions in a civil judgment that was never fully paid.
Malcolm LaVergne, a lawyer based in Nevada who had represented Simpson from 2009 until his recent passing from prostate cancer, was formally named the executor of Simpson's estate as per the filed will in a Clark County court. The announcement of Simpson's death was made by his family the day before the will was filed.
Following the filing of Simpson's will, LaVergne expressed a different stance. In an interview with the Las Vegas-Review Journal, LaVergne stated that he no longer intended to block the Goldmans from seeking the unpaid settlement.
"It's my hope that the Goldmans receive what they are owed," LaVergne stated in a recent interview. "I will fulfill my duties as the executor to ensure that they receive the appropriate settlement."
The attorney seems to have changed course since then. On Monday, LaVergne told The Hollywood Reporter that he wanted to walk back those comments, and he later confirmed the reversal in a statement to CBS News.
Simpson was acquitted in 1995 of the gruesome murders of Brown, his ex-wife, and Ron Goldman, her friend, following a widely-debated criminal case and what has been called "the trial of the century." A California jury found in a subsequent civil judgment several years later that Simpson was liable for their deaths, and ordered him to pay Brown and Goldman's families $33.5 million in damages.
Even after Simpson was released in 2017 from the Nevada prison where he ultimately served nine years for multiple felony convictions, the debt was never paid out to completion.
Fred Goldman, the father of Ron Goldman, has unrelentingly sought justice for his murder for the last 30 years. He reacted to Simpson's death in an interview with NBC News in the wake of the announcement, saying it was "no great loss to the world" but focusing the comments mainly on his son.
"The only thing I have to say is it's just further reminder of Ron being gone all these years," Fred Goldman said. "It's no great loss to the world. It's a further reminder of Ron's being gone."
David J. Cook, an attorney for Fred Goldman who specializes in financial judgments and has worked for decades with the family to try and collect the multi-million dollar civil settlement, was more accusing in his own remarks. Cook told CBS News that Simpson's death was "a death without penance" and the judgment owed to the Goldmans had with interest risen to $114 million. He also shared that Goldman and their legal team had not been able to access Simpson's NFL pension or trust.
"Efforts went nowhere. Did he have other money? Nothing that we could find. Do I think he was hiding money? Maybe," Cook said. The attorney told the Associated Press in the wake of Simpson's death that he planned to "keep going" in his pursuit of the settlement.
LaVergne noted in his latest statement about the Goldmans that the combative stance he took initially on their settlement was an extension of his time as Simpson's attorney — a role that he acknowledges has fundamentally changed now that he is the executor of the estate.
"These are two different roles with different sets of rules. This is the first time I have been an executor of an estate, so the process has been a learning curve that I have to do very quickly because of the circumstances of this case," LaVergne said in the statement. "My intention is to keep the rhetoric and hyperbole down, and the actions to wind up Mr. Simpson's estate the focus."
He added that "transparency" will be his priority as he intends to invite Fred Goldman "in a very short amount of time" to go over the estate and the family's claims. LaVergne said the Brown family would be given the same opportunity "if their claim is still valid."
