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WORLD / America
O.J. Simpson freed after posting bail
(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-09-20 09:49
LAS VEGAS - In a scene of legal deja vu, a grayer, heavier O.J. Simpson
stood handcuffed in court Wednesday to face charges that could put him
behind bars for life. The prosecutor who failed to get him a dozen years
ago was there to watch, and news cameras tracked his every move as if
they were covering a slow-speed chase.
O.J. Simpson leaves the Clark County detention center after making bail
in Las Vegas on Wednesday, Sept. 19, 2007. [AP]?
But as Simpson made his $125,000 bail on charges including kidnapping and
armed robbery, legal experts were questioning: Could a former football
star who beat a double-murder rap really do hard time for a crime that
sounds like a bad movie?
Police have laid out a case that makes Simpson the leader in a tense,
armed holdup of sports memorabilia collectors. Some of the facts —
including a curious recording of the confrontation — don't seem so
clear-cut.
Legal experts say that issues such as who had rightful ownership of the
goods and the reputation of witnesses in the sometimes
less-than-reputable world of memorabilia trading could cloud the
prosecution's case.
Simpson has insisted he was merely retrieving items that were stolen from
him earlier.
Alfred Beardsley, one of the collectors who says he was robbed at
gunpoint by Simpson and several other men, told NBC's "Today" show before
Simpson's hearing that he didn't think an audiotape made at the scene was
accurate. Beardsley was arrested for a parole violation on Wednesday.
The man who arranged the meeting between Simpson and the two collectors,
Tom Riccio, has a criminal record. The other victim, Bruce Fromong, was
recovering from a heart attack in a Los Angeles hospital.
"The credibility of the cohorts in the enterprise would be a key issue at
trial," said University of Southern California law professor Jody Armour.
Agreed, said Dennis Turner, a professor at the University of Dayton
School of Law. "This is a pretty shady world and pretty shady characters
dealing with each other in a pretty shady way."
A key difference with the 1995 murder trial is that there are plenty of
witnesses this time who place Simpson at the scene, including hotel video
surveillance. Simpson has made no secret he went to the hotel room
intending to take the memorabilia and told The Associated Press that a
man who came with him brought a truck to cart away the goods.
"It's not like the murder case involving his ex-wife and Ron Goldman,
where Simpson had a completely different story in which he said, 'I
wasn't there,'" said Doug Godfrey, a professor at the Chicago-Kent
College of Law. "A prosecutor only has to show intent. And the intent is,
'Were you acting in concert with someone with a gun to take property from
someone?' If you were, you're guilty of armed robbery."
Simpson attorney Yale Galanter said: "You can't rob something that is
yours."
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