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Simpson Jailed On 10 Charges In Armed Robbery At Hotel

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By KATHLEEN HENNESSEY, The Associated Press

Published: September 19, 2007

LAS VEGAS - Prosecutors filed formal charges Tuesday against O.J. Simpson, alleging the fallen football star committed 10 felonies, including kidnapping, in the armed robbery of sports memorabilia collectors in a casino hotel room.

Simpson was arrested Sunday after a collector reported a group of armed men charged into his hotel room and took several items Simpson claimed belonged to him.

Simpson, 60, was booked on five felony counts, including suspicion of assault and robbery with a deadly weapon. District Attorney David Roger filed those charges and added five felonies, including kidnapping and conspiracy to commit kidnapping, according to court documents.

Simpson, accused with three other men, faces the possibility of life in prison if convicted in the robbery at Palace Station casino. He was being held without bail and was to be arraigned today.

According to the charges, Simpson and the others went to the hotel room under the pretext of brokering a deal with Alfred Beardsley and Bruce Fromong, two longtime collectors of Simpson memorabilia.

Once in the room, Simpson prevented one of the collectors from calling 911 on his cell phone 'by ripping it out of Fromong's hand' while one or more accomplices pointed or displayed a handgun.

The complaint does not specify which man was carrying the weapon.

The kidnapping charge accuses the men of detaining each man 'against his will, and without his consent, for the purpose of committing a robbery.'

Fromong, a crucial witness in the case, was in critical condition in a Los Angeles hospital on Tuesday after suffering a heart attack Monday, according to a spokeswoman at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. Beardsley has said he does not want to pursue the case.

Simpson's attorney, Yale Galanter, said he planned to ask for Simpson's release on his own recognizance.

'If it was anyone other than O.J. Simpson, he would have been released by now,' Galanter said.

Simpson has insisted he was not armed and that he went to the hotel simply to retrieve property that had been stolen from him.

'You can't rob something that is yours,' Galanter said. 'O.J. said, 'You've got stolen property. Either you return it or I call the police.''

Witnesses and authorities have said they don't think Simpson had a gun but that some of the men who accompanied him during the confrontation were armed.

Two others named in the complaint, Walter Alexander and Clarence Stewart, have been arrested and released. Authorities were seeking an arrest warrant for a fourth man, Michael McClinton, 49, of Las Vegas.

Simpson and the other three men are charged with two counts of first-degree kidnapping; two counts of robbery with use of a deadly weapon; burglary while in possession of a deadly weapon; two counts of assault with a deadly weapon; conspiracy to commit kidnapping; conspiracy to commit robbery; and a misdemeanor, conspiracy to commit a crime.

Simpson also faces one charge of coercion with use of a deadly weapon, a felony.

Simpson was acquitted more than a decade ago of the 1994 killings of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and Ron Goldman. He later was found liable in a wrongful-death trial.

The civil jury returned a $33.5 million judgment against Simpson, but it remains largely unpaid. The Goldman family has waged a campaign to claim his assets.

Earlier Tuesday in California, a judge gave Goldman's father, Fred, a week to come up with a list of sports memorabilia that Simpson is accused of stealing from the Vegas hotel room, but he refused to order Simpson to hand over his earnings from everything from autograph signings to video games.

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