O.J. Simpson is released from prison

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Would have posted this in the 'NFL arrests' thread but this man has so much notoriety that he deserves his own thread.
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http://lasvegas.cbslocal.com/2017/07/17/oj-simpson-faces-good-chance-at-parole-from-nevada-prison/

OJ Simpson Faces Good Chance at Parole From Nevada Prison
By KEN RITTER, Associated Press

GTY_OJ_Simpson_MEM_150921_4x3_992.jpg

ABC News - Go.com

LAS VEGAS (AP) — O.J. Simpson, the former football star, TV pitchman and now Nevada prison inmate No. 1027820, will have a lot going for him when he asks state parole board members this week to release him after serving more than eight years for an ill-fated bid to retrieve sports memorabilia.

Now 70, Simpson will have history in his favor and a clean record behind bars as he approaches the nine-year minimum of his 33-year sentence for armed robbery and assault with a weapon. Plus, the parole board sided with him once before.

No one at his Thursday hearing is expected to oppose releasing him in October — not his victim, not even the former prosecutor who persuaded a jury in Las Vegas to convict Simpson in 2008.

“Assuming that he’s behaved himself in prison, I don’t think it will be out of line for him to get parole,” said David Roger, the retired Clark County district attorney.

Four other men who went with Simpson to a hotel room to retrieve from two memorabilia dealers sports collectibles and personal items that the former football star said belonged to him took plea deals in the heist and received probation.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RtmLhbfiUc

OJ Simpson Timeline: From Sports Hero, Movie Star to Infamy, Prison

OJ Scorecard: See How O.J. Does Point-by-Point on Nevada’s Parole Risk Assessment

Two of those men testified that they carried guns. Another who stood trial with Simpson was convicted and served 27 months before the Nevada Supreme Court ruled that Simpson’s fame tainted the jury. Simpson’s conviction was upheld.

Prison life was a stunning fall for a charismatic celebrity whose storybook career as an electrifying running back dubbed “The Juice” won him the Heisman Trophy as the best college player in 1968 and a place in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1985.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1cu5ykSda0

He became a sports commentator, Hollywood movie actor, car rental company spokesman and one of the world’s most famous people even before his Los Angeles “trial of the century,” when he was acquitted in the killings of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6z_VpVaPLWs

Simpson, appeared grayer and heavier than most remembered him when he was last seen, four years ago.

He will appear Thursday by videoconference from the Lovelock Correctional Center, to be quizzed by four state parole commissioners in Carson City, a two-hour drive away.

Two other members of the board will monitor the hearing, said David Smith, a parole hearing examiner.

The commissioners will have a parole hearing report that has not been made public, plus guidelines and worksheets that would appear to favor Simpson. It plans to make its written risk assessment public after a decision.

They will consider his age, whether his conviction was for a violent crime (it was), his prior criminal history (he had none) and his plans after release, Smith said.

Nevada has about 13,500 prison inmates, and the governor-appointed Board of Parole Commissioners has averaged about 8,300 annual hearings for the past four years. The rate of inmates who are granted parole in discretionary hearings held as they approach their minimum sentence, like Simpson’s, averages about 82 percent.

The same four board members also have experience with Simpson, having granted him parole in July 2013 on some charges — kidnapping, robbery and burglary — stemming from the 2007 armed confrontation. The board’s decision left Simpson with four years to serve before reaching his minimum time behind bars.

Board members Connie Bisbee, Tony Corda, Adam Endel and Susan Jackson noted at the time that Simpson had a “positive institutional record,” with no disciplinary actions behind bars.

Simpson’s lawyer, friends and prison officials say that hasn’t changed.

“He’s really been a positive force in there. He’s done a lot of good for a lot of people,” said Tom Scotto, a friend from Florida whose wedding Simpson was in Las Vegas to attend the weekend of the robbery.

Scotto said he visits or talks with Simpson every few months.

Simpson leads a Baptist prayer group, mentors inmates, works in the gym, coaches sports teams and serves as commissioner of the prison yard softball league, Scotto said.

Scotto will be among the 15 people with Simpson in a small conference room at the prison, along with Simpson’s lawyer, Malcolm LaVergne, daughter Arnelle Simpson and sister Shirley Baker.

A parole case worker, two prison guards and a small pool of media also were expected, along with Bruce Fromong, one of the memorabilia dealers who was robbed.

Fromong said he will attend as a victim of the crime but will be “trying to be good for O.J.” He said he suffered four heart attacks and severe financial losses as a result of the robbery but later forgave Simpson.

The other collectibles broker, Alfred Beardsley, died in 2015.

Andy Caldwell, a retired Las Vegas police detective who investigated the Simpson case, will be at the prison but won’t be in the room.

“I don’t want to offer an opinion,” said Caldwell, now a Christian minister in Mill City, Oregon. “I’m just curious to see how everything unfolds.”

In a nod to Simpson’s celebrity, officials will let the proceedings be streamed live, and the board plans a same-day ruling. A decision usually takes several days.

Laurie Levenson, a Loyola Law School professor and longtime Simpson case analyst, predicted a “tsunami” of public attention if Simpson wins release.

“If this is the ordinary case, he will be paroled,” Levenson said. “But O.J. is never the ordinary case.”

Al Lasso, a Las Vegas defense attorney who has followed the case but does not represent Simpson, said any other defendant in a similar case probably would have gotten probation, not prison.

“I think he spent more than enough time in prison for a robbery in which he didn’t even have a gun himself,” Lasso said.

But Michael Shapiro, a New York defense lawyer who provided commentary during Simpson’s conviction in Las Vegas in 2008 and his acquittal in Los Angeles in 1995, said freedom was no certainty.

“The judge believed he got away with murder,” Shapiro said. “That’s the elephant in the room. If the parole authorities feel the same way, he could be in trouble.”
____
This story has been clarified to show that former police Detective Andy Caldwell will be at the prison but not in hearing room and corrects that his church is in Mill City, Oregon, not Lyons, Oregon.
 

Legatron4

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I watched this whole documentary on TV last night. Just a heart breaking story. And yet the media made it out to be a reality show.
 

Selassie I

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I hope that they get his hopes up believing that he will be paroled... then snatch that dream away at the last minute.

I have no sympathy for that pos. He needs to suffer way more than he has.
 

bubbaramfan

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Somebody will probably get him. They'll find him on the golf course looking for the real killers.
 

Ramon Ram

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I always thought someone would take him out the first time he was out but 11 years and nothing. I hope he stays in there but from what I saw he meets all the requirements on that checklist to get out.
Amazing how these women flocked to him after the first time he was out. Disgusting money grubbing women chasing around a presumed lol murderer.
He was no doubt found guilty and sentenced as a pay back so hopefully they keep him in there.
In memory of Nicole and Ron
 

Ramon Ram

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One of my buddies just told ne that he saw a special telling that while in jail during the first trial they brought in numbers to be sewn on jerseys and other materials he signed his autograph on. He apparently made 3 million while waiting on trial. What a joke of a human being.
 

LesBaker

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One of my buddies just told ne that he saw a special telling that while in jail during the first trial they brought in numbers to be sewn on jerseys and other materials he signed his autograph on. He apparently made 3 million while waiting on trial. What a joke of a human being.

I think that's how he bankrolled his army of lawyers.
 

tempests

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I hope that they get his hopes up believing that he will be paroled... then snatch that dream away at the last minute.

I have no sympathy for that pos. He needs to suffer way more than he has.

He's not really suffering in prison.

Has a TV in his cell and even threw a Super Bowl party one year.
 

DaveFan'51

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I hope that they get his hopes up believing that he will be paroled... then snatch that dream away at the last minute.

I have no sympathy for that pos. He needs to suffer way more than he has.
I would Deny the Parole and tell him ... " Come back in another 10 years and maybe we will think about it!! MAYBE!!"
 

Memento

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I really hope that murdering bastard isn't released. He deserves to rot in jail.
 

jetplt67

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So he'll be a Free Agent?? HMMM we could use a good back up RB, now that Cunningham is gone. (y)
 

Prime Time

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He's not really suffering in prison.

Has a TV in his cell and even threw a Super Bowl party one year.

I'm in a federal prison every week, in fact I was there last night. They're not suffering in the form of waterboarding, chain gangs, or bread and water only, but believe me there is suffering when a grown man has every hour of every day regimented by rules enforced by guards, and being locked away from their families.

I have zero sympathy for OJ. He deserves much worse. But I doubt he would say he enjoyed his stay of 8 years in prison.
 

LACHAMP46

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I still say the guy that set him up...recorded the "heist" of his own shit....is kinda scandalous too....
 

tempests

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I'm in a federal prison every week, in fact I was there last night. They're not suffering in the form of waterboarding, chain gangs, or bread and water only, but believe me there is suffering when a grown man has every hour of every day regimented by rules enforced by guards, and being locked away from their families.

I have zero sympathy for OJ. He deserves much worse. But I doubt he would say he enjoyed his stay of 8 years in prison.

It's all relative and some prisons are worse than others. But nothing I've read about OJs stint behind bars suggests it is as tough as people imagine it. I've heard it said that most inmates would choose that prison to stay at if they could. Better food, no gang activity, few violent incidents. And OJ just happens to have gotten one of the four biggest cells there.

Not only is he friendly with his guards, one of them was so taken with him, he wrote a book, "Guarding the Juice". The same guard says 99.9% of inmates look up to OJ, I mean come on. What he deserves or not, it could've been so much worse.
 

Prime Time

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It's all relative and some prisons are worse than others. But nothing I've read about OJs stint behind bars suggests it is as tough as people imagine it. I've heard it said that most inmates would choose that prison to stay at if they could. Better food, no gang activity, few violent incidents. And OJ just happens to have gotten one of the four biggest cells there.

Not only is he friendly with his guards, one of them was so taken with him, he wrote a book, "Guarding the Juice". The same guard says 99.9% of inmates look up to OJ, I mean come on. What he deserves or not, it could've been so much worse.

http://www.latimes.com/projects/la-et-st-oj-simpson-life-behind-bars/

Loveluckprison_406x250.jpg


What life is like behind bars for O.J. Simpson
Prisoner 1027820

By DAVID NG

Prisoner 1027820 is treated in many ways like any other inmate at the Lovelock Correctional Center in Nevada: He gets the same standard issue blue uniform. He shares a bunk, toilet and sink with a cellmate. He rises around 6:30 a.m., eats an early breakfast — he likes cold cereal, with a muffin and fruit — then heads to his work shift.

He toils in the prison gym, cleaning equipment and mopping floors, four days a week. Like many older inmates, he contends with age and ailments, including bad knees, and he works out on weight machines regularly to stay fit. He also coaches prison sports teams, umpires games and recently became prison softball league commissioner.

But prisoner 1027820 isn’t just another inmate. He is O.J. Simpson: football legend and convicted felon serving nine to 33 years for armed robbery and kidnapping committed in 2007.

“He’s popular especially with the sports crowd — guys go up to him and ask him what he thinks about current sports teams,” said Jon Hawkins, a former Lovelock inmate who was released on parole this year. Mostly, he said, “O.J. is just a regular dude. He does his job and he goes to his cell.”

If Simpson’s mundane and routine life on the inside is hidden from all but fellow inmates and guards, on the outside his life has become the subject of heightened fascination by millions, thanks to two acclaimed TV series that revisit the “trial of the century.”

Simpson, who didn’t respond to a request for comment sent via prison email, has a TV in his cell and watches sports religiously, according to those who have had contact with him in prison, including his former manager and a retired guard.

But the prison limits what inmates can view. Nevada Dept. of Corrections spokeswoman Brooke Keast said there are about 10 to 15 approved channels — including educational channels and local stations — and FX isn’t one.

Though inmates generally can watch ESPN, they weren’t allowed to view the Simpson documentary. “It is inappropriate and can be a safety and security risk to transmit information about an inmate to the rest of the inmate population,” Keast said.

O.J.’s life behind bars

The O.J. of the FX series might be shocked to see the O.J. of today. Simpson’s home for the last eight years, Lovelock, could hardly be further from his past: the bustling campus of USC where he first came to fame, the bright lights of NFL stadiums, his upscale Brentwood residence, the tense Los Angeles courtroom where he was acquitted of murder.

The small rural town sits 90 miles northeast of Reno on Interstate 80, amid scenic mountains, cow pastures and a smattering of small casinos. Its civilian population is about 2,000 — barely more than the 1,680 inmates at its medium-security men’s state prison, where Simpson was sent after being convicted of armed robbery and kidnapping.

The inmates include convicted murderers and rapists. Still, the prison is known as one of the better correctional facilities in Nevada for serving time — a prison that most inmates would choose if they could.

Simpson landed here for his role in the Las Vegas incident — a botched operation that he claimed was an attempt to retrieve property that he claimed belonged to him, including sports memorabilia in the possession of two dealers.

During the sentencing, Judge Jackie Glass rebuked Simpson after he suggested that he had merely acted out of stupidity. “Earlier in this case, at a bail hearing, I asked — said — to Mr. Simpson I didn’t know if he was arrogant or ignorant or both,” the judge said. “And during the trial and through this proceeding, I got this answer, and it was both.”

Early in his sentence, Simpson had trouble adjusting to life in lockdown, becoming sullen and introverted, according to Norman Pardo, his former manager, who said he visited his client during his first few years in jail.

He stayed to himself and really just wanted “to be left alone,” said Pardo. He described Simpson as “depressed” during this period.

Though Simpson was initially a loner at Lovelock and had some trouble with fellow prisoners, he has since evolved into a model inmate determined to make parole — which could happen as early as next year, when Simpson will be 70.

“I would say 99.9% of inmates like him — they look up to him,” said Jeffrey Felix, a retired Lovelock prison guard who said he had contact with Simpson for several years and wrote a book about the experience titled “Guarding the Juice.”

At Lovelock, “there are no violent incidents. It’s a kickback kind of place,” said William Mark Clarke, a retired Nevada corrections officer. He said Simpson would have a tougher time in other Nevada facilities, such as the Southern Desert Correctional Center, which have more gang activity.

The cell that Simpson usually shares with one other inmate is about 125 square feet in size, and about 25% larger than the average Lovelock cell. There is a double bunk and Simpson sleeps on the bottom bunk, according to Felix. The former guard added that each prison unit has four larger cells and Simpson just happened to get assigned one, though he didn’t know if it was a random cell assignment.

The prison spokeswoman said she couldn’t comment directly on Simpson’s living conditions but said that cell sizes are uniform with the exception of handicapped cells that are a bit larger to accommodate wheelchairs.

Simpson, who attended USC from fall 1967 to spring 1969 but didn’t complete a degree, has taken some of the vocational training and educational classes at Lovelock that allow prisoners to pursue a high school and even college degree. He said during a 2013 parole hearing, “I find the courses somewhat educational even though it’s tough to hear other guys’ things.”

After initially being withdrawn, Simpson in recent years has become more social, mingling with fellow prisoners who often refer to him by his nickname, “Juice.”

"O.J. has always been an upbeat guy. I just don’t think [being in prison] is going to set him back,” said Joe Bell, a childhood friend who said he has kept informed of Simpson’s activity through the ex-athlete’s family. Bell said that he is unable to visit Lovelock because of his own record.

Added Bell: “O.J is still a really popular guy amongst guys. Most people who follow football relish the opportunity to be in his presence.” Simpson still gets fan mail and is thinking of resuming his lucrative autographing business if he is released, according to Bell and Felix, the retired guard.

He is also benefiting from the facility’s relatively comfortable standard of living.

For a period, Simpson wasn’t watching what he was eating and gained weight, according to Pardo, his former manager. Typical dinners at Lovelock, considered better than in other Nevada prisons though still standard cafeteria fare, include tacos, spaghetti and lasagna. And Simpson has a weakness for cookies, which perhaps aggravated his diabetes. Once a paragon of athleticism, his frame grew thicker, his face puffier.

But the former football star now tries to keep in shape despite the knee problems that stem from his athlete days. He walks laps around the prison’s quarter-mile track and works out at the prison gym, which features about 15 weight machines and some stationary bikes.

Though his knees keep him from competing in sports, he coaches prison sports teams and umpires games. Recently, Simpson became prison softball league commissioner, which involves overseeing umpires, deciding questions about rules and monitoring games.

“He was real low key,” said Randy Gaess, a former Lovelock inmate who said he umpired softball games alongside Simpson.

“He would [umpire] behind home plate because there was little movement necessary. We would talk if we had to about the calls.”

In recent weeks, Simpson skipped his regular walks around the track “because of his knees,” said Gaess, who was released in August. “He doesn’t spend as much time there as he used to.”

For the most part, Simpson gets along with other inmates, though that hasn’t always been the case with some of his cellmates because they often end up feeling treated like “his servants,” said Felix, the former guard. “They clean and he buys the food,” from the prison commissary.

Felix said that Simpson has kept a photo of himself and Nicole Brown Simpson on a shelf in his cell. Prison officials would not confirm if Simpson does so.

O.J. faces uncertain future

However different Simpson’s life on the outside was from his fellow inmates, he has one thing in common with everyone on the inside: He wants to get out.

“He’s the perfect candidate for parole. That’s all he thinks about. If he gets into a conflict [with another inmate], he backs out. He wants to be a free man again,” said Felix, the retired prison guard.

In 2013, the Nevada Board of Parole Commissioners noted Simpson’s positive disposition when they granted him parole on some of his convictions, including kidnapping and robbery, but he remained behind bars on other counts, including assault with a deadly weapon.

At the hearing, a parole official described Simpson as being “disciplinary free.” Simpson said that other inmates even seek his counsel. “I advise a lot of guys and I like to think I keep a lot of trouble from happening,” he told the parole board.

He also expressed remorse for the Las Vegas incident, telling the board that he didn’t intend to rob anyone. “At no point did I go there to take any property that didn’t belong to me,” he said.

These days Simpson is said to be focusing on his children. “Family always has been important to him. That’s all he thinks about — there’s really nothing else that matters,” said Pardo, his former manager.

Simpson has two grown children with Nicole — Sydney, 30, and Justin, 27, who both reside in Florida. He has a son, Jason, 46, and daughter, Arnelle, 47, with his first wife, Marguerite.

Simpson stays in contact with family and friends by phone. His children declined to comment and have generally avoided talking about their father to the media. When reached by phone, Arnelle, who wrote a letter of support to parole officials on behalf of all four children, declined to comment.

Even if he is paroled next year, Simpson’s legal woes won’t be over. He will likely face a mountain of financial obligations, including the $33.5-million judgement against him in the 1997 civil case for the murders of his ex-wife and Goldman.

He “has never honored or paid one single penny of the judgment,” Fred Goldman, father of Ron Goldman, told The Times.

The Goldman family wants “to enforce the judgment so that Simpson doesn’t profit from what he did,” said Daniel Petrocelli, an attorney for the family. Any payments would be divided between the Goldmans and the Browns.

Those who have spoken to Simpson at Lovelock said that he is preoccupied with financial challenges he will face if and when he is released. He continues to draw an NFL pension that some reports have estimated as high as $19,000 per month. The NFL declined to comment. (Simpson played for the Buffalo Bills and the San Francisco 49ers.)

He also receives an unknown amount of royalties from his movies, which include the science fiction thriller “Capricorn One” and “The Naked Gun” comedy trilogy, and TV shows.

As he serves his time, his legal saga has become a lucrative business for many people, but not Simpson. The FX series was a ratings windfall, coming in as the most-watched new series on cable so far this year. (Netflix recently acquired the global streaming rights.)

Yet another series based on the murder case is set to arrive in early 2017: “Hard Evidence: O.J. Is Innocent,” on the Investigation Discovery channel, is a documentary that is expected to propose a new suspect in the case.

A parole could happen as early as October 2017, when he will have served the minimum nine years of his sentence. If he is denied, a mandatory parole review is scheduled for April 2022, according to the prison.

Some think parole won’t necessarily be an easy touchdown for the former athlete. “I’m not optimistic,” said Bell, his friend from childhood. “I know parole boards. They’re going to insist that he killed Nicole, even though they’re not supposed to consider that. But they do.”

He said he hopes time in jail will have made Simpson a humbler person and less obsessed with fame.

“But knowing O.J. as I do,” Bell said, “he’s got such a tremendous ego and persona.”
 

nighttrain

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It's all relative and some prisons are worse than others. But nothing I've read about OJs stint behind bars suggests it is as tough as people imagine it. I've heard it said that most inmates would choose that prison to stay at if they could. Better food, no gang activity, few violent incidents. And OJ just happens to have gotten one of the four biggest cells there.

Not only is he friendly with his guards, one of them was so taken with him, he wrote a book, "Guarding the Juice". The same guard says 99.9% of inmates look up to OJ, I mean come on. What he deserves or not, it could've been so much worse.[/QUOTE
 

shaunpinney

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I'm not sure how the justice system works in America, but he's been acquitted of the murders of Brown-Simpson & Goldman. This should not come into play during this parole hearing. The robbery is the case in question here, now if he has been a model inmate during his time in prison, then release is a definite possibility and should be given.

I would put money on the fact that OJ has Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, I'm not making excuses for him, I just believe there is more to his story.