LAS VEGAS –
OJ Simpson’s last intense argument with his longtime lawyer was just before Easter, at the country clubhouse Simpson rented southwest of the Las Vegas Strip.
“He was awake, alert and chilling,” attorney Malcom LaVergne recalled Tuesday. “He’s on the couch… drinking a beer and watching TV. And that was the last time we had effective back-and-forth conversations. He’s usually the one who keeps me up to date with the news… so we were just up to date with the news.”
About a week later, on April 5, a doctor said Simpson was in “transition,” as LaVergne described it. The last time LaVergne visited him, last week, Simpson only had the strength to ask for water and opt to watch a golf tournament on television instead of a tennis match.
“Of course he chose golf,” LaVergne told The Associated Press in an interview. “He was an absolute golf fanatic.”
Simpson died on April 10, after being diagnosed with prostate cancer last year. She was 76 years old.
A post the next day from Simpson’s family on X, formerly Twitter, said Simpson “succumbed to his battle with cancer” while “surrounded by his children and grandchildren.” However, LaVergne said Tuesday that only one person was with Simpson when he died, identified by the attorney only as “a close family member.” He refused to say who he was.
“You have to remember that they have shared orange juice with the world their entire lives,” the lawyer said of Simpson’s surviving adult children from his first marriage – Arnelle Simpson, now 55, and Jason Simpson, 53 – and the Simpson children. He had his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson before she was murdered in 1994: Sydney Simpson, 38, and Justin Simpson, 35. The family’s social media post asked “during this time of transition” for “privacy and funny”.
“At first they shared good orange juice, but he was still famous,” LaVergne said. “And then, starting in 1994, they had to share bad boy OJ with the world. But at the end of the day, these kids just lost a father. And they have the added burden of him being one of the most famous. people on the planet, and who is polarizing and who is surrounded by controversy.
LaVergne, who handles Simpson’s estate, shared details of his final meetings with the former football hero, film actor, sports commentator, television host and accused celebrity murderer whom he has represented since 2009.
He deflected a question about any possible deathbed confession by Simpson as an attempt to move “from bleak to sensational to fun.” He said Simpson’s body will not be studied for the effects of chronic brain trauma from possible impacts to the head during his 11 years as an NFL running back.
“Mr. Simpson, as I understand it, had expressed his wishes to his children,” LaVergne said. “And so they’re going to act on those desires.”
Simpson wanted to be cremated, the attorney said, and, pending a decision from his family, there was no immediate plan for a public memorial.
“There have only been tentative discussions about a celebration (or) ceremony of life,” LaVergne said.
The attorney filed Simpson’s last will and testament in Nevada state court two days after his death, naming Simpson’s four children as the sole beneficiaries of his estate. He said details of a family trust have not yet been filed.
The attorney declined to put a value on the estate, but said Simpson did not own a home in the states where he had lived, including Nevada, California and Florida. He said the accounts were still being counted.
Simpson was acquitted of criminal charges alleging that he stabbed to death his ex-wife and her friend, Ronald Goldman, in 1994 in Los Angeles. Those proceedings in California in 1996 became known as the “trial of the century.” Simpson was found responsible for the deaths in 1997 by a California civil court jury.
In Las Vegas, Simpson was sentenced to nine years in prison in 2008 after being convicted of armed robbery in a 2007 encounter at a casino-hotel with two collectibles dealers.
He lived a golf and country club lifestyle since leaving prison in October 2017, sometimes offering social media posts about sports and golf. His last message was on February 11: wearing a San Francisco 49ers jersey and predicting that his old team would defeat the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LVIII. The bosses won.
LaVergne acknowledged that Simpson died without paying the families of Simpson’s murdered ex-wife and Goldman most of the $33.5 million judgment they were awarded in the 1997 tort case.
Attorney David Cook, who represents the Goldman family, said Tuesday that he thought the judgment owed today, including unpaid interest, amounts to more than $114 million.
LaVergne said last week that the Goldmans would not receive a cent of Simpson’s assets, then backtracked. He said Tuesday that he believed the amount owed was more than $200 million. He said Simpson’s assets will not reach that figure.
“They’ll invite you to see my homework,” he said of the Goldman and Brown families. “I want to show you what I’ve got with the caveat that if you think there’s something else out there… you’re going to have to use your own lawyers, your own resources, to try to go after that pot of gold.”
Associated Press writer Susan Montoya Bryan in Albuquerque, New Mexico, contributed to this report.