The executor named in O.J. Simpson’s will has vowed he’ll fight to make sure the family of Ron Goldman, who were still owed millions at the time of the former athlete’s death, gets “nothing, zero” from his estate.
“I will do everything in my capacity as the executor or personal representative to try and ensure that they get nothing,” Malcolm LaVergne, Simpson’s longtime attorney, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal on Friday.
LaVergne said he was left particularly peeved by Goldman’s family over previous events surrounding Simpson’s book, “If I Did It.” The publication of the book was originally canceled, but the Goldman family, still pushing to be paid for a wrongful death judgement, eventually won control of the manuscript in part to satisfy that payment.
With the rights to the book secured, the Goldmans published a revised edition in 2007, retitling it “If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer” and including their own exclusive commentary.
While Simpson initially shot to fame as a professional athlete, he’s perhaps best known for being tried and acquitted for the 1994 murders of Goldman and his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson.
In 1997, he was found liable in a civil wrongful death suit, and ordered to pay $33.5 million to the families of both victims. But the former footballer died from cancer on Wednesday without having paid the bulk of that judgement.
Due to Simpson’s failure to pay, the money owed with interest has blown up to more than over $114 million, said David Cook, who represents Ron’s father, Fred Goldman.
“He died without penance,” he said of Simpson. “He did not want to give a dime, a nickel to Fred, never, anything, never.”
According to legal filings obtained by Bleacher Report, Simpson had only paid the family $133,000 since 1997.
Despite the civil ruling, there was never a court order forcing Simpson to pay, LaVergne told the Review Journal.
Simpson’s final will was only filed on Friday, the attorney noted, so he “can’t make a predication right now as to what the value of the estate is.” What he does know is that he plans to prevent the Goldman family from seeing any of that money.
