O.J. Simpson

O.J. Simpson told two friends to "get some heat" so they could bully a pair of memorabilia dealers into handing over sports collectibles and items that the former NFL star said had been stolen from him, one of men testified.

Walter Alexander testified during the preliminary hearing for Simpson - who is charged with multiple felonies stemming from the September incident at the Palace Station Hotel & Casino, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Alexander, a longtime golfing buddy of O.J. Simpson's, said he had asked OJ why he hadn't simply told authorities that the dealers were planning to sell the signed footballs, framed awards and other items of his.

"What are they [police] going to do, take me to jail for taking my own stuff?" OJ Simpson said in between expletives, according to Alexander.

He also testified that the Juice responded, "F**k the police!" when he was questioned about what would happen if the cops were called.

Listening in court, a pained Simpson winced and shook his head. Alexander's account undercuts Simpson's repeated assertions that he did not know that Alexander and their friend Michael "Spencer" McClinton were armed.

Walter Alexander, Michael McClinton and Charles Cashmore have all pleaded guilty to reduced charges in exchange for testimony against O.J. Simpson.

At the end of the hearing, Justice Joe M. Bonaventure will decide whether there is sufficient evidence for Simpson - acquitted in the 1994 murders of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman - to stand trial.

OJ Simpson and associates Clarence J. Stewart Jr. and Charles B. Ehrlich are charged with an array of felonies, including kidnapping and armed robbery.

Simpson's attorney, Yale Galanter, tried to attack Walter Alexander's credibility, accusing him of brokering prostitution - calling him a "pimp, not a Realtor" and a shady character who would offer his testimony to the highest bidder.

When Galanter confronted Alexander about his link to an online prostitution ring, the witness' easygoing manner evaporated. He told the attorney to stop yelling. "I'm sticking to my testimony that I'm not a pimp," Alexander said.

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While Blake Fielder-Civil may be in some deep $h!t for perverting the course of justice in London, at least he can take comfort in the fact that he's not O.J.

The first day of O.J. Simpson's criminal evidence hearing in Clark County, Nev., was marked by dramatic audio tapes and a collectibles broker who testified that he set up the meeting that led to armed robbery charges against the Juice.

The second day of the preliminary hearing to decide if Simpson and two other men should stand trial on 12 criminal charges is set for today. His lawyers are expected to try to undercut the testimony of Tom Riccio, who says he hid a recorder in the hotel room where Simpson is accused of armed robbery.

O.J. Simpson gritted his teeth and laid his gold reading glasses on the defense table as the voicemail he left for Riccio was played in court.

"Hey Tom. It's O.J. What are they talking about a gun? All I wanted was my stuff back again," OJ Simpson says on the 35-second recording.

Simpson refers to hundreds of items taken from memorabilia dealers Bruce Fromong and Alfred Beardsley on September 13 as his "stolen stuff."

"Nobody had a gun, you know?" OJ Simpson says in the tape. "Ain't nobody had any guns. They're feeling guilty so they're trying to make up something."

Played at the preliminary hearing, these words from OJ contrast markedly to the chaotic bellows, orders and curses heard during a six-minute recording of the confrontation in a room at the Palace Station Hotel that ends with a single voice.

"We were just robbed at gunpoint man," a man says. "We were just robbed at gunpoint by O.J. Simpson!"

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Twelve years after being acquitted on double-murder charges, OJ Simpson is back in court in Nevada on aggravated kidnapping charges and other felonies.

Simpson and several cohorts was arrested and charged with various criminal counts stemming from an alleged robbery in a Las Vegas casino-hotel.

OJ Simpson, 60, Clarence Stewart, 53, and Charles Ehrlich, 53, face charges of kidnapping, robbery, assault, conspiracy and coercion.

Admitted robbery accomplices Charles Cashmore, 40, Walter Alexander, 46, and Michael McClinton, 49, have taken plea bargains and are expected to testify for the prosecution that guns were brandished during the Simpson-led September 13 "sting operation" against two sports memorabilia dealers.

OJ Simpson: New decade, new felonies, new mug shots.

At today's preliminary hearing, Las Vegas Judge Joe M. Bonaventure is due to determine whether there is enough evidence to set the case for a trial.

The jurist should not lack for evidence, given that three of OJ Simpson's alleged co-conspirators have accepted plea bargains to testify against The Juice.

The preliminary hearing is expected to continue into Friday and possibly even Saturday. Simpson's attorneys claim they are prepared to face the challenges ahead and say they understand the perception of Simpson.

At a press conference in September, OJ Simpson's attorney, Yale Galanter, stated, "We know who our client is. We know what you guys think."

Should Bonaventure decide there is enough evidence for trial, it's likely that the new OJ Simpson trial wouldn't begin until 2008.

So far, Simpson is 0-1 vs. the Las Vegas justice system. Tuesday, his legal team argued unsuccessfully that prosecutors are using the media against OJ.

Federal agents knew for weeks that O.J. Simpson and sports a memorabilia dealer planned a sting operation to retrieve personal items that the Juice said were stolen from him, according to FBI reports obtained by The Associated Press.

Dealer Thomas Riccio said he reported to the FBI August 21 that a collector claimed to have belongings of Simpson's, and that O.J. wanted to videotape the confrontation with the person peddling pieces of his memorabilia.

Amazingly, Thomas Riccio told the AP that he raised the subject while talking with the FBI about an unrelated subject: a video of Anna Nicole Smith.

But he said agents dismissed his report, the dealer said, telling him that "they didn't want to be involved in another weird celebrity case."

"The guy flat-out told me he had items stolen from O.J. Simpson's house," Riccio told the AP. "I have a legitimate business."

FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said Thomas Riccio did not indicate a crime would be committed. Riccio was advised to contact a lawyer before taking action and was told that alerting the FBI would not absolve him of any crime(s).

Riccio said he was not clear how the O.J. Simpson operation would unfold.

There was no mention in the report of any plans to use guns, a central component of the case now being made against O.J. Simpson and his co-defendants.

"I went along with O.J.'s plan," Riccio said. "It was a self-organized sting operation. Except for the end, with him bringing people with guns. I knew nothing about that."

O.J. Simpson, 60, and five other men were arrested after they allegedly stormed a Las Vegas hotel room with guns September 13 to seize items believed to include family photos and the suit Simpson wore the day he was acquitted of murder.

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The Juice is getting squeezed harder by the day... and orange you glad he may finally be going to prison where he belongs? Sorry, that was lame. But you are, right?

Another co-defendant in the recent kidnapping/robbery case has agreed to plea to lesser charges - in exchange for testimony against O.J. Simpson.

Michael McClinton is now the third person involved in the alleged Las Vegas hotel room holdup involving O.J.'s sports memorabilia.

He told a judge in a Clark County (Nev.) courtroom this morning that he'll accept a deal to plead guilty to robbery and conspiracy to commit robbery, and testify against O.J. Simpson and two other men.

McClinton's lawyer, William Terry, said his client can testify that O.J. Simpson wanted guns with him and his gang as they went to the hotel room at the Palace Station casino.

Simpson's attorney, Yale Galanter, said this was not a surprise, although he added the following:

"What this comes down to is the real bad guys are pointing a finger at O.J., and the prosecution giving away the courthouse to try to shore up their case."

Michael McClinton could receive up to 11 years in prison. Man, everybody's rolling over on O.J. And not exactly the way Christie Prody does.

As O.J. Simpson faces a slew of charges (kidnapping and robbing people) from an incident earlier this fall, The Hollywood Gossip takes a look back at the days when he was a mere murderer who tried to cash in on his notoriety.

Although the original release was canceled shortly after it was announced in November 2006, several copies of "If I Did It," Simpson's "fictional" tell-all, managed to make their way online despite orders for all to be destroyed.

In August 2007, a Florida bankruptcy court awarded the rights to the book to the family of murder victim Ronald Goldman to help satisfy the unpaid $33.5 million wrongful death civil judgment against O.J. Simpson.

With proceeds going to the Goldmans, the book title was thus expanded to "If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer" and the cover altered significantly. See below.

Of course, there's this alternate cover Vibe came up with, which seems to sum up the absurdity of it all. Who manages to beat the rap for murder, beat a civil suit with NFL pensions that can't be seized, then tries to rub everybody's face in it?

Apparently, raking in tons of cash, killing two humans and being found liable for the deaths to the tune of $33.5 million aren't mutually exclusive.

TMZ reports that O.J. Simpson made nearly $400,000 in income from his NFL pensions every year from 2003 to 2005, for a total of $1.2 million.

David Cook, the attorney for Fred Goldman (father of victim Ron Goldman) says that what he's really interested in  $772,090 in "personal property" that the knife-wielding maniac claims on his 2005 return, because the pensions are exempt from the $33.5 million judgment against O.J. Simpson in 1997.

The Goldman family has been trying to collect that for 10 years. Cook says he's not sure what the "personal property" consists of, but he'll be going after it.

O.J. Simpson: Plenty of juice left in the ol' bank account. 

"He's a very wealthy man sitting on a lot of assets," David Cook says of O.J. Simpson. "Meanwhile, Mr. Goldman is a 67-year-old working man."

Cook says that they're attempting to seize the Florida house of Simpson, who along with girlfriend Christie Prody has been involved in a string of legal altercations long after his civil and criminal trials.

Just last week, the State of California Tax Board revealed O.J. owes $1.4 million in back taxes. His two co-defendants for the recent kidnapping and robbery he allegedly committed in Las Vegas have agreed to plea bargains.

Two co-defendants have pleaded guilty to reduced charges and agreed to testify in the O.J. Simpson armed robbery and kidnapping case in Las Vegas.

Walter Alexander and Charles Cashmore were both in court today in Las Vegas. In return for their testimony against OJ Simpson, Clark County District Attorney David Roger agreed to drop charges including kidnapping, armed robbery, assault with a deadly weapon and conspiracy against both men.

These two upstanding individuals remain free pending sentencing.

This is more bad news for O.J. Simpson, who Alexander says "wanted guns" at the meeting with the memorabilia dealers he is accused of robbing.

It's looking worse and worse by the day for the Juice. Hopefully, lady friend and fellow criminal Christie Prody has been there to offer moral support.

O.J. Simpson "wanted armed men" with him when he went to confront the two sports memorabilia dealers he is accused of threatening and robbing at gunpoint.

That's according to a co-defendant who agreed to a plea bargain and agreed to testify for the prosecution against OJ Simpson in the kidnapping and robbery case.

"O.J. said 'Hey, just bring some firearms,'" Walter Alexander told police in a transcript of his tape-recorded statement obtained by the media.

Alexander told the police after his arrest September 15 that he and another man showed up with guns at the former football star's request.

That's when they headed over with him into a casino hotel room to retrieve various collectibles and memorabilia that O.J. Simpson said belonged to him.

"[O.J.] said ... 'we won't have to use 'em, but ... just to look tough, so that these people know that, you know, we're here for business,'" Walter Alexander said.

O.J. Simpson has denied guns were involved.

If Alexander's assertion turns out to be true, "it hurts OJ Simpson tremendously," Edward Miley, lawyer for co-defendant Charles Cashmore, said.

Charles Cashmore also has agreed to a plea deal.

Another one of the co-defendants in the O.J. Simpson robbery / kidnapping case has struck a plea deal with the D.A.

Bad news for the Juice!

Walter Alexander (pictured in mug shot) is expected in court this afternoon to plead guilty to lesser charges in the armed robbery case.

In return, Alexander is expected to testify against that raving lunatic O.J. Simpson and other co-defendants when the trial begins.

Orenthal James Simpson and three other upstanding characters - Clarence Stewart, Charles Ehrlich and Michael McClinton - are facing more than 10 different felony charges, including coercion and kidnapping.

In case you missed it, O.J. Simpson was arrested after robbing people in a Las Vegas hotel room. What happens in Vegas evidently stays there - in court.

Charles Cashmore also struck a deal last week and will plead guilty in exchange for his testimony. Cashmore is set to plead guilty to being an accessory to robbery, a felony that could get him up to five years in prison.

It was also recently revealed that O.J.'s girlfriend, Christie Prody, has a long list of legal problems and brushes with the law as well. Keeps good company.