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From: Jean
Date: 4/26/01
Time: 10:53:04 AM
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From: [email protected] Date: Thu, Apr 26, 2001, 10:10am To: [email protected] Subject: [InPursuitofJustice] OJ new appeal Reply to: [email protected] Breaking News Posted at 6:43 p.m. EDT Wednesday, April 25, 2001 Simpson plans to take legal battle to federal courts By LINDA DEUTSCH AP Special Correspondent LOS ANGELES -- (AP) -- He lives in Florida now, but O.J. Simpson said Wednesday the rejection of his latest appeal of a $33.5 million civil judgment frees him from the legal world of California to take his case to federal courts where he hopes for a new hearing. ``This was a way to get out of the state of California,´´ Simpson said after the state Supreme Court rejected his appeal. ``It´s like football, sometimes you have to run a play so you can get somewhere else.´´ ``I´ve got to fight this,´´ Simpson said in a phone interview. ``If you´re right, you fight.´´ Citing two famous criminal cases overturned after many years, he said, ``What if Geronimo Pratt had stopped? What if Hurricane Carter had stopped?´´ Simpson, who was acquitted of murdering his ex-wife Nicole and her friend Ronald Goldman nearly seven years ago, was held liable for their deaths in a civil trial and was ordered to pay $33.5 million in damages to survivors. He says the civil trial was unfair and he expected little from the appeals courts. ``It isn´t about the law in California,´´ he said. ``As far as O.J. is concerned, it´s personal.... To this day, if another lead came up, no one in Los Angeles would want to hear about it.´´ Simpson said he has some ``very talented lawyers´´ in Florida who will take his appeal to the next level. ``Whatever the next step is, that´s the step we´re taking,´´ he said. But he insisted the ruling will have little effect on the life he has built for himself and his two youngest children in Florida. He said the children, Sydney, 15, and Justin, 12, have adjusted well to their private school in Miami and have an active social life. ``My house is full of kids all the time,´´ he said. ``My kids are doing terrific.´´ He said the youngsters make trips to California to visit their grandparents, Lou and Juditha Brown, and will probably spend part of the summer with them. Simpson, an avid golfer, said he returned to the game only recently after several months of health problems which prevented him from playing. He suffers from arthritis and old football injuries. Except for ``one or two crazy things,´´ such as a run-in with a motorist, Simpson said, ``I live this boring life, the most uneventful life anyone could imagine.... I don´t have a girlfriend. I´m not getting married again.´´ He expressed dismay at the continued blare of tabloid headlines accusing him of everything from making a porn movie to fathering a child out of wedlock. All of it, he said, is untrue. ``It´s just like my trial,´´ he said. ``They can´t find anything legitimate so they just make it up.´´ Jean On to 2002!!! To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
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From: [email protected] Date: Thu, Apr 26, 2001, 10:10am To: [email protected] Subject: [InPursuitofJustice] OJ new appeal Reply to: [email protected] Breaking News Posted at 6:43 p.m. EDT Wednesday, April 25, 2001 Simpson plans to take legal battle to federal courts By LINDA DEUTSCH AP Special Correspondent LOS ANGELES -- (AP) -- He lives in Florida now, but O.J. Simpson said Wednesday the rejection of his latest appeal of a $33.5 million civil judgment frees him from the legal world of California to take his case to federal courts where he hopes for a new hearing. ``This was a way to get out of the state of California,´´ Simpson said after the state Supreme Court rejected his appeal. ``It´s like football, sometimes you have to run a play so you can get somewhere else.´´ ``I´ve got to fight this,´´ Simpson said in a phone interview. ``If you´re right, you fight.´´ Citing two famous criminal cases overturned after many years, he said, ``What if Geronimo Pratt had stopped? What if Hurricane Carter had stopped?´´ Simpson, who was acquitted of murdering his ex-wife Nicole and her friend Ronald Goldman nearly seven years ago, was held liable for their deaths in a civil trial and was ordered to pay $33.5 million in damages to survivors. He says the civil trial was unfair and he expected little from the appeals courts. ``It isn´t about the law in California,´´ he said. ``As far as O.J. is concerned, it´s personal.... To this day, if another lead came up, no one in Los Angeles would want to hear about it.´´ Simpson said he has some ``very talented lawyers´´ in Florida who will take his appeal to the next level. ``Whatever the next step is, that´s the step we´re taking,´´ he said. But he insisted the ruling will have little effect on the life he has built for himself and his two youngest children in Florida. He said the children, Sydney, 15, and Justin, 12, have adjusted well to their private school in Miami and have an active social life. ``My house is full of kids all the time,´´ he said. ``My kids are doing terrific.´´ He said the youngsters make trips to California to visit their grandparents, Lou and Juditha Brown, and will probably spend part of the summer with them. Simpson, an avid golfer, said he returned to the game only recently after several months of health problems which prevented him from playing. He suffers from arthritis and old football injuries. Except for ``one or two crazy things,´´ such as a run-in with a motorist, Simpson said, ``I live this boring life, the most uneventful life anyone could imagine.... I don´t have a girlfriend. I´m not getting married again.´´ He expressed dismay at the continued blare of tabloid headlines accusing him of everything from making a porn movie to fathering a child out of wedlock. All of it, he said, is untrue. ``It´s just like my trial,´´ he said. ``They can´t find anything legitimate so they just make it up.´´ Jean On to 2002!!! To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/