oj simpson

LAS VEGAS, Sept. 17 ―A profanity-filled audio recording, apparently of O. J. Simpson and others during the incident last week that led to his arrest, surfaced online today.

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Jae C. Hong/Associated Press
O. J. Simpson being taken to the Clark County Detention Center in Las Vegas on Sunday. He is being held without bail.
In the 38-second recording, the voice of a man identified as Mr. Simpson by TMZ.com, the Web site where it is posted, is heard repeatedly telling others not to let anyone out of the room and accusing those present of stealing his property and trying to sell it.

Mr. Simpson is being held without bail on six felony charges stemming from the incident; a bail hearing is now scheduled for early Wednesday morning in Clark County Justice Court before Judge Ann Zimmerman. The judge may conduct the hearing in person or by videoconference.

Two sports memorabilia collectors and dealers have told the police that Mr. Simpson and five other men stormed into their hotel room at the Palace Station Hotel and Casino, about a mile from the Las Vegas Strip, on Thursday evening and robbed them at gunpoint.

Mr. Simpson's account is that he went to the room to take back property that had been stolen from him, and that there were no guns involved.

Mr. Simpson, 60, was arrested on Sunday and was booked into the Clark County Detention Center. One of the men accused of joining him, Walter Alexander, 46, of Mesa, Ariz., was arrested on Saturday and released Sunday on his own recognizance, according to his lawyer, Robert Rentzer. Four others are still being sought by police.

Mr. Simpson and Mr. Alexander are each charged with six felonies in connection with the incident, according to Lt. Clint Nichols of the Las Vegas police: two counts of robbery with a deadly weapon, two counts of assault with a deadly weapon, one of conspiracy to commit burglary and one of burglary with a firearm.

It remains unclear exactly what property was taken in the incident, or to whom it belonged.

"Having said that, the manner in which these properties were taken, we have a responsibility to look into that regardless of who the property belongs to," Lieutenant Nichols said. "We also have some information that the property that Mr. Simpson allegedly took was not his property.

"It included a lot of sports memorabilia and most of it and had been signed by Mr. Simpson himself along with some other property," Lieutenant Nichols said. "I believe there were some Joe Montana cleats, some signed baseballs and some other stuff."

Capt. James Dillor of the Las Vegas police said that investigators confiscated two guns that may have been used in the Thursday incident in an early morning raid on two residences in Las Vegas on Sunday.

Mr. Simpson told The Associated Press in an interview that he was innocent and that there were no guns involved in the incident, which he called a sting operation he organized.

Mr. Alexander's lawyer, Mr. Rentzer, told reporters: "I assured the authorities that we are not hiding and that he will be available to us. Until I can meet with my client and hear the facts of the case and determine my client's exposure, I refuse to discuss the prospects of plea bargaining."

The two collectors and memorabilia dealers who accused Mr. Simpson and the other men are Alfred Beardsley of Glendale, Calif., and Bruce L. Fromong of North Las Vegas, Nev. They told the police on Thursday night that a group of men, including two with guns, entered Mr. Beardsley's room at the Palace Station around 8 p.m. and left with items including photographs and books signed by Mr. Simpson, lithographs of the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Joe Montana, and Mr. Beardsley's cellphone.

Mr. Beardsley and Mr. Fromong told the police that the group had been directed by Mr. Simpson.

In his interview with The A.P., Mr. Simpson gave a different account. He said that he and some acquaintances left a cocktail party and went to Mr. Beardsley's room, accompanied by Thomas Riccio, another dealer and auctioneer of sports memorabilia. He said Mr. Riccio had alerted him several weeks ago that Mr. Beardsley and Mr. Fromong were offering to sell items of his, and that Mr. Riccio had set up a meeting with the two men, supposedly on behalf of an interested buyer.

Prosecutors in Las Vegas told reporters that Simpson "is facing a lot of time." The high-profile athlete turned minor actor turned author ("If I Did It") is also having a rough time in the court of public opinion.

"My people are glad he got arrested," New York City radio talk show host Ron Kuby told ABCNEWS.com. "It's a second chance to put him behind bars. He got away with murder."

Kuby, a left-leaning civil rights lawyer, believed Simpson was guilty then and now. "I sided with my white friends on this," he said.

In 1995, after 134 days of televised testimony, Simpson was acquitted of the double murder of ex-wife Nicole Brown and her friend Ron Goldman. The criminal trial mesmerized the world with a "dream team" of lawyers, witnesses out of central casting (such as serial guest Cato Kalin) and dramatic one-liners: "If the glove doesn't fit, you must acquit."

"I wonder if he can get out of this charge using Johnnie Cochran and the dreaded Chewbacca defense?" wrote Ariel Zellman on simplydumb.com. The blogger was referring to the lawyer who successfully represented O.J. Simpson during his murder trial, and a fictional legal strategy used in television's "South Park" episode -- an argument deliberately used to confuse the jury.

One Parker, Colo., blogger echoed Simpson's final pledge after he was set free -- that he would find his wife's killer.

"Well," he writes on Topix.net, "he has checked out every resort and golf course in the country for the killers. He might as well conduct another 'sting operation' in jail. Maybe the killers are hiding there."

News reports said Simpson's defended entering the hotel room as part of a covert operation to recover sports memorabilia.

"A decade and change later, no one's buying it," said another blogger on Topix.net. "Now when O.J. incredulously asks, 'Why would I do that? Do you think I'm that stupid?' The answer is an emphatic, 'Yes.'"


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