Notorious truth-teller OJ Simpson has decided to settle his defamation case with The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas outside of court, although the terms of their agreement have not been published.
It was back in November 2017 that Simpson, who was frequenting the gaming tables, was allegedly banned from the venue for being ‘drunk and disruptive’.
An unnamed employee of The Cosmopolitan told celebrity news site TMZ that Simpson had been kicked out of the casino due to his behaviour, and upon hearing of that the former NFL star launched a defamation lawsuit against Nevada Property 1 LLC, who operate the building.
In defence, the casino’s legal team argued that Simpson ‘could not be defamed’ on the basis that his reputation was beyond tarnished due to his criminal past – including a prior conviction for armed robbery in Las Vegas.
The 73-year-old is living in a gated community in Nevada following his 2017 release from prison, and officials at The Cosmopolitan have acknowledged that they served Simpson with notice that he was no longer welcome on their premises. The court papers mentioned damaged property and ‘broken glass’, although the actual circumstances of those accusations have not been revealed.
Simpson’s legal team claimed that their client’s reputation was damaged by the exclusive reported on the TMZ news feed, and that claims he was drunk and disruptive simply weren’t true.
After the settlement, Simpson’s lead attorney – Malcolm LaVergne –simply stated that ‘the matter has been resolved’, while nobody from The Cosmopolitan has made an official statement as yet.
Not His First Rodeo
You would think that Simpson would have wanted to keep his nose clean after falling foul of the law on a number of occasions.
The trial into the murder of his wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman has been well documented, but rather than learning his lesson OJ was up to his old tricks in 2008 on another famous Las Vegas strip trip.
He had got wind that a couple of dealers of collectibles had a trove of memorabilia belonging to him – that included shirts he had worn during his NFL career, as well as signed baseballs from some MLB legends.
Believing that the items were ‘stolen’ from him, rather than merely sold to help pay for previous legal fees, Simpson decided to take back what he thought was rightly his.
And so he lured the dealers to the Palace Station, a casino on the Vegas strip, and accompanied by five other men – two of whom were said to be armed – intimidated the pair into giving back the items he believed were his.
Evidence revealed that the confrontation lasted just six minutes, and Simpson maintained that he was simply trying to retrieve possessions that he believe were his anyway.
But the courts didn’t agree, and the former running back for the Buffalo Bills was charged with armed robbery and kidnapping. He was sentenced to serve 33 years in prison, however after showing good behaviour behind bars he was released on parole after just nine years.