Former NFL star O.J. Simpson has been released after serving nine years of a 33-year sentence for a Las Vegas kidnapping and armed robbery, on Sunday, October 1, and will begin his new life as a parolee.
Simpson’s freedom comes with some limitations. The Nevada parole board forbids parolees from associating with ex-convicts and people who engage in criminal activity. Simpson is not allowed to consume large amounts of alcohol, or be in the possession of guns or drugs.
According to Simpson’s parole release plan he will reside in Las Vegas, Nevada. However, it is rumored that Simpson has plans to move to Florida where two of his children live.
“He’s not going to hide,” said longtime friend Tom Scotto, who attended Simpson’s parole hearing this summer. “He’s going to focus on kids, friends, his family, and golf. Maybe not the first day or second, but he is going to go out.”
When Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi caught wind of Simpson’s plans to move to Florida, she wrote a letter to the state’s Department of Corrections, stating that she did not want Simpson to move to her state. Attorney General Bondi went on to ask the Department of Corrections to “notify all appropriate authorities of the State of Nevada that the State of Florida objects to the granting of such permission.”
According to Simpson’s lawyer, Malcolm LaVergne, Bondi does not have the jurisdiction to stop Simpson from coming into the state of Florida.
With Simpson’s newfound freedom, came the launch of a renewed effort to collect from him a 1997 civil jury award that held him liable in the deaths of his estranged wife, Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend, Ron Goldman.
According to attorney David Cook, who represents the father of Goldman, said in a statement to CNN, that the $33.5 million Simpson was ordered to pay the victims’ families has since increased to nearly $70 million with interest.
Simpson’s attorney, LaVergne told CNN his client will be considered a retiree and won’t have any assets for the victim’s family to collect.
In regards to Simpson’s release, the Goldman family had this to say, “Now that Simpson has been released from prison, we, the Goldman family will continue our quest in securing the only form of justice for Ron we have available; the rights to our Civil Court case judgment, where Simpson was found to have willfully and wrongfully caused the deaths of Ron and Nicole. We anticipate that the Nevada Board of Parole will uphold the conditions of Simpson’s parole and not provide leniency.”
