O.J. Simpson’s longtime attorney and the executor of his estate has backpedaled on earlier remarks suggesting he would block any claims for settlement money from Ron Goldman’s family members, who along with Nicole Brown’s family were awarded millions in a civil judgment that was never paid in full.
Nevada-based lawyer Malcolm LaVergne had represented Simpson, the former NFL star and acquitted murder defendant notoriously found not guilty in the killings of Goldman and Brown, from 2009 until his death from prostate cancer last week. Simpson’s will was filed in a Clark County court and formally named LaVergne the executor of his estate. His family had announced Simpson’s death the previous day.
Shortly after Simpson’s will was filed on Friday, LaVergne told the Las Vegas-Review Journal that he intended to fight the Goldmans in their pursuit of the unpaid settlement.
“It’s my hope that the Goldmans get zero, nothing,” LaVergne said in controversial comments to the newspaper. “Them specifically. And I will do everything in my capacity as the executor or personal representative to try and ensure that they get nothing.”
The attorney seems to have changed course since then. On Monday, LaVergne told The Hollywood Reporter that he wanted to walk back those comments, and he later confirmed the reversal in a statement to CBS News.
“That ‘zero, nothing’ remark to a local reporter was harsh and in response to what an attorney for Fred Goldman said (within an hour of notification of OJ’s death), not Fred Goldman himself. Mr. Goldman’s personal post-OJ death remarks have been non-offensive and understandable given the circumstances,” LaVergne said in the statement.
