BELOW SUPERNAV drop zone ⇩

OJ Simpson, Las Vegas Strip hotel settle defamation case

LOVELOCK, NV – JULY 20: O.J. Simpson attends his parole hearing at Lovelock Correctional Center July 20, 2017 in Lovelock, Nevada. Simpson is serving a nine to 33 year prison term for a 2007 armed robbery and kidnapping conviction. (Photo by Jason Bean-Pool/Getty Images)

MAIN AREA TOP drop zone ⇩

MAIN AREA TOP drop zone ⇩

LAS VEGAS (AP) — O.J. Simpson and a Las Vegas hotel-casino have settled a lawsuit alleging that unnamed employees defamed Simpson by telling a celebrity news site he had been banned from the property in November 2017 for being drunk and disruptive.

Simpson’s attorney, Malcolm LaVergne, declined Thursday to comment about the agreement reached with Nevada Property 1 LLC, corporate owner of The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas.

“The matter has been resolved,” LaVergne said.

A spokeswoman for the Cosmopolitan declined immediate comment.

Attorneys for the corporation had argued the former football star could not be defamed because his reputation was already tarnished by his criminal and civil trials in the deaths of his ex-wife and her friend in Los Angeles decades ago and his conviction and imprisonment in Nevada in a 2007 armed robbery case.

LaVergne had raised the specter of racial bias by hotel officials.

Terms were not made public in the court dismissal filed March 31 in Clark County District Court. It said both sides agreed to bear their own legal costs and fees.

Simpson, now 73, is on parole in Nevada and living in a gated golf course community following his release from prison in July 2017. He had served nine years for armed robbery, kidnapping and assault with a weapon.

His complaint against the Cosmopolitan acknowledged that Simpson was given notice, after spending several hours with two friends at a steakhouse and a lounge, that he was prohibited from returning to the property. He said he was never given a reason.

Simpson denied in his lawsuit that he was “belligerent,” broke glass or damaged property.

Get fact-based, unbiased news coverage 24/7 with the NewsNation app. Download it here.

LaVergne said at the time his client’s reputation was damaged by accounts cited in a TMZ report that Simpson “was drunk and became disruptive” at a resort bar.

TMZ was not a defendant in the lawsuit.

Simpson went to prison after being convicted in Las Vegas in October 2008 of leading five men, including two with guns, in an ill-fated confrontation with two collectibles dealers and a go-between in a cramped room at an off-Strip casino-hotel.

Simpson always maintained he was trying to retrieve personal mementos stolen from him following his 1995 acquittal in the killings of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman in Los Angeles.

He said family photos and other items disappeared before he was found liable in civil court in February 1997 and ordered to pay $33.5 million to the Brown and Goldman estates.

West

Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed

Site Settings Survey

 

MAIN AREA MIDDLE drop zone ⇩

Trending on NewsNation

MAIN AREA BOTTOM drop zone ⇩

tt

KC Chiefs parade shooting: 1 dead, 21 shot including 9 kids | Morning in America

Witness of Chiefs parade shooting describes suspect | Banfield

Kansas City Chiefs parade shooting: Mom of 2 dead, over 20 shot | Banfield

WWE star Ashley Massaro 'threatened' by board to keep quiet about alleged rape: Friend | Banfield

Friend of WWE star: Ashley Massaro 'spent hours' sobbing after alleged rape | Banfield

Sunny

la

66°F Sunny Feels like 66°
Wind
7 mph SW
Humidity
47%
Sunrise
Sunset

Tonight

Partly cloudy. Low near 50F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph.
50°F Partly cloudy. Low near 50F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph.
Wind
6 mph NNW
Precip
10%
Sunset
Moon Phase
Waxing Gibbous