Darden Talks Won’t Aid Nicole Simpson Fund

Contrary to advertisements, a speaking tour by prosecutor Christopher Darden will not benefit a battered women’s group named after O.J. Simpson’s slain ex-wife.

An assistant to Denise Brown, the sister of Nicole Brown Simpson and the head of the Nicole Brown Simpson Fund, said the promoter had harmed the fund-raising ability of the Brown foundation and all groups against domestic violence by misleading the public and refusing to account for the contributions.

Instead of benefiting the Nicole Brown Simpson Fund, some proceeds from Darden’s Eastern speaking tour will go to shelters for the needy in Massachusetts and the New York area, said Harry Lipson, president of FolkTree ConcertMakers.

But Lipson refused to name the shelters or say how much money they would get. He also denied that fund-raising was the point of the tour.

Tickets for Darden’s four-city tour in November sold for about $25 each, but sales were disappointing, the promoters said.

A news release promoting the tour a few weeks after Simpson was acquitted of murder in October said “a portion of the proceeds to each of these shows will benefit the Nicole Brown Simpson Fund as well as a local shelter for battered women.”

Lipson said that if he had originally specified where the money was going, “others would say that wasn’t enough, why weren’t we included?”

A spokesman for Darden’s agent, the William Morris Agency, said FolkTree was responsible for the publicity and that Darden and the agency never saw the advertisements.