Simpson Children Go to His Estate

O.J. Simpson’s two young children went to his Brentwood estate Saturday, less than 24 hours after he won full custody of them after a year of courtroom wrangling.

Simpson did not issue a statement Saturday upon the return of Sydney, 11, and Justin, 8, the two children from his marriage to Nicole Brown Simpson, to his Rockingham Avenue home.

Simpson on Friday won custody of the children from their grandparents, Louis and Juditha Brown, in a ruling by Orange County Superior Court Judge Nancy Wieben Stock.

Simpson had a driver pick up the children about noon Saturday from the Browns’ Orange County home in Monarch Bay. Sydney and Justin have lived with the Browns since June 1994, when their father was arrested on suspicion of murdering their mother and her friend Ronald Lyle Goldman.

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Natasha Roit, the attorney representing the Browns, said the couple were not happy with Wieben Stock’s ruling, but decided not to oppose Simpson’s request to see the children.

“It’s par for the course with the decision,” Roit said. “Everything is very troublesome to them. They are very concerned about what could happen to the kids.”

The children are expected to spend Christmas Eve with their grandparents and Christmas Day with Simpson under a long-standing agreement between them, Roit said.

Wieben Stock’s ruling allows the Browns some visitation rights.

In giving Simpson full custody, the judge said one of the children had stated a preference for living with Simpson.

Since his acquittal on the murder charges in October 1995, the former football star and movie actor had been able to see his two youngest children only on weekends.

Two months after his acquittal, Simpson went to court to win permanent custody of the two, triggering a bitter and emotional courtroom confrontation with the Browns.

Simpson is battling a wrongful death lawsuit in Santa Monica filed by Nicole Simpson’s estate and Goldman’s family, alleging that he was responsible for the deaths of his ex-wife and Goldman.