Simpson Jury Begins to Weigh Punitive Awards
Presented with conflicting images of O.J. Simpson--as a carefree millionaire murderer or a broken and impoverished outcast--jurors deliberated for more than two hours Friday without reaching a decision on punitive damages.
In this final stage of the civil trial, the jurors must decide whether to punish Simpson for the slayings of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Lyle Goldman by ordering him to pay more damages to the victims’ relatives. They have already ordered him to pay Goldman’s parents $8.5 million in compensation; now they must consider whether further punishment is in order.
Appealing to the jurors to spare Simpson further pain, lead defense attorney Robert C. Baker urged them to set aside their emotions and take a cold, hard look at the facts. His client is broke, Baker said, and ostracized. No one will hire him. And if he does start earning money sometime in the future, he must save it to care for his two young children, Baker said.
But the plaintiffs discounted those arguments as a scam.
They said that even now, as he claims to be a pauper, Simpson still employs a maid, a bodyguard, a gardener, a pool man, a secretary and an accountant. He still drives a Bentley. He still has a Chevy Suburban. Somehow, he manages to keep up with mortgage payments of $24,000 a month on his Rockingham Avenue estate. And although he claims to have no real assets, he has paid his business lawyer nearly $50,000 in the last six months to manage his money, they said.
The jurors scribbled down notes as the plaintiffs ran through the list of Simpson’s luxuries.
“The unconscionable irony of all this,” lead plaintiff attorney Daniel M. Petrocelli said, “is that this man is making more money because he murdered two people than ever before.”
His voice spiked with disdain, Petrocelli argued that Simpson has sought to profit from the murders with crass business ventures such as applying for a trademark on his name with the intent of using it to market dozens of products.
“He murders two people and within four weeks he puts out a trademark application for cutlery,” Petrocelli told the jurors. “Think about that. A trademark for knives. O.J. Simpson knives. This is the kind of man we’re dealing with.”
Petrocelli also reminded the jurors that Simpson has not attended court since Tuesday night, when he stared straight ahead, showing no emotion, as the jurors rendered their verdict against him.
“Where is he?” Petrocelli shouted. “Where is he?”
Baker objected, yelling across the room that his client is “not required to be here.”
But Petrocelli rolled on, suggesting that Simpson was out gallivanting on a golf course while the victims lie in their graves. “You see, he still refuses to accept responsibility,” he said. “He can’t come here to face you, ladies and gentlemen, because you are the truth. You have declared he’s a killer, and he can’t face you.”
Leaning on the podium and fixing the jurors with his gaze, Petrocelli argued: “O.J. Simpson must be punished. You must send him a message as loud as humanly possible, so he can hear it on whatever golf course he’s hiding out on now.”
On Friday afternoon, several golfers at Rancho Park Golf Course in Cheviot Hills reported seeing Simpson on the links.
The plaintiffs did not ask for any specific dollar amount in punitive damages.
Instead, attorney John Q. Kelly reminded jurors that after a bruising fight on New Year’s Day 1989, Simpson pledged to nullify his prenuptial agreement and give Nicole Simpson half his assets if he ever hit her again. At the time, Simpson was worth about $10 million. If Simpson thought he should lose $5 million for striking Nicole just once, Kelly told the jurors, then imagine how much more he should pay for butchering her.
Calculate a judgment, Kelly exhorted, “that will convert the ice water in this man’s veins and make it boil.”
In making their pitch for a towering judgment, the plaintiffs emphasized the legal requirement that any punitive damage award reflect both how reprehensible the defendant’s conduct was and how much damage the victims suffered. Superior Court Judge Hiroshi Fujisaki had ruled earlier in the week that the damage was not limited to the victims’ property loss, which was minimal, but included their injuries as well. So the plaintiffs could argue for a huge award.
The defense, on the other hand, focused on a third requirement in the law: that punitive damages bear some relationship to the defendant’s net worth. As Baker repeatedly told jurors, the intent of punitive damages is to punish, not destroy. He argued that Simpson has already been ruined financially by the order to pay Goldman’s parents $8.5 million in compensatory damages.
“My worthy adversaries are trying to get you to substitute punitive damages for the incarceration of Mr. Simpson, and you’re not entitled to do that,” Baker said. “Mr. Simpson still has obligations. He still has to raise his two children. That’s why an amount that would destroy him financially is excessive.”
In response, Kelly pointed out that any punitive damages awarded to Nicole Simpson’s estate will go to the children--11-year-old Sydney and 8-year-old Justin. Kelly told jurors that the money would be set aside in a trust fund that neither Simpson nor the children would be able to use until the youngsters reach adulthood.
Any punitive damages awarded to Goldman’s estate would be split between his parents.
During the two-day punitive damage phase, jurors have heard wildly conflicting estimates of Simpson’s total worth.
The plaintiffs contend he is worth $15.7 million because he could trade on his fame to make money. The defense insists he is worse than broke--about $850,000 in the hole even before Tuesday’s verdict.
Insisting that Simpson has no viable prospects, Leroy “Skip” Taft, his business lawyer of 28 years, testified that every business venture he tries gets squashed. A video of Simpson discussing the evidence against him was a flop, Taft said, because protesters jammed the phone lines and prevented legitimate customers from ordering it. A scheduled appearance in Atlantic City, N.J., was scrubbed because the promoter got death threats. And a phone card bearing Simpson’s signature and an old football photo was a commercial failure.
Taft also scoffed at the idea that Simpson could raise funds by selling his autograph, which trade magazines value at $60. “Trade magazines mean nothing,” he said, raising his voice sharply. “It’s the dollars. Show me the money. That’s the deal. There’s no one there to buy [Simpson goods].”
Two vendors, testifying for the defense, backed up Taft’s pessimistic outlook.
The market for Simpson goods sizzled after the murders and remained sky high until a few months after the criminal trial verdicts, they said. Then, it sank. “Right now, the market for O.J. Simpson memorabilia is ice cold,” store owner Larry Levine testified.
“A lot of people got a bad taste in their mouth for O.J. Simpson,” memorabilia marketer Bruce Fromong agreed.
Jurors will continue their deliberations Monday morning.
