Lawyers Seek Return of Simpson Possessions
Lawyers for O.J. Simpson on Monday mounted a legal challenge to retrieve many of the football legend’s high-priced possessions that were seized by authorities last month to satisfy the $33.5-million judgment against him.
The lawyers filed a “claim of exemption” with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department--the agency that hauled the items away March 29 from Simpson’s Brentwood mansion--arguing that state law exempts “a substantial number” of the goods from being confiscated.
Attorney Ronald P. Slates said the law allows civil defendants who face judgments to retain certain household furnishings and personal effects at home that meet an “ordinary and necessary standard” of living.
For example, Slates said, a Tiffany lamp taken from Simpson’s estate should be returned because the fixture--while elegant--does not amount to an object of “extraordinary value” compared to items of the same caliber found in other households.
Slates would not reveal which of the more than 100 seized items he sought to regain. But the list could potentially include dozens of expensive accouterments from Simpson’s home, such as the Tiffany lamp, a fox fur coat valued at $26,500, a Vince Lombardi Touchdown Club trophy, 51 golf clubs and five football jerseys.
“The state in its wisdom provides that even though you may owe money by virtue of a judgment, you are entitled to a certain basic minimum that you can keep,” Slates said. “Fundamentally, the state doesn’t want you wandering through the streets picking up state support because your creditors have pushed you into a bottomless pit.”
Attorneys for Fred Goldman, father of slaying victim Ronald Lyle Goldman, had not yet seen the claim or its list. They were expected to file a response later this month.
But Goldman’s legal team pushed ahead with its own attempt to collect the $19.7-million judgment awarded to Goldman by a civil jury in February.
One Goldman lawyer said he suspects that Simpson’s lawyers and business manager may be harboring some of the high-priced items that were missing--including Simpson’s Heisman Trophy and his $65,000 Chevrolet Suburban--when sheriff’s deputies descended on the Brentwood estate.
Attorney Peter Csato on Monday sought an order compelling Simpson business manager Leroy “Skip” Taft and other third parties to appear in Superior Court to explain the whereabouts of the goods.
Csato requested that representatives from the law firm that represented Simpson in the civil trial and from Simpson’s two enterprises--Orenthal Productions and Pigskins Inc.--appear with any information about the possessions or money that may be owed to Simpson.
Csato said records show that as of Dec. 31, 1996, Orenthal Productions owed Simpson $265,000, and that an additional $242,500 is due to Pigskins Inc. from the sale last year of a Honey-Baked Ham franchise in which the enterprise had an interest. “I’m not limiting my examinations to the items that were missing from the sheriff’s seizure,” said Csato, a specialist in enforcing civil judgments. “Clearly, that’s one of the things I’m looking for. But I’m looking for other things as well.”
Simpson attorney Phillip A. Baker said he had not seen the court papers and could not comment. Taft did not return phone calls to his office seeking comment.
In a court declaration made public Monday, Simpson said that he does not have many of the items the plaintiffs are seeking, including the Heisman Trophy and the Chevy Suburban.
Simpson said that some of the things are being held in a trust for his children, Sydney and Justin. Others were given to his ex-wife Marguerite as part of their divorce in 1978, and still more went to Nicole Brown Simpson as part of their 1992 divorce, according to the document.
Meanwhile, on another legal front Monday, an alternate juror from Simpson’s civil trial filed a lawsuit against his Ventura County employer, charging that he was fired for refusing to forgo service on the six-month case.
Paul Chepikian of Sherman Oaks says he declined to claim a financial hardship--against the wishes of his boss--when asked if he could serve on the Simpson case, seeking instead to perform his civic duty.
Chepikian contends that George Davlantes, president of U.S. Pet Products in Camarillo, retaliated by firing him from his job as creative director at the small company the day after he was selected as a Simpson alternate panelist.
“He said, ‘You could have gotten out of this if you wanted to,’ ” said Chepikian, who filed his lawsuit in Ventura County Superior Court.
Chepikian earned $57,000 as the head of the firm’s one-man graphic arts department. He said he claimed financial hardship three times over the last 15 years when summoned to jury service because he could not afford the time away as a freelance artist. As a full-time employee at the company, which makes pet doors, he said he was ready--and able financially--to fulfill his duty.
“It’s like being fired for voting,” said Chepikian, who was flanked at a news conference by five jurors from the civil case. “This is not how a good citizen should be treated.”
Davlantes said that Chepikian was let go because the company of 40 employees closed the graphic arts department as a cost-cutting move.
“It certainly had nothing to do with his being on jury duty. It was not retaliatory,” Davlantes said. “I have a business to run. I have to make decisions that are good for the company.”
