Judge Rejects Simpson’s Bid to Shield Valuables

Valuables of O.J. Simpson’s that were not given away or transferred into a trust for his children--including 51 golf clubs, Chinese rugs and a nearly $25,000 lamp--are ordinary, necessary household items and therefore not subject to the civil judgments against him, his lawyer unsuccessfully claimed in court Monday.

Beverly Hills Superior Court Judge Irving Shimer disagreed with almost every assertion that Simpson attorney Ronald P. Slates made about Simpson’s property.

California does not place a maximum dollar amount on ordinary, necessary household furniture that a debtor can shield from collection. But the law caps the total value of a debtor’s allowable art at $5,000.

So at a hearing to determine which Simpson belongings could be used to satisfy the $33.5-million civil judgment against Simpson, Slates repeatedly asserted that the items in question were not art, but either personal effects or basic items found in many homes.

Among the claims shot down by an often frustrated Shimer were:

* That a $15,000, life-sized welded metal sculpture of Simpson was a personal effect. (“We’re not talking about Mt. Rushmore,” the judge said.)

* That a Chinese polychrome lacquered coffer, or box, valued at $1,530 was not unusual. (“I come from very simple people,” Shimer said. “What is a coffer?”)

* That a $6,000 tulip lamp with bronze base was not of extraordinary value. (“When I go home, I’m going to ask my wife if we have any $6,000 lamps,” the judge said.)

Attorneys for the family of the slain Ronald Lyle Goldman argued that the loss of such items would not create a hardship for Simpson. They noted statements by his attorneys last week that he has been drawing $25,000 a month before taxes from his profit-sharing pension account.

In the end, Shimer ruled that Simpson could keep certain items, valued at no more than $6,000, among a list of lower-priced art and collectibles.

All of the items in question Monday were seized in a March raid on Simpson’s Brentwood estate.

Although Simpson was found not guilty in a criminal trial of the June 12, 1994, murders of Goldman and his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson, a civil court jury in February found him liable for the deaths and awarded the two estates civil damages.

Since then, attorneys for the Browns and Goldmans have been delving into Simpson’s finances attempting to collect.

On Monday, Slates made it clear that Simpson would prefer to pay the Browns before the Goldmans.

Simpson’s attorney said Simpson would be willing to drop nearly all his claims of personal exemption if the judge ruled that the Brown estate would be able to collect before the Goldmans. That would give priority to Simpson’s children, the beneficiaries of their mother’s estate.

Attorneys for Goldman’s father, Fred Goldman, responded that Simpson’s offer is proof that his claims for exemption based on day-to-day need are bogus.

“This property is necessary and critical for Mr. Simpson and his children--but only if Mr. Goldman wins [priority]?” Goldman attorney Gary Caris asked sarcastically.

Shimer ruled that Fred Goldman did not have a claim of priority, but stopped short of ruling that the Brown family had a priority of their own. He called the competing claims about who first filed liens against Simpson “an unseemly race to the courthouse.”

However, he recognized that Simpson’s strategy put the Goldmans at a disadvantage.

“I was not born yesterday,” Shimer told Simpson’s attorney, saying that it was clear that Simpson was attempting to favor the Browns. “What you want to do is preserve property for the benefit of the children.”

In daylong proceedings, Shimer did not even take up Simpson’s claim that a trust for the Simpson children, administered by his sister, Shirley Baker, was valid. Papers filed with the court assert that most of Simpson’s valuables, including “awards and trophies presented to Mr. O.J. Simpson,” are held in that trust and therefore are not accessible by the Browns and Goldmans.

*

Simpson lawyers also said they could not confirm a TV news report that Simpson’s Heisman Trophy, which he won in 1968 while at USC, was in the possession of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, which had reportedly recovered the $400,000 prize at the Brown family home. A spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff’s Department said no such recovery by the department had occurred.