New charges are filed in Simpson robbery case

New charges of felony coercion were filed Wednesday against O.J. Simpson and three codefendants in the alleged armed robbery of two sports memorabilia dealers.

The revised complaint also drops charges against Walter Alexander and Charles H. Cashmore, who pleaded guilty Tuesday to reduced charges.

Alexander and Cashmore have agreed to testify at a preliminary hearing against the former football star and the other men who went to a Las Vegas casino hotel room on Sept. 13 to retrieve items that Simpson said belonged to him.

The memorabilia taken from the hotel room included football game balls signed by Simpson, Joe Montana lithographs, baseballs autographed by Pete Rose and Duke Snider, photos of Simpson with the Heisman Trophy, and framed awards and plaques, together valued at as much as $100,000, according to police reports.

The revised complaint increases to 12 the number of charges against Simpson, Clarence J. Stewart, Michael F. McClinton and Charles B. Ehrlich.

The four are scheduled to appear for the preliminary hearing Nov. 8 on felonies, including kidnapping, armed robbery, assault with a deadly weapon, conspiracy and coercion; and one gross misdemeanor, conspiracy to commit a crime. A kidnapping conviction alone could result in a sentence of life in prison with a possibility of parole.

Simpson lawyer Yale Galanter said Wednesday that he understood that McClinton was accepting a plea deal, including an agreement to plead guilty to robbery without the use of a gun.

“It’s all the same,” Galanter said. “Same prosecutor. Same plea deal. And they’re still giving away the courthouse.”

McClinton, 49, was scheduled to appear Monday before Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Joe M. Bonaventure, where he was expected to waive his preliminary hearing, court officials said.

McClinton’s lawyer, William Terry, declined to comment “other than to confirm that the matter’s been placed on calendar.”

The new coercion charges allege that the men threatened collectibles dealer Bruce Fromong and took his cellphone, while taking a baseball cap and sunglasses at gunpoint from memorabilia dealer Alfred Beardsley.

Conviction on felony coercion carries a sentence of up to six years in prison.