OJ Simpson's lawyer vows to see families of murder victims get nothing

The longtime lawyer for OJ Simpson has vowed to prevent any money from his late client's estate being passed to the families of murder victims Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown.

When Simpson died in Nevada on Wednesday age 76, he still owed the victims' family members more than $100 million.

Simpson was found liable in civil court for $33.5 million for the murders of Ron Goldman and ex-wife Nicole Simpson in 1997, with the Goldman family pursuing the growing debt ever since. The sum has now ballooned to $100 million with interest.

But attorney Malcolm LaVergne, who represented Simpson since 2009 and is now the executor in charge of overseeing the estate, has stated he is adamant the Goldman family should not see a penny from Simpson's estate.

'It's my hope that the Goldmans get zero, nothing. Them specifically. And I will do everything in my capacity as the executor or personal representative to try and ensure that they get nothing,' LaVergne told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

LaVergne notes that despite the families pushing to receive payments, a court order was never made that would have forced Simpson to hand over the money following the civil judgement.

The Goldman family did however managed to win control of Simpson's controversial book entitled 'If I Did It.'

In response to public outrage that Simpson stood to profit from the crimes, publisher HarperCollins canceled the book. 

A Florida bankruptcy court then awarded the rights of the manuscript to the Goldmans in August 2007 to partially satisfy the unpaid civil judgment.

The family appear adamant that they will be going after Simpson's money. 

'We have to start over here,' said debt collection attorney David Cook. 'We're going to work on that. There might be something out there.

'We've had this problem for a long long time,' he added. 'It could be in a trust, it could be probate. It could be all gone.'

The lawyer added, 'I'm in San Francisco. The lawyers we hired in Nevada, they were working with me… At this point, we're just starting out.'

All of Simpson's other property was placed into a trust in January, although the full value of Simpson's estate has not been tallied.

'I can't make a predication right now as to what the value of the estate is,' LaVergne said who also exclaimed surprise at being named as the estate's executor.

'I am flummoxed as to why he would name me as the personal representative or the executor, but he did, and it's something I'm going to take very seriously.'

Simpson is said to have lived on his NFL and private pensions. 

Hundreds of valuable possessions were seized as part of the civil jury award with the former football star forced to auction his Heisman Trophy, awarded each year to the most outstanding player in college football. It fetched $230,000.

As part of the responsibilities as Simpson's personal representative, LaVergne has been instructed via the will to pay for the cost of a 'suitable monument' at Simpson's grave.

Fred Goldman, now 83, is still seething at Simpson's managing to avoid paying his civil judgement and told DailyMail.com earlier in the week that the focus should be on his son's death, not OJ's.

'The only thing that I have to say is that this is a further reminder of the loss of my son Ron,' the bereaved father said. 'It is a further reminder of my son's murder and a reminder about the many years we have missed Ron.

'His death is a reminder that Ron and Nicole were murdered by him. I am not going react to my thoughts about him dying. I have nothing to say about him. My response will not be about OJ's death but about the loss of my son's life by him. Thank you for calling. That is the only thing that I have to say.'

The last legal filings Goldman's attorneys made were in June 2022, when they claimed OJ still owed more than $96 million, and had paid just $133,000 since 1997.

Since their 1997 judgment for the 1994 murders, the Goldmans have garnished Simpson's income and sued him several times to claw back cash he earned for TV shows and his book, If I Did It.

In his interview with DailyMail.com, Cook described how he renewed the judgment in 2015, placing it at $57 million.

Two years later, when OJ was released from a Nevada prison after serving nine years for a robbery and kidnapping conviction, he estimated the debt to be 'a touch under $70 million'.

And in March 2021, a Nevada garnishment case listed the 'amount owed' by Simpson as '$75,164,425.74.'

1992 court filings from his split with his murdered wife Nicole said his net worth then was $10.8 million, with a monthly income of $55,000.

But according to the Goldmans' filings, he has only ever paid them $133,000 since they obtained their judgment against him.

OJ dodged paying the Goldmans by declaring bankruptcy in Florida, and his annual NFL pension of between $125,000 and $300,000 was protected from debt collection claims.

He also received $42,000 a year in Social Security.

Cook and his colleagues have previously looked into Simpson's kids' assets, including alleged real estate purchases in Florida.

But now the former NFL star has died, the attorney said they will be scrutinizing trusts and possibly filing in Nevada probate court to chase the money.

'I've done this work for 47 years. We don't know what's in Nevada. We've had this problem for a long, long time,' he said.

'You can be shocked, you can walk up on something and say there's nothing there.'