O.J. Simpson named longtime lawyer as his executor in his will
By Sara Smart, CNN
(CNN) — O.J. Simpson’s final will was filed in Clark County, NV on Friday following his death earlier this week after a battle with cancer.
Simpson’s longtime Las Vegas attorney Malcolm LaVergne was named as Simpson’s “personal representative” and executor of the will and testament, according to court records. Justin Simpson, Simpson’s son, was named as “successor personal representative.”
The will was filed by the Cassady Law Offices and was signed by Simpson on January 25, 2024. His property was placed into The Orenthal Simpson Revocable Living Trust, court documents show.
LaVergne, who was Simpson’s attorney for 15 years, told CNN affiliate KTNV he had seen Simpson a number of times in the days prior to his death on Wednesday, and while he wouldn’t comment on the former football star’s condition, he told KTNV there were “no longer functional back and forth conversations” between the two men.
Simpson was in hospice care for two weeks before he died, LaVergne said.
LaVergne noted Simpson was diagnosed with prostate cancer years ago and while he had “beat it the first time” it had recently returned, according to KTNV.
LaVergne also addressed the $33.5 million civil judgment awarded to the families of Simpson’s ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman by a California jury in 1997. Although Simpson was acquitted in a criminal trial of killing the two, he was sued by their families for wrongful death and found liable by a civil jury.
LaVergne characterized the judgment as “just creditors’ claims,” and characterized the families as “publicity creditors” who would be placed in a “pecking order” behind others – such as the Internal Revenue Service – to whom LaVergne told KTNV Simpson had “substantial” debt.
“They’re free, like every other creditor out there … to do their claims and let the paperwork fly,” LaVergne said in reference to the Goldman and Brown families.
LaVergne went a step further in a phone interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal on Friday, saying he would fight any payout from the estate to the Goldman family.
“It’s my hope that the Goldmans get zero, nothing,” LaVergne told the outlet. “Them specifically. And I will do everything in my capacity as the executor or personal representative to try and ensure that they get nothing,” he said.
CNN reached out to LaVergne and Cassady Law Offices on Saturday but has not received a response.
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CNN’s Andy Rose and Zoe Sottile contributed to this report.
