When it comes to the September Las Vegas hotel room heist that led to the arrest of O.J. Simpson, the fun—or at least the legal fallout—never ends.
This time, however, Simpson was spared from being dragged into the latest lawsuit to spring from the headline-grabbing encounter.
Alfred Beardsley, the memorabilia collector who, along with an associate, was allegedly robbed at gunpoint by Simpson and several weapons-carrying associates of his own, has called foul on the incident, filing a lawsuit alleging that the entire operation was a setup orchestrated by collectibles broker Thomas Riccio.
According to Beardsley's suit, Riccio, who was indeed on Team Simpson during the Sept. 13 confrontation at Las Vegas' Palace Station hotel room and who has already copped to having set up the memorabilia meeting, arranged the encounter for the sole purpose of profiteering.
His suit claims invasion of privacy, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligent infliction of emotional distress, intentional interference with a prospective economic advantage, fraud and unjust enrichment. He's seeking unspecified damages from Riccio and up to 100 other unnamed defendants. Simpson, however, is not listed in the suit.
Beardsley is also seeking to obtain a temporary restraining order against Riccio, as well as other injunctions preventing him from using his likeness or any statements he has made over the incident.
Per the 14-page lawsuit, which was filed in Orange County Superior Court Tuesday, Beardsley claimed that Riccio lured Beardsley to the hotel under false pretenses, making him believe he could sell the nearly $80,000 worth of sports memorabilia to the owner of a large software company.
The suit, which was filed in the OC rather than Sin City as Riccio resided in Santa Ana at the time of the alleged break-in, claims Riccio similarly cajoled Simpson into the encounter, lying to the former NFL star that someone was trying to hawk stolen memorabilia of his in order to get him riled up and make for a better audio recording—and media splash—of the incident.
Per the suit, Riccio "intentionally made false statements which would cause Simpson to become extremely upset in the hope that this would result in a more profitable recording to Riccio to sell."
Whether that was his intention or not, Riccio did successfully sell the recording for an undisclosed sum to TMZ, which posted the exclusive audio to its Website, as well as featured it on the syndicated TMZ TV. He is now, per Beardsley, also in the process of writing a "six figure" book based on his account of the incident.
The recordings proved equally lucrative when Riccio was able to receive immunity in the pending trial by turning them over to Las Vegas authorities.
Beardsley said that, had he known what Riccio was up to, he never would have shown up for the disastrous meeting.
Beardsley previously told police that he and fellow memorabilia dealer Bruce Fromong were waiting in the hotel room for the supposed software buyer when Simpson and several others burst into the room, shouting obscenities and brandishing weapons.
Among the sports memorabilia Simpson and his cohorts made off with during the incident were signed photographs, footballs, baseballs, awards and the suit Simpson wore during his 1995 murder acquittal.
The former footballer and two other men were slapped with armed robbery and kidnapping, among many other charges. All have pleaded not guilty. The trial kicks off Apr. 7.