O.J. Sacked with Robbery, Kidnapping Charges

O.J. Simpson is picking up charges the way he used to pick up yards—quickly and with ease.

The notorious ex-NFL star was charged Tuesday with 11 counts, 10 of them felonies, related to the armed robbery that allegedly went down last week at a Las Vegas hotel in what appeared to be an ill-conceived attempt to reacquire some sports memorabilia that Simpson claimed was his.

He was arrested Sunday and initially booked on two counts of robbery with a deadly weapon, two counts of assault with a deadly weapon, burglary with a firearm and misdemeanor conspiracy to commit a crime. Clark County District Attorney David Roger has also slapped on two counts of first-degree kidnapping with a deadly weapon, coercion with a deadly weapon, conspiracy to commit kidnapping and conspiracy to commit robbery to the Juice's ever-lengthening rap sheet. (View the criminal complaint.)

The charges carry a maximum penalty of life in prison.

Simpson is currently being held without bail in Clark County Detention Center and is scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday. The Naked Gun star's oft-busy attorney, Yale Galanter, told reporters that he's planning to ask the judge to release Simpson on his own recognizance.

"If it was anyone other than O.J. Simpson, he would have been released by now," Galanter said. "You can't rob something that is yours. O.J. said, 'You've got stolen property. Either you return it or I call the police."'

On Monday, tmz.com acquired a tape made secretly by one of the memorabilia dealers involved in the alleged heist on which a man presumed to be Simpson yells at the people in the room, "You think you can steal my s--t and get away with it?" And to his alleged accomplices, "Don't let nobody out of this room."

Walter Alexander, who was arrested Saturday in connection with the case and along with Clarence Stewart and Michael McClinton has been charged with the same crimes as Simpson, told Good Morning America Tuesday that he feels the erstwhile murder suspect really thought the goods belonged to him after receiving a call from the sports memorabilia dealer who taped the meeting, Thomas Riccio.

"It sounds like a setup to me," Alexander said. "I just happened to get caught up in a bad situatation."

Stewart returned some of the items that had gone missing after the alleged heist, including autographed footballs, on Monday before posting $78,000 bail.

Authorities also questioned another man, Tom Scotto, who was released after police concluded he had not been at the scene.

As of Tuesday afternoon, Vegas authorities had not yet received a copy of the tape, which Riccio is reportedly holding onto until he can hammer out a deal protecting him from prosecution with regard to the alleged robbery or for illegal taping, although he denies recording anything illegally.

TMZ reports that Riccio's attorney negotiated immunity for his client Monday night and is waiting to receive written confirmation before popping the tape in the mail. The Clark County District Attorney's Office would not confirm the report. (Riccio told the Los Angeles Times that he mailed a copy to police on Sunday.)

Riccio said that he was completely surprised by what occurred in that room at the Palace Station Hotel and Casino, saying that the plan was to set up a meeting with Burbank, California, memorabilia dealer Alfred Beardsley and collector Bruce Fromong by telling them that a phantom buyer was interested in the Simpson items and then confront him. We were only going to demand that he return the stuff to Simpson and threaten to call the police, Riccio claimed.

He taped the encounter to prove that the men were trying to unload stolen merchandise, Riccio said.

Meanwhile, Simpson has maintained that he was merely trying to recover photos and other memorabilia stolen from him by a former agent.

After hearing the tape Monday, Beardsley told the Los Angeles Times, "It's definitely audio from that room, though I'm not sure if it has been edited."

"Riccio said he had a guy who was just a huge, huge O.J. fan, who wanted anything he could get. I now see that I was brokering a deal with someone who didn't exist. It was an O.J. sting," Beardsley said. "It was a robbery; the [men] came in with guns. I feel bad because I could have gotten Bruce [Fromong] killed."

Fromong, the other collector in the hotel room, is in critical condition at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in L.A. after suffering a heart attack Monday.

"As soon as I saw him, I'm thinking, 'O.J., how can you be this dumb?' " Fromong said on GMA before falling ill, adding that the alleged assailants burst into the room with guns drawn, "almost commando style."

Authorities have said that they are unsure whether Simpson was toting a weapon but that some of his companions were armed.