Alleged O.J. Victim: Memorabilia Belongs to Simpson's Kids

Memorabilia dealer testifies that he was in possession of Simpson family heirlooms and that he "was not scared" when NFL star burst into his room

By Natalie Finn Sep 16, 2008 10:49 PMTags
O.J. SimpsonDaniel Gluskoter-Pool/Getty Images

One of the guys O.J. Simpson is accused of robbing spent a few minutes playing for the former football star's team in court today.

Sports memorabilia dealer Bruce Fromong, whose testimony was cut short Monday after he fell ill on the witness stand, testified Tuesday that, at the time of the alleged shakedown, he was in possession of "family heirlooms" which he felt should go to O.J.'s family.

"I believed these items belonged to Mr. Simpson's kids," said Fromong, who has been hospitalized for multiple heart attacks over the past year and was examined by paramedics yesterday as a precaution. "They should go back to him."

Simpson maintains that he walked, unarmed, into a meeting with Fromong and Alfred Beardsley on Sept. 13, 2007, solely to reclaim items that had been stolen from him by a former agent, such as the suit he was wearing the day he was acquitted in the slayings of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman. (The suit was not one of the things Simpson and five other men toted away from the scene.)

"When he first came through the door he stopped, then he proceeded into the room and started hollering at everyone," Fromong, who had met Simpson before their 2007 run-in, said. "He was just yelling about how this is his stuff: 'How could you steal my stuff? I thought you were an OK guy, how could you steal my s--t.' He said: 'Don't let anybody leave this room, nobody gets out of here.' "

"I was not scared," Fromong added later in response to questioning by codefendant Clarence Stewart's attorney.

Fromong testified yesterday that two of Simpson's alleged accomplices had guns in their hands when the group came knocking. Today he told the court that he heard someone yelling, "Put the gun down!" amid the commotion.

Despite supporting the defense's position that Simpson was the rightful owner of the things taken, Fromong later propped up the prosecution's argument that Simpson had stockpiled valuable memorabilia to keep it out of the Goldman family's hands—rather than pay some of the $33.5 million wrongful-death judgment he owes them and the Brown family.

Mike Gilbert, the former agent who has said that Simpson gave him a number of items as gifts, hid some of the Naked Gun actor's mementos so that the Goldmans couldn't get them, Fromong testified.

The defense, meanwhile, is looking to portray Fromong and Beardsley as money-hungry opportunists who simply wanted to unload the goods to the highest bidder.

Under cross-examination, Beardsley admitted to recently trying to sell some collectibles on eBay, advertising them as "the same ones stolen by O.J. in Las Vegas."

Defense attorney Yale Galanter also played for the jury a recording made during the confrontation in which Fromong can be heard saying: "I'll have Inside Edition down here for us tomorrow. I told them I want big money."

Deputy District Attorney David Rogers then played more of the tape on redirect. "Nobody puts a...gun in my face. I stood up for this...when he was in jail. I stood up for him when he was on trial. I set up his offshore accounts," the man identified as Fromong said.

Rogers also pointed out that Fromong had previously testified that he felt his "life was being threatened" when Simpson and his alleged cohorts burst into the room.

Simpson has denied the accusation that he instructed some of the men involved to carry weapons to the meeting, and has denied knowing that guns were brandished in the room while he was there.