Federal Court Passes on O.J.

U.S. District Court judge rules that he does not have jurisdiction over a lawsuit filed by murder victim Ron Goldman's family against O.J. Simpson, saying it's a matter for the state courts of Florida, where the ex-NFL star has been living

By Natalie Finn Jan 25, 2007 1:01 AMTags

O.J. Simpson has been remanded. To state court, that is.  

The family of the late Ronald Goldman will not be able to pursue its current case against the ex-football star in federal court, U.S. District Judge Manuel Real ruled Thursday, adding that because Simpson has been residing in Florida, it's a matter for the state courts of the Sunshine State to decide. 

"I don't have personal jurisdiction," Judge Real said in court. "He's a citizen of Florida." 

Goldman's father, Fred, who lives in Arizona, and other relatives of the slain waiter sued Simpson in December for about $1.1 million, accusing him of setting up a fake corporation so that he could hang onto the advance he got from publisher Judith Regan for their remarkably ill-conceived—and now scuttled—book project. 

Simpson attorney Ron Slate said after the hearing, held in Los Angeles, that the onetime murder defendant had already spent the $895,000 he received for signing on to pen—with the help of a ghostwriter, so Simpson said—the hypothetical tell-all If I Did It, which was going to describe how the Naked Gun player would have gone about killing Goldman and ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson if he had been the one to don the notoriously too-small gloves. 

While Simpson himself has referred to the cash he collected for If I Did It as "blood money," he also has said that the paycheck is long-gone, having been used to pay bills. 

Although earlier this month Judge Real temporarily froze the account Simpson used to deposit the book dough, ostensibly until a ruling could be issued on whether the money should be turned over to the Goldmans, another member of Simpson's legal team implied that there were no ifs, ands or buts about the judge's latest decision. 

"The federal courts have never had anything to do with this case," attorney Yale Galanter said after Thursday's hearing. "There is no federal court jurisdiction to enforce a state court judgment. They got kicked out to the curb."  

Galanter was referring to the $33.5 million judgment the Goldman and Brown families were awarded in 1997 in a wrongful death suit against Simpson, who was acquitted of criminal charges in October 1995.  

Goldman family attorney Jonathan Polak told reporters that his clients, who maintain that they've seen only a tiny fraction of that $33.5 million in the last nine years, have not decided yet whether to appeal Judge Real's ruling or pursue their case in Florida. 

Simpson, a confirmed millionaire a little more than a decade ago, has stated in the past that paying off his legal fees cleaned him out and that he's now living on his NFL pension, which the Goldmans do not have access to.  

In 1999, Simpson's Heisman Trophy, which he won playing for USC in 1968, and various other personal possessions were auctioned off to help satisfy the lawsuit judgment. A reported $382,000 was earmarked for the Goldman and Brown families, who had agreed to split the proceeds 60-40.   

According to Ron Slate, the Goldman family turned down a $7 million settlement of the wrongful death suit back in the 1990s. While Galanter said that he's still willing to negotiate a deal, Polak says any such agreement is unlikely.

"If [Simpson's] going to continue saying he's not going to work and he's not going to pay, I really don't know what the heck there is to talk about," Polak said. "We have made substantial progress in putting him in the virtual jail cell that we have always said that we want to place him in."