By KEN RITTER, Associated Press
LAS VEGAS (AP) — O.J. Simpson will live in Florida after he is released on parole from a Nevada prison where he has been held for the past nine years for a robbery conviction, his lawyer said Friday.
Attorney Malcolm LaVergne didn’t specify where the former sports and movie star would live, although Tom Scotto, a close friend who lives in Naples, Florida, has offered his home. Scotto didn’t respond to messages seeking comment.
“He’s going to Florida,” LaVergne said. “There’s no doubt he’s going to Florida.”
However, the state attorney general doesn’t want Simpson to come back. Attorney General Pam Bondi sent a letter Friday to the Florida Department of Corrections, urging it to tell Nevada officials that Florida objects to Simpson serving his parole in the southern state.
“Floridians are well aware of Mr. Simpson’s background, his wanton disregard for the lives of others, and of his scofflaw attitude with respect to the heinous acts for which he has been found civilly liable,” Bondi said in the letter. “Our state should not become a country club for this convicted criminal.”
Simpson was acquitted of the 1994 killings of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman in Los Angeles. But he was found liable for their deaths in a civil case in 1997 and ordered to pay the victims’ families $33.5 million.
Florida corrections officials have said in the past that they must accept the transfer if Nevada’s request meets the established criteria. A Florida corrections spokeswoman, Ashley Cook, said her agency has not received a transfer request or documents about Simpson.
He becomes eligible for release Sunday, but LaVergne said he doesn’t know where or when it will happen. He expects to learn more when Simpson notifies him that he is being moved from Lovelock Correctional Center in northern Nevada.
Release plans are in motion but need to be finalized for Simpson to be freed, perhaps as early as Monday in Las Vegas, Nevada prisons official Brooke Keast said. Citing safety concerns, she said the plans were not being made public.
Simpson’s attorney said he will begin pressing for answers if his client is not free by Oct. 8. LaVergne said he spoke with Simpson by telephone Thursday and that he is excited about his pending freedom.
“He’s really looking forward to the simple pleasures,” LaVergne said. “Seeing his family on the outside, spending time with them, eating food that’s not packaged.”
Simpson wants to eat steak and seafood and get a new iPhone, LaVergne told ABC’s “Good Morning America.”
Simpson won parole in July after serving nine years of a possible 33-year sentence for his 2008 conviction on armed robbery, kidnapping and other charges.
