Simpson, hotel settle lawsuit

O.J. Simpson and a Las Vegas hotel-casino have settled a lawsuit alleging that unnamed employees defamed Simpson by telling a celebrity news site he had been banned from the property in November 2017 for being drunk and disruptive.

Simpson’s attorney, Malcolm Lavergne, declined Thursday to comment about the agreement reached with Nevada Property 1 LLC, corporate owner of The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas.

A spokeswoman for the Cosmopolitan declined immediate comment.

Attorneys for the corporation had argued the former football star could not be defamed because his reputation was already tarnished by his criminal and civil trials in the deaths of his ex-wife and her friend in Los Angeles decades ago and his conviction and imprisonment in Nevada in a 2007 armed robbery case.

Lavergne had raised the specter of racial bias by hotel officials.

Terms were not made public in the court dismissal filed March 31 in Clark County District Court. It said both sides agreed to bear their own legal costs and fees.

Simpson, now 73, is on parole in Nevada and living in a gated golf course community following his release from prison in July 2017. He had served nine years for armed robbery, kidnapping and assault with a weapon.

He denied in his suit he was “belligerent,” broke glass or damaged property.

Simpson went to prison after being convicted in Las Vegas in 2008 of leading five men in a confrontation with two collectibles dealers and a go-between.