The Juice is loose! OJ Simpson freed after 9 years in jail
OJ SIMPSON looked a diminished figure as he emerged from prison yesterday after nine years behind bars for armed robbery.
The former American football star, Hollywood actor and double murder suspect was released from Lovelock Correctional Centre in Nevada within eight minutes of becoming eligible for parole.
Simpson, 70, had a brief meeting with his parole officer to discuss how he will keep in contact with the authorities and abide by restrictions including a ban on ‘excessive’ drinking.
Wearing rumpled, shapeless denims, he then walked to a waiting car driven by an unidentified driver, with three boxloads of prison possessions including his shower sandals, hot plate and clothes. Prison offias cials described him as upbeat. They said they had kept him segregated from other prisoners in the days before his release, fearing another inmate might attack him in an 11th-hour bid for notoriety.
Simpson, nicknamed The Juice, was sensationally cleared by a largely AfricanAmerican jury in 1995 of murdering his exwife Nicole and her friend Ron Goldman.
But two years later he was found liable for the killings in civil court and ordered to pay the victims’ families $33.5million (around £20million at the time).
In 2008 he was convicted of robbery and kidnapping after confronting two sports memorabilia dealers in a Las Vegas hotel room. He was granted parole for good behaviour in July, ensuring he only served the minimum nine years of his maximum 33-year sentence.
Friends of Simpson say he will demand
‘He wants to eat steak’
much as $5million (£3.7million) for his first big interview and his associates have already made contact with US TV networks. Another mooted money spinner would be to present his own TV show.
It is understood Simpson will initially live in a gated home in an affluent Las Vegas suburb but he is determined to return to Florida, where his four grown-up children live.
However, he will need the state’s permission to live there on parole and Florida attorney general Pam Bondi has said Simpson is not welcome.
‘Floridians are well aware of Mr Simpson’s background, his wanton disregard for the lives of others,’ said Miss Bondi. ‘Our state should not become a country club for this convicted criminal.’
But Simpson’s lawyer Malcolm LaVergne said: ‘He wants to eat seafood, he wants to eat steak. He wants to enjoy the simple pleasures he hasn’t enjoyed in nine years... and he wants to do that in Florida.’