Darden: He’d be a lousy neighbor

ONE OF THE prosecutors on O.J. Simpson’s murder trial said Sunday that living next door to the fallen football legend would be worse than living next to a pedophile. “I wouldn’t want him living next to me,” Christopher Darden told the Daily News on the same day Simpson walked out of a Nevada prison after serving nine years for robbery. “I don’t know who would want to live next to a guy they believe or think might be a double murderer. It has to be worse than living next to a pedophile,” Darden said. Simpson, 70, was released only two days before the anniversary of the verdict in his 1995 trial for the murders of Nicole Brown-Simpson and Ronald Goldman. “I’m sure for the Browns and Goldmans. . . it’s a ton of grief on top of grief. I am very sorry for them,” Darden said. Darden became a national figure (inset) as one of the Los Angeles prosecutors on Simpson’s trial, along with Marcia Clark. The case and acquittal sparked a furor across the country about race, law enforc ement and celebrity justice. Simpson was found liable in a 1997 civil trial for the deaths of Goldman and Brown. He was ordered to pay the victims’ families $33.5 million. In 2008, Simpson was convicted of robbing two memorabilia dealers at a Las Vegas casino hotel. “It’s amazing to see people celebrating his release as if he’s a martyr or a political figure. This isn’t Dr. King being released from Birmingham jail,” Darden said. “I don’t know what it says about us as a culture, society or a community, but I think there’s something wrong.” During Simpson’s parole hearing in July, he bizarrely said, “I basically spent a conflict-free life.” The Nevada parole board then unanimously voted to grant his release. Darden, 61, was not satisfied with the process. “As far as his release, he earned it under Nevada law, and you know, OK,” Darden said. “But any parole board ought to consider whether or not the parolee lied at his parole hearing. That’s a very basic, fundamental thing. He said he’s led ‘a conflict-free life’ — his life was full of conflict! “We need to have a process that’s more than a joke. We ought to at least require a parolee to tell the truth,” Darden added.