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Executor of O.J. Simpson’s estate changes position on payout to Ron Goldman’s family
O.J. Simpson’s longtime attorney and the executor of his estate has backpedaled on earlier remarks suggesting he would block any claims for settlement money from Ron Goldman’s family members, who along with Nicole Brown’s family were awarded millions in a civil judgment that was never paid in full.
Nevada-based lawyer Malcolm LaVergne had represented Simpson, the former NFL star and acquitted murder defendant notoriously found not guilty in the killings of Goldman and Brown, from 2009 until his death from prostate cancer last week. Simpson’s will was filed in a Clark County court and formally named LaVergne the executor of his estate. His family had announced Simpson’s death the previous day.
Shortly after Simpson’s will was filed on Friday, LaVergne told the Las Vegas-Review Journal that he intended to fight the Goldmans in their pursuit of the unpaid settlement.
“It’s my hope that the Goldmans get zero, nothing,” LaVergne said in controversial comments to the newspaper. “Them specifically. And I will do everything in my capacity as the executor or personal representative to try and ensure that they get nothing.”
The attorney seems to have changed course since then. On Monday, LaVergne told The Hollywood Reporter that he wanted to walk back those comments, and he later confirmed the reversal in a statement to CBS News.
“That ‘zero, nothing’ remark to a local reporter was harsh and in response to what an attorney for Fred Goldman said (within an hour of notification of OJ’s death), not Fred Goldman himself. Mr. Goldman’s personal post-OJ death remarks have been non-offensive and understandable given the circumstances,” LaVergne said in the statement.
Simpson was acquitted in 1995 of the gruesome murders of Brown, his ex-wife, and Ron Goldman, her friend, following a widely-debated criminal case and what has been called “the trial of the century.” A California jury found in a subsequent civil judgment several years later that Simpson was liable for their deaths, and ordered him to pay Brown and Goldman’s families $33.5 million in damages.
Even after Simpson was released in 2017 from the Nevada prison where he ultimately served nine years for multiple felony convictions, the debt was never paid out to completion.
Fred Goldman, the father of Ron Goldman, has unrelentingly sought justice for his murder for the last 30 years. He reacted to Simpson’s death in an interview with NBC News in the wake of the announcement, saying it was “no great loss to the world” but focusing the comments mainly on his son.
“The only thing I have to say is it’s just further reminder of Ron being gone all these years,” Fred Goldman said. “It’s no great loss to the world. It’s a further reminder of Ron’s being gone.”
Steve Marcus / Getty Images
David J. Cook, an attorney for Fred Goldman who specializes in financial judgments and has worked for decades with the family to try and collect the multi-million dollar civil settlement, was more accusing in his own remarks. Cook told CBS News that Simpson’s death was “a death without penance” and the judgment owed to the Goldmans had with interest risen to $114 million. He also shared that Goldman and their legal team had not been able to access Simpson’s NFL pension or trust.
“Efforts went nowhere. Did he have other money? Nothing that we could find. Do I think he was hiding money? Maybe,” Cook said. The attorney told the Associated Press in the wake of Simpson’s death that he planned to “keep going” in his pursuit of the settlement.
LaVergne noted in his latest statement about the Goldmans that the combative stance he took initially on their settlement was an extension of his time as Simpson’s attorney — a role that he acknowledges has fundamentally changed now that he is the executor of the estate.
“These are two different roles with different sets of rules. This is the first time I have been an executor of an estate, so the process has been a learning curve that I have to do very quickly because of the circumstances of this case,” LaVergne said in the statement. “My intention is to keep the rhetoric and hyperbole down, and the actions to wind up Mr. Simpson’s estate the focus.”
He added that “transparency” will be his priority as he intends to invite Fred Goldman “in a very short amount of time” to go over the estate and the family’s claims. LaVergne said the Brown family would be given the same opportunity “if their claim is still valid.”
Frito-Lay is recalling a limited number of 13 oz. bags of Lay’s Classic Potato Chips after being alerted by a consumer contact that the product may contain undeclared milk.
The bags of chips affected by recall were distributed to certain retail stores and e-commerce distributors in Oregon and Washington and were available for sale beginning Nov. 3, 2024.
“Those with an allergy or severe sensitivity to milk run the risk of a serious or life-threatening allergic reaction if they consume the recalled product,” the Food and Drug Administration said in the recall notice posted Thursday.
No allergic reactions related to the recall have been reported, according to the recall. Additionally, no other Lay’s products, flavors, sizes or variety packs are affected.
FDA
The recalled chips include Lay’s Classic Potato Chips, in flexible 13 oz. (368.5 grams) bags with UPC code 28400 31041, a “Guaranteed Fresh” date of 11 Feb 2025, and one of either two manufacturing codes: 6462307xx or 6463307xx.
General guidelines from the FDA advise consumers who have purchased any recalled food to dispose of the product or return it to the retailer for a full refund.
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What is the debt ceiling? Here’s why Trump wants Congress to abolish it before he takes office
Washington — President-elect Donald Trump, Vice President-elect JD Vance and billionaire Elon Musk blew up a GOP-backed deal to fund federal agencies into March, raising the pressure on Republican congressional leaders to craft a plan to avert a government shutdown just before the holidays.
In a statement Wednesday, Trump and Vance lambasted the agreement for including provisions favored by Democrats. But the incoming president and vice president also added a new, significant wrinkle to negotiations when they urged Congress to raise or abolish the debt ceiling now, instead of next year.
“Increasing the debt ceiling is not great but we’d rather do it on Biden’s watch,” Trump and Vance said in their statement. “If Democrats won’t cooperate on the debt ceiling now, what makes anyone think they would do it in June during our administration? Let’s have this debate now.”
What is the debt ceiling?
Set by Congress, the debt ceiling, or limit, is the maximum amount of money the U.S. Treasury is authorized to borrow to pay debts incurred by the federal government. Lifting the debt ceiling does not authorize new spending, but instead lets the government spend money on obligations that Congress has already been approved.
Failing to address the debt ceiling could lead the U.S. to default on its debt, which would have devastating effects on the economy. The government has never defaulted, and the Treasury typically uses accounting moves, known as “extraordinary measures,” to delay breaching the debt ceiling.
While raising the debt ceiling used to be routine, legislation addressing it has in recent years been used as leverage to force policy concessions and fuel debates over government spending.
Congress last addressed the debt ceiling in June 2023 as part of a legislative package negotiated by President Biden and then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. That deal suspended the debt ceiling through Jan., 1, 2025, ensuring any fight over it would take place after the 2024 elections.
The Treasury Department will likely implement extraordinary measures to stave off a default in the new year. It will also announce an “X date,” the estimated point at which the government will no longer be able to pay its obligations. The Economic Policy Innovation Center, a conservative think tank, projected in an analysis released Monday that it’s possible the debt limit will be reached by June 16.
While the Treasury Department’s use of extraordinary measures would give Congress more time to address the debt ceiling, Trump is now urging lawmakers to take action now, before he takes office.
Why does Trump want to raise the debt ceiling?
The president-elect will come into office with a legislative to-do list that includes securing the border and extending provisions of his signature Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which was enacted in 2017 and overhauled the tax code. But a fight over the debt ceiling could complicate efforts by the Republican-led House and Senate to focus on those legislative initiatives and pass them quickly.
Trump is urging lawmakers to eliminate the debt ceiling altogether, a position that some prominent Democrats have endorsed in the past.
“Number one, the debt ceiling should be thrown out entirely,” Trump said in a phone interview Thursday with CBS News’ Robert Costa. “Number two, a lot of the different things they thought they’d receive [in a recently proposed spending deal] are now going to be thrown out, 100 percent. And we’ll see what happens. We’ll see whether or not we have a closure during the Biden administration. But if it’s going to take place, it’s going to take place during Biden, not during Trump.”
Trump separately told ABC News that “there won’t be anything approved unless the debt ceiling is done with,” indicating any spending deal to prevent a shutdown must address the debt limit.
“If we don’t get it, then we’re going to have a shutdown, but it’ll be a Biden shutdown, because shutdowns only [injure] the person who’s president,” he told ABC News.
Whether Republicans and Democrats would go along with such a plan, though, is far from clear. GOP lawmakers in both chambers have opposed raising the debt ceiling without spending reforms, and debates over the debt limit often give way to broader fights over the federal budget, which conservatives in Congress have said is bloated and should be reduced. Plus, Democrats still control the Senate and the White House.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement Wednesday that shutting down the government would harm families and endanger services Americans rely on.
“Republicans need to stop playing politics with this bipartisan agreement or they will hurt hardworking Americans and create instability across the country,” she said. “President-elect Trump and Vice President-elect Vance ordered Republicans to shut down the government and they are threatening to do just that — while undermining communities recovering from disasters, farmers and ranchers, and community health centers.”
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries suggested Democrats would not go along with a plan pushed by Republicans to raise the debt limit.
“GOP extremists want House Democrats to raise the debt ceiling so that House Republicans can lower the amount of your Social Security check. Hard pass,” the New York Democrat wrote on the social media platform Bluesky.
Jeffries also told reporters “the debt limit issue and discussion is premature at best.”
