New charges filed against OJ upping the count to 12 as the preliminary hearing date nears
By Stacey Silberman
HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) 10/24/07 – Additional charges have been filed against OJ Simpson and three of the remaining co-defendants today originating from the alleged armed robbery in September at the Palace Station Casino involving OJ’s memorabilia stuff.
New charges of felony coercion have been added to the long laundry list making a grand total of 12 counts against OJ and three of his cronies from the September 13 incident.
The most serious charge to date is felony kidnapping and armed robbery making it possible for OJ to be sentenced to life in prison if found guilty of those charges.
Another interesting development regarding the multiple OJ charges is a statement from Thomas Riccio’s attorney Stanley P. Lieber.
Lieber told Hollywood Today that Riccio and OJ had a business arrangement stemming from his knowledge of where to find OJ’s allegedly stolen stuff, in exchange for OJ’s agreement to sign 200 copies of the book, “If I Did It; Confessions of the Killer.”
While it appears that Riccio set Simpson up for a fall, this admission reveals another side to the auctioneer’s story.
It’s a story that began with a tragic and unfortunate set of events, allegedly set in motion by OJ himself. And it’s OJ’s alleged actions again, that may lead to his possible incarceration, following his arrest in September on multiple felony counts.
According to Lieber, “OJ wouldn’t commit to a deal. As stated in your (HT) story, he (Riccio) didn’t do this out of the goodness of his heart. No, he didn’t do it that way. He made an arrangement with OJ and called him and said, ‘I know where the stuff you’re looking for is. And the guys who have it.’ He (OJ) thought Mike Gilbert might be the guy, but he wasn’t.”
Lieber told HT that “OJ said (to Riccio), ‘I’ve been looking for that stuff for 10 years. They stole it, it’s my stuff.’ So OJ came up with all these ideas as to how to get it back and they finally came up with this sting idea, in that he would get the stuff and tell them that he would report the guys to the cops if they didn’t give it back.”
“Riccio taped all of his conversations with OJ because he didn’t trust him. He tapes all of his conversations with everyone,” said Lieber.
Lieber admits that Riccio had been convicted of a couple of felonies in the past, but on the last conviction, he claims innocence. Riccio believes, that if he’d taped the conversations related to the questionable business dealings, that he would’ve been acquitted in that case. That’s why he tapes anything and everything he says and does.
“He said in return for this, ‘I want you to sign this book that’s coming out.’ He wanted to make a deal with OJ to sign 200 or 500 copies of the book (“If I Did It”). But OJ didn’t want to do it because he didn’t agree and he didn’t want the Goldmans to make money from his book.”
Finally Riccio said, ‘Why don’t you sign the book saying ‘this is not my book’ and he got OJ to agree to sign the 200copies.
On the day of the alleged memorabilia heist, Lieber said “Riccio spent all day driving around looking for the books, but couldn’t find them in any stores. If he were smart, he would have waited another day before doing the deal because the book came out on the next day.”
“Riccio taped everything to protect himself within the deal with OJ and to protect himself from any potential criminal charges.” Again, this was based on his paranoia based on past criminal history, according to Lieber.
In the original police report filed in Clark County, there is some mention of Riccio’s iPhone and the implication that it may have been used to record the incident, but the phone was only used to record telephone conversations with OJ.
“There were messages from OJ on the iPhone, but Riccio had a digital recorder in his pocket before, during and after the meetings,” confided Lieber to Hollywood Today.
Riccio mentioned a part of this story to Larry King Live on CNN and to Hannity and Colmes along with Geraldo Rivera on Fox News. When asked why Riccio didn’t emphasize why he had sought out OJ for the business dealings before now, he said “that nobody ever asked.”
The media was much more caught up with the concept of a set-up and the backgrounds of characters involved in the scheme. Not to mention the immediate release of the book and the Goldman factor.
Lieber said that on the Friday before our conversation October 2, that Riccio told the Las Vegas DA about the above statement and that he’d turned over all physical evidence, including all tape recordings and that he has since stopped doing any interviews.
Perhaps the failed business dealing with OJ made it easy for Riccio to justify selling the audio tapes, along with the fact, that selling items of public interest is what he does for a living. That’s his business and it’s not much different from what the paparazzi do to make money.
Said Lieber, “Quite frankly, I didn’t want to turn over the tapes until he had an immunity deal. Mainly, because he had taped all of these conversations without telling anybody.”
Mr. Riccio claims to have turned himself around and was only trying to make some fast cash off of OJ’s book. It was a business deal like any other in the memorabilia business.
Lieber said, “I just wanted to set the record straight,” in regard to HT’s story “OJ Got Stung Going in with a Sting” on October 1.
As of now, it’s been reported that as of October 15, two of Simpson’s co-defendants have agreed to testify against him in exchange for reduced charges.
The first defendant to cave-in was Charles Cashmore 40, who has a shady legal past of his own according to public records. Cashmore was charged with felony theft back in a 1996 embezzlement case out of Utah. He pleaded guilty to last month’s OJ related charges and received a reduced charge of misdemeanor and probation.
The second defendant is golf buddy Walter Alexander 46, who said he would plead guilty to being charged as an accessory to robbery. He also has a criminal past and was arrested for a 1987 kidnapping and assault charge that was later dropped due to a witnesses’ refusal to testify.
Regardless of the men’s criminal pasts, their testimony could prove to be critical against Simpson. A crime was allegedly committed and there are witnesses to the crime. If Simpson’s case does go to trial after the preliminary hearing scheduled for November 8 and 9, then the matter will go to a Las Vegas jury spearheaded by district attorney David Roger.
Simpson’s Las Vegas attorney Gabriel Grasso weighed in too saying, “he wasn’t surprised that some of Simpson’s co-defendants accepted reduced charges in exchange for their testimony against the fallen football hero and Heisman trophy winner.
Riccio is expected to be a key witness for the prosecution in the case against OJ. As was his plan if caught in the middle of something again, he has the audio tapes to prove his side of the story and prove that what he says is true in this particular case.
Despite all of this talk about witness credibility and their sordid pasts, OJ may get stung himself this time, but in a criminal court of law.
Now that’s ironic.