Sep 17, 2007 12:35 am US/Eastern
Simpson's Miami Life Filled With Controversy
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MIAMI (CBS4) ―
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O.J. Simpson smiles after he was found not guilty on road rage charges in 2001
AP
In the 90's Florida became a haven for people legal trouble and money trouble because state law bent over backward to protect many assets of those with legal entanglements, and following a $36 million dollar civil judgment against him for the death of Nicolle Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman, that protection was just what OJ Simpson needed.
The Heisman Trophy winner, ex-NFL star and former actor has been a tabloid staple in South Florida since his ex-wife and Goldman were killed in 1994, and he moved to Florida in part to take Florida's laws. He bought a home in the Hammocks area of Southwest Miami, enrolled his children in Gulliver Academy, and tried to blend in to the South Florida landscape.
He did not blend very well.
In 2000, police were called to Simpson's home after girlfriend Christie Prody allegedly had a problem with drugs, and Simpson placed a 911 call claiming Prody was on a cocaine binge and needed rehab. Simpson later retracted the story and no formal charges were made against Prody.
On October 2000, Simpson was supposedly kicked and slapped by then 25-year-old girlfriend at the Wyndham hotel in Miami, but no charges were filed.
A year later, on October 24, 2001, Simpson was cleared of all charges after he had been arrested and booked in Miami on a felony road rage claim.
That same year, Simpson's home was raided by investigators who claimed he had been engaging in a scheme to pirate DirecTV signals. The investigation took years, and ended in 2006 with Simpson being ordered to pay the satellite provider more than $58 thousand in damages and attorneys fees.
Simpson's daughter with his ex-wife, Sydney, called 911 in January, 2003, crying and asking for help in what she called 'an abuse thing'. She later claimed she and Simpson had been fighting, and no charges were filed.
Police were again called when Simpson went to a neighbor's home July 4th, 2005, and a fight allegedly started. Again, no charges were filed.
In June, a bankruptcy judge in Miami ordered Simpson's daughter to turn over all interests in the book project "If I Did It" to the family of Ron Goldman. The Goldman family published the book under the title "I Did It", and released the book the same day news of the alleged memorabilia robbery became public.
Simpson's Miami attorney, Yale Galantner, would not comment on the new charges against Simpson, saying he was not involved in the Las Vegas case.
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