OJ denies kidnapping and armed robbery charges

OJ Simpson has pleaded not guilty in Las Vegas to charges of kidnapping and armed robbery of two sports memorabilia dealers.

OJ Simpson has pleaded not guilty in Las Vegas to charges of kidnapping and armed robbery of two sports memorabilia dealers.

The 60-year-old former American football star was arraigned last night, along with two other men, in a strange case that has ballooned to 12 charges and could send Simpson and the others to prison for life.

Simpson’s notoriety, gained from past trials on charges of murder and road rage, looms in the background of the Las Vegas episode. His lawyer said jury selection would be an “onerous” task that would probably last longer than the trial itself.

“I am very concerned that we get 12 people on the jury that can listen to the evidence that occurs in the courtroom,” attorney Yale Galanter said on the courthouse steps. “People are going to have opinions.”

Simpson’s co-defendants, Charles “Charlie” Ehrlich, 53, and Clarence “CJ” Stewart, 53, also entered not guilty pleas, and the judge set trial for all three men on April 7.

District Attorney David Roger listed 78 potential witnesses, including Ehrlich and Stewart, an odd choice since prosecutors may not compel defendants to testify.

Ehrlich’s lawyer, John Moran Jr, said it would be impermissible for the prosecutor to call them “if this tortured process does proceed to trial.”

Simpson appeared relaxed and cheerful before court convened, chatting with his lawyers and a few friends in the courtroom. He did not comment about the case and confined his remarks to small talk.

“Mr Simpson is glad that the arraignment is over with. He’s glad that he doesn’t have to come back to Vegas until April,” Mr Galanter said.

While the lawyer said he would be pleased to have the case resolved without a trial, he said that seemed unlikely unless prosecutors dismissed all charges. A plea bargain, he suggested, was not on the table.

“I don’t know what my client did wrong,” Mr Galanter said. “And that’s why it would be difficult for us to enter into any kind of a plea agreement. It wasn’t a trespass because he was invited into the room. It wasn’t a robbery because it wasn’t the unlawful taking of someone else’s property.”

The prosecutor declined to comment outside court.

Simpson landed in court after leading an odd raiding party in a Sept. 13 hotel room confrontation with two sports memorabilia dealers to take collectibles and family heirlooms he claimed were his.

Simpson has maintained that he intended only to retrieve items that had been stolen from him by a former agent, including photographs, football awards and the suit he wore the day he was acquitted of murdering his wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman.

Prosecutors allege the heist netted tens of thousands of dollars of sports collectibles that did not belong to Simpson.

At a preliminary hearing two weeks ago, there were accounts of an angry scene inside the hotel room during which a cursing Simpson loudly demanded his possessions.

Threats were made and guns allegedly were drawn by two men originally charged in the case. Those men and another cohort were given plea bargains with the possibility of probation in return for their testimony against Simpson, Ehrlich and Stewart.

Simpson maintains that he never saw any guns at the scene and had not asked anyone to bring guns.

Simpson has faced juries before. After his murder acquittal in 1995 in a sensational Los Angeles case called “The trial of the century,” he was later found liable for the deaths in a civil case.

In 2001, Simpson, who had moved to Florida, was cleared of all charges in a case involving a suspected road rage incident.

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