Simpson penalty: $25M Families to split award; appeal likely

  Jonathan T. Lovitt

  02/11/1997

  USA Today

  FINAL

  Page 01A

  (Copyright 1997)

 

  SANTA MONICA, Calif. -- A Superior Court jury socked O.J. Simpson with

  $25 million in punitive damages for the killings of his ex-wife and her friend.

 

  The verdict, returned Monday in a sedate courtroom, follows $8.5 million in

  compensatory damages awarded last week in the 1994 slashing deaths of Ronald

  Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson.

 

  The verdict was not unanimous. The only juror with black ancestry voted against

  punitive damages.

 

  Simpson's supporters say he's broke, but plaintiffs' lawyers argued that his name

  and likeness were worth more than $24 million over 25 years.

 

  Judge Hiroshi Fujisaki barred plaintiffs from pursuing Simpson's assets for 10

  days, until his lawyers can challenge the civil court verdict.

 

  But family members said money was never the object of the lawsuit they filed

  against Simpson after a criminal court jury acquitted him on double murder

  charges in 1995.

 

  ``The money is not the issue, it never has been,'' said Fred Goldman, Ron's

  father. ``The jury had only one means of punishment.''

 

  Said Tanya Brown, Nicole's sister: ``There will never be closure. Nicole's gone,

  and those kids lost their mother.''

 

  Simpson, who hasn't come to court since last Tuesday's verdict, was eating a

  chili dog at a suburban Los Angeles golf course bar when the case was reported

  on TV. A bartender who wouldn't give her name said he seemed to be doing OK.

 

  Later in the day, a casually dressed Simpson, wearing a baseball cap, left the

  Santa Monica office of his lawyer, Robert Baker. He drove off by himself in his

  $64,000 Chevrolet Suburban.

 

  Some of Simpson's relatives in court did not take the award as calmly as

  Simpson. They were ``angry,'' said lawyer Leo Terrell, a Simpson advocate.

  ``This is against the law. You can't award more money than the man is worth.''

 

  The estate of Nicole Simpson, whose beneficiaries are her children, Justin, 8, and

  Sydney, 11, now living with Simpson, was allotted $12.5 million of the

  damages.

 

  ``Now the kids can go to school,'' Tanya Brown said. ``That's why we did it,

  they're safe now.''

 

  Goldman's father will split another $12.5 million with his ex-wife, Sharon Rufo,

  Ron Goldman's mother.

 

  The judge is to determine the split between the long-divorced couple's share of

  last week's $8.5 million award. Brown's family did not seek compensatory

  damages.