Has luck finally run out for the once-worshiped and later-reviled former athlete/actor named O.J. Simpson? The news of his arrest in Vegas suggests it has:
O.J. Simpson will be charged with a total of six counts of robbery, assault, burglary and conspiracy, Las Vegas police announced Sunday.
Simpson was arrested at his hotel room at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas, where he was staying to attend a friend’s wedding, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Capt. James Dillon told reporters.
He was expected to be booked Sunday evening on two counts of robbery with a deadly weapon, two counts of assault with a deadly weapon and one count each of armed burglary and conspiracy to commit burglary, Dillon said.
Simpson requested an attorney and was still at police headquarters late Sunday afternoon, Dillon said.
On Saturday, Las Vegas police arrested Walter Alexander and seized two guns in connection with the incident, a source told CNN earlier Sunday.
“O.J.” as a phrase has gone through two popular uses in popular culture. One was for orange juice. And then, as a football hero, for Simpson. But after the 1994 murder of his ex- wife Nicole Brown and friend Ron Goldman and Simpson’s highly-controversial acquittal in the 1995 murder trial, the phrase O.J. no longer makes people think of and drool at the thought of a delicious juice or smile at the thought of a legendary athlete and so-so but acceptable actor.
O.J. Simpson’s learning the hard way that what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. Or more specifically, Vegas jails.
The trouble-prone actor and former footballer was arrested Sunday on multiple felony counts for what police say was an armed heist of sports memorabilia and what Simpson has described as his own personal “sting operation.”
Simpson was arrested about 11 a.m., according to the Las Vegas Metro Police. He faces two counts of robbery with use of a deadly weapon, conspiracy to commit robbery, burglary with a deadly weapon, two counts of assault with a deadly weapon and coercion—all felonies, said Clark County District Attorney David Roger.
More charges could be brought against him. As it stands, Simpson is looking at a maximum penalty of three to 35 years per count if convicted, or, as Roger put it during a press conference Sunday afternoon: “He is facing a lot of time.”
TMZ.com has a video of the press conference.
Read The Talking Dog’s take on the arrest.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.