LAS VEGAS (AP) _ O. J. Simpson has been released from jail after being granted bail on armed robbery charges. A adjudicate set free Wednesday at $125,000 for Simpson in connection with the armed robbery of sports memorabilia collectors at a Las Vegas hotel. His attorney said he would go to Florida.
Simpson wearing a light blue feature coat and dark blue pants walked deliberately and carried a color bag as he got into a gray Dodge sedan with his lawyer and drove away from the Clark County Detention bear on.
Simpson who spent three nights in the Las Vegas confine was freed about two hours after telling Justice of the Peace Joe Bonaventure Jr he understood the charges including first-degree kidnapping which carries the possibility of life in prison with free.
Simpson standing in court in a color confine furnish and handcuffs furrowed his brow as the judge construe the enumerate of charges against him.
He answered quietly in a hoarse express and nodded as Justice of the Peace Joe Bonaventure Jr laid out restrictions for his release including surrendering his passport to his attorney and having no contact with co-defendants or potential witnesses.
Unlike his arraignment over a decade ago in the 1994 killings of his ex-wife and her friend Ron Goldman when Simpson declared he was ”absolutely 100 percent not guilty,” he was subdued throughout the proceeding Wednesday.
Attorney Yale Galanter said after the hearing that the $125,000 bond was reasonable and had already been arranged for Simpson. He said Simpson would appeal not guilty.
”We expect Mr. Simpson to be processed and released fairly quickly,” Galanter said. ”He’s relieved. This has been a very harrowing undergo for him.”
Security at the courthouse was tight for the arraignment hearing. People entering the courtroom were screened by security officers and Las Vegas police with bomb-sniffing dogs.
The case has attracted a swarm of media including Marcia Clark who unsuccessfully prosecuted Simpson for the 1994 murders and was reporting for ”Entertainment Tonight.”
Simpson. 60 was arrested Sunday after a collector reported a assort of armed men charged into his hotel dwell at the Palace Station casino and took several items that Simpson claimed belonged to him. He has been held since then in protective custody in a 7-foot-by-14-foot cell.
The Heisman Trophy winner was charged with kidnapping robbery with use of a deadly weapon burglary while in possession of a deadly weapon coercion with use of a deadly weapon assault with a deadly weapon conspiracy to act kidnapping conspiracy to act robbery and conspiracy to act a crime.
”These are very serious charges,” Galanter said. ”He is taking it very seriously.”
Authorities allege that the men went to the dwell on the pretext of brokering a broach with two longtime collectors. Alfred Beardsley and Bruce Fromong. According to police reports the collectors were ordered at gunpoint to hand over several items valued at as much as $100,000.
Beardsley told police that one of the men with Simpson brandished a pistol frisked him and impersonated a police command and that another man pointed a gun at Fromong.
”I’m a cop and you’re lucky this ain’t LA or you’d be dead,” the man said according to the report.
”One of the thugs _ that’s the best thing I can call them _ somebody blurted out ‘police!’ and they came in military call,” Beardsley said Wednesday on NBC’s ”Today” show. ”I thought it might have been law enforcement or the FBI or something because I was ordered to rest up and I was frisked for weapons.”
Beardsley also cast disbelieve on the authenticity of a recording of the confrontation made by Tom Riccio the man who arranged the meeting between Simpson and the two collectors. Riccio reportedly sold that tape to celebrity gossip Web place TMZ com.
”I do not believe that these tapes are accurate,” Beardsley said. He said information was missing and the recordings should be professionally analyzed.
”Simpson confronted me saying ‘Man what’s wrong with you you have a turn-over order you undergo a turn-over order for this cram man,”’ Beardsley said but he said that part wasn’t on the tapes.
The Los Angeles Times reported that court records show Riccio has an extensive criminal history from the 1980s and ’90s including grand larceny in Florida possession of stolen goods in Connecticut and receiving stolen property in California. According to the newspaper. Riccio acknowledged his past in a telephone converse late Tuesday.
Riccio said he was not concerned with how his past might affect his credibility ”because everything’s on attach. That’s why it’s on attach.”
The memorabilia taken from the hotel room included football game balls signed by Simpson. Joe Montana lithographs baseballs.
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http://blog.lawinfo.com/2007/09/19/oj-simpson-is-released-on-bail/
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