O.J. Simpson will be cremated; estate executor says ‘hard no’ to controversial ex-athlete’s brain being studied for CTE

A lawyer who represented O.J. Simpson, who died from cancer final week at 76, mentioned Sunday that the previous NFL star’s physique shall be cremated within the coming days, and there are not any plans to have his mind donated to science.

“On no less than one event, somebody has referred to as saying he’s a CTE man who research the mind,” mentioned lawyer Malcolm LaVergne, referring to persistent traumatic encephalopathy, a degenerative mind illness that has been studied in former football players and is related to behavioral and cognitive points associated to repeated head accidents.

“That’s a tough no,” LaVergne added. “His complete physique, together with his mind, shall be cremated.”

Information of the cremation and the request to check his mind was first reported by the New York Post.

LaVergne, who’s now serving because the executor of Simpson’s property, mentioned there are tentative plans for a “celebration of life” gathering restricted to shut family and friends. Simpson had three children along with his first spouse, Marguerite Whitley, and two kids along with his second spouse, Nicole Brown Simpson, whom he divorced in 1992. In 1995, Simpson was famously acquitted within the homicide of Brown Simpson and her buddy Ronald Goldman.

LaVergne on Sunday additionally clarified feedback made to the Las Vegas Review-Journal on Friday through which he mentioned he didn’t need Goldman’s household to have the ability to gather any cash from Simpson’s property and it was “my hope that the Goldmans get zero, nothing.”

He mentioned he was referring to a debt assortment lawyer working with the Goldman household who, “inside an hour we introduced Simpson’s demise, is bashing Simpson and all these things, ‘We’re going to do that and that.’”

“In hindsight, in response to that assertion that ‘it’s my hope they get zero, nothing,’ I feel that was fairly harsh,” LaVergne added. “Now that I perceive my position because the executor and the private consultant, it’s time to tone down the rhetoric and actually get all the way down to what my position is as a private consultant.”

As he works to calculate the price of Simpson’s property and take stock of his property and belongings, LaVergne mentioned he would invite a authorized consultant of the Goldmans to overview his findings.

“We are able to get this factor resolved in a relaxed and dispassionate method,” LaVergne mentioned.

Following Simpson’s demise, Goldman’s father, Fred Goldman, expressed no sympathy for the fallen Corridor of Fame icon turned Hollywood pitchman, telling NBC News that “it’s no nice loss to the world. It’s an additional reminder of Ron’s being gone.”Simpson, who lengthy maintained his innocence within the deaths of Brown Simpson and Goldman, died with out having paid off most of a $33.5 million wrongful demise judgment awarded in 1997 in a lawsuit filed by the victims’ households.

LaVergne mentioned he welcomes Fred Goldman and his lawyer, David Prepare dinner, making an attempt to establish some other monetary property, however with Simpson’s demise, the property should distribute cash to collectors who’ve claims “in keeping with precedence.”

“Goldman and the opposite collectors for many years now have performed, ‘Hey, if I get to seek out one thing of Simpson’s first, I get it or I get most of it,’” LaVergne mentioned.

“However be mindful, if he finds $1 million, he not will get to maintain that $1 million,” he added. “The $1 million goes to come back into the property first, after which we see the place the priorities are, after which he will get to maintain it as a result of he’s No. 8 on the listing” of priorities.

LaVergne has mentioned amongst Simpson’s money owed is cash owed to the Inner Income Service. Within the wake of the lawsuit towards him three a long time in the past, a lot of Simpson’s possessions, together with footballs, jerseys and different sports activities memorabilia, had been seized from his Brentwood property in California to repay the judgment. Simpson was dwelling in Las Vegas earlier than his demise.

Prepare dinner mentioned Sunday that there shall be intense curiosity from legal professionals for numerous events searching for restitution as Simpson’s funds are laid naked.

However “all people is aware of when O.J. left, he left with out penance,” Prepare dinner mentioned.

Goldman and Prepare dinner have mentioned the litigation towards Simpson was not in regards to the cash however searching for justice after his acquittal.

“It’s holding the person who killed my son and Nicole accountable,” Fred Goldman mentioned in a earlier assertion after successful his civil trial.

Simpson’s will asks that LaVergne additionally put aside cash for a “appropriate monument” at his gravesite. It additionally says that Simpson desires the doc to be administered “with out litigation or dispute,” and if any beneficiary or inheritor fails to observe that dictate, they “shall obtain, freed from belief, one greenback ($1.00) and no extra in lieu of any claimed curiosity on this will or its property.”