| |
 |
Simpson surrenders
|
FORMER US football star O J Simpson, who was acquitted on murder charges in the 1994 slaying of his ex-wife, surrendered to Florida authorities on Friday to face burglary and assault charges in a road rage incident.
Simpson turned himself in at a Miami-Dade County jail for booking on one misdemeanor and one felony count, his lawyers said.
Last December, a motorist told police that Simpson ran a stop sign in the Miami suburb of Kendall and then suffered a fit of road rage, berating him and ripping his eyeglasses off his face.
Simpson, who moved from Los Angeles to south Florida last year with his two children, smiled broadly as he walked through a crush of television cameras into the jail for booking.
Simpson was found not guilty by a Los Angeles jury in the knife murders of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman after a sensational trial. A civil court jury later found him liable for the deaths and ordered him to pay US$33.5 million in damages.
His lawyer, Yale Galanter, said Simpson faced charges of burglary of an occupied conveyance and simple battery.
The motorist, Jeffrey Pattinson, told police he was driving home in the suburb where Simpson bought a house last year when a black Lincoln Navigator coming from another direction ran a stop sign and cut him off.
Just down the road, the Navigator stopped and a man Pattinson recognized as Simpson got out.
"So I blew the stop sign," Simpson allegedly shouted at Pattinson. "What are you going to do? Kill me and my kids?"
After Pattinson replied, "What the hell is the matter with you?" Simpson reached through Pattinson's window and pulled off his glasses, scraping his face, according to the police report.
Pattinson told police he could hear a young girl's voice coming from the Navigator, saying: "No, Daddy. No Daddy."
Simpson denied being the aggressor at the time, telling reporters that Pattinson began honking and flashing his lights. When he approached Pattinson's Jeep and the other driver yelled at him, Simpson said, he simply walked away. (SD-Agencies)
|
|
|
|
