EXCLUSIVE VIDEO INTERVIEWS: Why O.J. Simpson's Acquittal Suit Is Headed To A Museum
The suit that O.J. Simpson wore when he was acquitted of murdering his ex-wife and her friend Ron Goldman is being donated to the Smithsonian and RadarOnline.com spoke exclusively with Ron’s father and the lawyers about the case settlement on Monday at the Santa Monica, Calif., courthouse.
EXCLUSIVE: O.J. Simpson's "Not Guilty" Suit To Be Donated To The Smithsonian
Fred Goldman, the father of Ron, told RadarOnline.com in an exclusive interview that the results of the settlement ruled on by Judge Joseph Biederman were a negotiation process. “Our offer initially was any of the things Gilbert Mike, Simpson’s former agent was holding onto should be sold and donated to the Ron Goldman Foundation for Justice. He refused to do that. Ultimately what’s happening, per the decision there will be an effort to donate it to a museum in the memory of Ron and Nicole. It’s out of Gilbert’s hands, it’s out of the killer’s hands and neither one of them theoretically can profit from it.”
Goldman said that he is comfortable with the settlement because he did not want Gilbert to sell the suit. “I never wanted Gilbert to continue to have any opportunity to profit from that and hopefully in this case he won’t be able to.”
When asked how he felt about Simpson serving a 33-year sentence in Nevada, Goldman didn’t mince his words to RadarOnline.com: “He’s where he belongs with the rest of the trash in the world.”
The football legend was not in court, but the judge spoke to him via phone at approximately 1:45 pm PST. His attorney Ronald Slates told RadarOnline.com, “Mr. Simpson was contacted by the judge and asked that I be present and consented to this settlement and said he wanted to make absolutely certain that no one made any profit from this and that it went to a worthwhile institution and that it would in fact benefit those people who had an opportunity to look at that suit.”
Slates told RadarOnline.com how his client feels about the Goldmans. “He feels very sorry that this whole set of circumstances occurred and while he absolutely declares his innocence as the jury had said without question, he certainly has no animosity towards them.”
He revealed what Simpson is doing while serving his sentence in prison. “He’s working out and doing the best he can under very, very difficult circumstances.”
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Gilbert explained RadarOnline.com exclusively why he agreed to the settlement. “I decided to donate the suit, not make a profit from it and donated to someplace like a museum. To me, it’s part of American history.”
Fred Goldman’s lawyer David Cook also explained why they felt that the suit should be donated to the Smithsonian. “If this suit is symbolic of that moment because it really turned Mr. Simpson into a caricature of justice gone sideways then it should sit with the Smithsonian like Dillinger’s gun.”
He added: “If this is justice then there’s some justice. The suit will no longer be in the possession of Mr. Gilbert, the suit becomes a moment in American history.”
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Cook was asked whether the Smithsonian had knowledge of the settlement. “The answer is I don’t know and I don’t believe so,” he replied.
While Gilbert felt the conclusion will never be fully satisfying (“Does this accomplish anything? I don’t know. Ron and Nicole are still dead, they’re never coming back,” he remarked), Goldman’s attorney disagreed.
“I think we ended up with a settlement it kind of got there,” Cook said. “Settlements are kind of a lot like sausage – you don’t want to see how they’re made but you like the results.”