OJ Simpson charged

LAS VEGAS – Prosecutors filed formal charges against OJ Simpson, alleging the fallen football star committed 10 felonies, including kidnapping, in the armed robbery of sports memorabilia collectors in a casino-hotel room.

Simpson was arrested on Sunday after a collector reported a group of armed men charged into his hotel room and took several items Simpson claimed belonged to him. Police reports obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press offered details on the scene.Simpson, 60, was booked on five felony counts, including suspicion of assault and robbery with a deadly weapon.District Attorney David Roger filed those charges and added five other felonies, including kidnapping and conspiracy to commit kidnapping, according to court documents.Simpson, accused along with three other men, faces the possibility of life in prison if convicted in the robbery at the Palace Station casino.He was being held without bail and was scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday.According to the charges, Simpson and the others went to the hotel room under the pretext of brokering a deal with Alfred Beardsley and Bruce Fromong, two longtime collectors of Simpson memorabilia.According to police reports, Simpson and the other men entered the room and at gunpoint ordered the longtime collectors to hand over several items once owned by Simpson.Beardsley told police that one of the men with Simpson brandished a semiautomatic pistol, frisked him and impersonated a police officer.”I’m a cop and you’re lucky this ain’t LA or you’d be dead,” the man said, according to the report.The man who arranged the meeting of the former athlete and the collectors, Tom Riccio, also told police a Simpson associate was “acting like a cop,” the report said.As his associates tried to seize cell phones, Simpson yelled and cursed the collectors, who Simpson has said were trying to sell items that had been stolen from him.The kidnapping charges filed on Tuesday accuse Simpson and three other men of detaining each of the collectors ‘against his will, and without his consent, for the purpose of committing a robbery’.The memorabilia taken from the room included football game balls signed by Simpson, Joe Montana lithographs, baseballs autographed by Pete Rose and Duke Snider and framed awards and plaques, together valued at as much as $100 000.Some of the loot was stuffed into pillow cases stripped off the bed, according to the police report.Fromong, a crucial witness, was in critical condition on Tuesday after suffering a heart attack the day before, according to a spokeswoman at Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre in Los Angeles.Simpson’s lawyer, Yale Galanter, said he planned to ask for Simpson’s release on his own recognisance.Nampa-APPolice reports obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press offered details on the scene.Simpson, 60, was booked on five felony counts, including suspicion of assault and robbery with a deadly weapon.District Attorney David Roger filed those charges and added five other felonies, including kidnapping and conspiracy to commit kidnapping, according to court documents.Simpson, accused along with three other men, faces the possibility of life in prison if convicted in the robbery at the Palace Station casino.He was being held without bail and was scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday.According to the charges, Simpson and the others went to the hotel room under the pretext of brokering a deal with Alfred Beardsley and Bruce Fromong, two longtime collectors of Simpson memorabilia.According to police reports, Simpson and the other men entered the room and at gunpoint ordered the longtime collectors to hand over several items once owned by Simpson.Beardsley told police that one of the men with Simpson brandished a semiautomatic pistol, frisked him and impersonated a police officer.”I’m a cop and you’re lucky this ain’t LA or you’d be dead,” the man said, according to the report.The man who arranged the meeting of the former athlete and the collectors, Tom Riccio, also told police a Simpson associate was “acting like a cop,” the report said.As his associates tried to seize cell phones, Simpson yelled and cursed the collectors, who Simpson has said were trying to sell items that had been stolen from him.The kidnapping charges filed on Tuesday accuse Simpson and three other men of detaining each of the collectors ‘against his will, and without his consent, for the purpose of committing a robbery’.The memorabilia taken from the room included football game balls signed by Simpson, Joe Montana lithographs, baseballs autographed by Pete Rose and Duke Snider and framed awards and plaques, together valued at as much as $100 000.Some of the loot was stuffed into pillow cases stripped off the bed, according to the police report.Fromong, a crucial witness, was in critical condition on Tuesday after suffering a heart attack the day before, according to a spokeswoman at Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre in Los Angeles.Simpson’s lawyer, Yale Galanter, said he planned to ask for Simpson’s release on his own recognisance.Nampa-AP