Dealer robbed by OJ Simpson seeks civil damages

Monday, Sept. 14, 2009 | 2:57 p.m.

AP Photo by Jae C. Hong, Pool

Bruce Fromong displays a signed photo entered into evidence during O.J. Simpson's trial in Las Vegas, Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2008.

Sun coverage

O.J. Simpson trial

The collectibles dealer in the O.J. Simpson robbery-kidnapping case has filed a lawsuit against Simpson and his co-defendants in Clark County District Court seeking civil damages and attorneys' fees.

Simpson and his co-accused, Clarence “C.J.” Stewart, were found guilty Oct. 3 of robbing collectibles dealers Bruce Fromong and Alfred Beardsley at gunpoint on Sept 13, 2007, in a room at the Palace Station.

Fromong's lawsuit seeks general, special and punitive damages, each in excess of $10,000, as well as to recoup attorneys' fees and other costs and any additional relief "as the court may deem just and proper."

The suit was filed Friday by Fromong's Las Vegas attorney, Eliot S. Blut, of the firm Blut & Campain.

Also named in the lawsuit are Walter Alexander, Michael McClinton, Charles Ehrlich, Charles Chmore and Thomas Riccio. They are among the men said to have been present in the Palace Station hotel room when the incident took place.

Fromong is also going after several unnamed defendants.

The complaint cites severe and permanent emotional distress, anxiety, loss of sleep, nightmares, depression, hopelessness, embarrassment, humiliation and loss of self-esteem in connection with the Sept. 13 chain of events. It says the men intentionally caused emotional distress, calling the defendants' conduct "extreme and outrageous."

In addition, the lawsuit singles out Riccio for fraud. Riccio was the middleman who arranged the infamous run-in with Simpson. Riccio secretly recorded the altercation and instead of turning it over to police, he sold the audio recording to TMZ for $150,000.

Fromong is suing Riccio for punitive damages for "intentional, malicious, fraudulent and oppressive conduct."

Simpson has been sentenced to a maximum of 33 years in prison and Stewart to 27 years. Simpson will be eligible for parole in nine years, Stewart after seven and one-half.

Simpson's lawyer, Yale Galanter, calls the lawsuit frivolous and says he'll fight it "tooth and nail."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Comments
Print
E-mail
Share
- Facebook
- Fark
- Digg
- Reddit
- Stumble
Tweet

Discussion: comments so far…

Comments are moderated by Las Vegas Sun editors. Our goal is not to limit the discussion, but rather to elevate it. Comments should be relevant and contain no abusive language. Comments that are off-topic, vulgar, profane or include personal attacks will be removed. Full comments policy. Additionally, we now display comments from trusted commenters by default. Those wishing to become a trusted commenter need to verify their identity or sign in with Facebook Connect to tie their Facebook account to their Las Vegas Sun account. For more on this change, read our story about how it works and why we did it.

Only trusted comments are displayed on this page. Untrusted comments have expired from this story.

No trusted comments have been posted.

By afveteran

Sept. 14, 2009

4:42 p.m.

Flag

This is frivolous. Hate to agree with O.J.'s shyster, but he's right.
By RustyShackleford

Sept. 14, 2009

9:08 p.m.

Flag

Good luck. Fred Goldman has been trying to get money out of the OJ for years. He can't, and no one else will either, because the Juice has spent it all trying to find the "real killers."