REMEMBER WHEN: O.J. Simpson granted parole 5 years ago
As he had hundreds of times carrying the ball for Southern California and the Buffalo Bills, O.J. Simpson finally saw daylight.
On this day five years ago in Carson City, the Nevada Parole Commission voted 4-0 to parole Simpson after he served almost nine years for a 2007 robbery in Las Vegas.
The Pro Football Hall of Famer, acquitted for the 1994 murders of former wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend, Ronald Goldman, had been serving his sentence at Lovelock Correctional Center in Northern Nevada.
According to the RJ story, Simpson apologized to Nevada for the error in judgment that led him to a Palace Station hotel room in 2007 to take back memorabilia that he said was stolen from him. Simpson said he was trying to get personal items and family photos, not signed footballs or other merchandise.
Initially, Simpson was going to live in Florida. Instead, he has lived in the Las Vegas community since his Oct. 1, 2017, release.
Since his release, Simpson has had a few headlines around town.
He sued the then-corporate owner of The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas after employees told a celebrity news site he had been banned from the property in November 2017 for being drunk and disruptive. The suit was settled in April 2021, according to an Associated Press story.
Simpson joined Twitter in June 2019; as of Wednesday, his account has nearly 891,000 followers. This was his debut post:
“Hey Twitter world, this is yours truly, coming soon to Twitter, you’ll get to read my thoughts and opinions on just about everything,” Simpson said in selfie clip. “Now, there’s a lot of fake O.J. accounts out there, so this one, @TheRealOJ32, is the only official one. This should be a lot of fun. I’ve got a little getting even to do. God bless, and take care.”
On April 8, 2020, Simpson was shown playing a round of golf at Las Vegas National during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Golf courses had escaped closures up to that point, but Gov. Steve Sisolak later included them in the shutdown.
“I thought the golfers were doing a pretty good job on the social distancing,” Simpson said in a video. “… But this is a serious situation and he’s our elected official, and I think that’s why we elected him, to make these difficult decisions.”
Contact Tony Garcia at tgarcia@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0307. Follow @TonyGLVNews on Twitter.