Judge to hear O.J. Simpson casino defamation lawsuit

As per a court officer, O.J. Simpson’s defamation suit against the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas should be heard by a Nevada judge, not a private arbitrator. In the lawsuit, Simpson has blamed the Las Vegas Strip hotel-casino for floating news about him being disruptive and inebriated before they banned him from the casino’s property.

A pretrial commissioner had made a ruling on Monday to keep the defamation case in Clark County District Court in Las Vegas. Representatives of The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas did not immediately respond to messages asking if they will appeal against the ruling.

The Cosmopolitan and corporate owner Nevada Property 1 LLC makes the argument that the former football star cannot be defamed. They claim that his reputation was already tainted by his previous civil and criminal trials. O.J. had been in the news for his court appearances related to the deaths of his ex-wife and her friend decades ago. He had also hit headlines for his conviction and imprisonment in an armed robbery case back in 2007.

O.J. has accused unidentified hotel-casino staff of telling TMZ, a celebrity website, that he had been prohibited from returning to the Cosmopolitan hotel-casino in November 2017. TMZ is not involved in the defamation lawsuit.

Malcolm LaVergne, Simpson’s attorney in the case, had raised the possibility of racial bias by hotel staff in recent court proceedings.

O.J., now 72 years of age, has served 9 years in state prison for leading a group of 5 men, including 2 with guns, in an attempt to regain items that he claims belonged to him from 2 souvenir dealers in a hotel room in Las Vegas. He was freed from the prison in October 2017 and is now on parole till 2022. Simpson now lives at a golf community in Las Vegas.

The defamation lawsuit filed by Simpson acknowledges that he had received a notice from the Cosmopolitan prohibiting him from returning to the hotel-casino after he and 2 of his friends visited a lounge and a restaurant. O.J. says he does not know the reason behind the prohibition notice and denies the allegation of him being “belligerent toward staff (or) patrons,” breaking glass or damaging property.

Simpson was acquitted by a Los Angeles court in the 1994 killings of this ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman. He was later found liable for the slaying in 1997 by a California civil court that ordered him to compensate the families of the victims with $33.5 million.