O.J. Simpson Comes Up With Double Bail Fine And Heads For Miami
O.J. Simpson decided to head to Miami, Florida after his bail was doubled by the judge because he violated the terms of his release. Simpson was charged for armed robbery and kidnapping. “He’s on the flight,” Tom Scotto, who coordinated with four other friends to raise Simpson’s bail money in Florida, said early Thursday. “He’s really happy he got out,” Scotto said.
Simpson posted bond and was released from jail around 11 p.m. PST Wednesday, hours after Clark County District Judge Jackie Glass found the graying football star violated terms of an order barring him from contacting co-defendants when he left a profanity-laced telephone message with his bail bondsman in November to pass along to Clarence “C.J.” Stewart. When Scotto talked to Simpson the night before the bail revocation hearing, “He said, ‘Pray for me.’ That’s a first. He was really nervous she wasn’t going to let him out.”
Glass doubled Simpson’s bond to $250,000, and required him to post a 15 percent premium, or $37,500, in cash before he could be released. Galanter promised Simpson also would put up his home as collateral after the judge learned that Simpson had paid nothing toward his earlier bail.
“There’s no ‘get out of jail free card’ today,” the judge said. Simpson and two other men face trial April 7 on 12 charges, including felony kidnapping and armed robbery charges in the gunpoint holdup of two sports memorabilia dealers in September. An armed robbery conviction carries mandatory prison time. A kidnapping conviction could bring a life sentence with the possibility of parole.
Glass found Simpson through “arrogance or ignorance or both” violated terms of the order. “I don’t know Mr. Simpson what the heck you were thinking - or maybe that’s the problem - you weren’t,” Glass said. In the message, Simpson asks bondsman Miguel Pereira to tell co-defendant Stewart how frustrated Simpson was about testimony during a preliminary hearing several days earlier.
“I just want, want C.J. to know that … I’m tired of this (expletive),” Simpson was quoted as saying. “Fed up with (expletives) changing what they told me. All right?” Galanter on Wednesday denied the call was an effort by Simpson to contact Stewart. But in court, he did not contest the issue.