LOS ANGELES, Oct 27 (AFP) - A friend of O.J. Simpson has been ordered to testify about the star's finances after he failed to pay millions of dollars in damages awarded over the murders of his ex-wife and her lover.
Alfred Beardsley, who recently planned and then cancelled a lucrative appearance by Simpson in California to sign autographs, said he had been subpoenaed to appear in court in Los Angeles next month to be quizzed about the former football icon's financial status.
"I understand why I've been subpoenaed," Beardsley said late Tuesday of his summons to appear in court in Los Angeles on November 23.
The subpoena was sought be lawyers for the father of Ron Goldman, Nicole Brown Simpson's lover who was slashed to death with her outside her Los Angeles apartment in 1994.
Simpson was famously tried and acquitted of the grisly double murder in a racially-charged criminal trial that was broadcast around the world.
But a California civil jury in 1997 ruled that he was liable for the killings and ordered him to pay 33.5 million dollars to the families of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman.
Years later, most of that judgement remains unpaid as Simpson's lawyers argued their client was broke.
And Simpson, who still maintains his innocence, has moved to the state of Florida where his four-million-dollar pension from when he was a professional footballer cannot be seized to pay the damages he still owes.
But the Goldman family has not given up its quest to wring the money out of Simpson.
Attorney Peter Csato, who represents Goldman's father Fred, said he wanted Beardsley to testify in an attempt to collect the damages from Simpson.
In court documents, Csato said Beardsley "has knowledge" of Simpson's "financial condition" and of his "non-exempt property, which may be ordered to be applied to the satisfaction of the judgment."
He added that Beardsley may have control of property belonging to Simpson.
Beardsley said he had arranged an autograph signing so that fans could obtain memorabilia signed by the star. Such memorabilia can raise hefty sums of money for sportsmen.
In an interview earlier this year with NBC television, Simpson maintained that he "didn't commit the crimes" and did not think he ought to have to pay up on the civil judgement against him.
"I don't think (Goldman and others who sued him) deserve anything ... If it means giving them money for something I didn't do, I won't work," he said.
10/27/2004 18:40 GMT - AFP