SANTA MONICA, Calif. -- A man who O.J. Simpson was recently convicted of robbing in Las Vegas testified Friday he never had possession of Simpson's Hall of Fame ring, which is being sought to help satisfy the $33.5 wrongful death judgment against the former football star.
Alfred Beardsley testified in a Santa Monica courtroom that he has been an avid collector of Simpson memorabilia for more than 20 years, but all the items he had never belonged to Simpson.
As for the ring, "Simpson lost it on the golf course 12 years ago. It slipped off his finger and he's been looking for it ever since," Beardsley said
Beardsley was ordered by Santa Monica Superior Court Judge Gerald Rosenberg last week to turn over the ring to help satisfy a civil court judgment against Simpson, who was sentenced on Dec. 5 to nine to 33 years in prison for a Las Vegas hotel robbery in which he claims to have been seeking to retrieve items stolen from him.
Beardsley said Friday he never had possession of the Hall of Fame ring and that it was never offered to him.
Now 61, Simpson was acquitted in 1995 of the murders of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend, Ron Goldman. But a civil court jury in 1997 found him liable for their wrongful deaths and ordered him to pay the victims' survivors $33.5 million.
Fred Goldman, Ron Goldman's father, has been seeking the ring, which has an estimated worth of $200,000, to help satisfy the judgment.
Attorneys for Fred Goldman said Friday they would ask the judge to issue "an evergreen turnover order" compelling Beardsley to give the ring to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department if he ever has possession of it.
