Ronald Goldman

LAS VEGAS - On this day, there was no Johnnie Cochran. There was no brash fist-pumping former Heisman Trophy winner in a tailored suit hugging his lead defense attorney after beating murder charges in a California courtroom. After a nearly five-year absence, in which he was locked away in a northern Nevada prison cell, O.J. Simpson returned to the public spotlight Wednesday. The 65-year-old fallen football star, once known for his manic bursts of speed on the field, has been in scores of end zones, TV commercials, movie trailers and two well-publicized Los Angeles court trials.

LAS VEGAS - On this day, there was no Johnnie Cochran. There was no brash fist-pumping former Heisman Trophy winner in a tailored suit hugging his lead defense attorney after beating murder charges in a California courtroom. After a nearly five-year absence, in which he was locked away in a northern Nevada prison cell, O.J. Simpson returned to the public spotlight Wednesday. The 65-year-old fallen football star, once known for his manic bursts of speed on the field, has been in scores of end zones, TV commercials, movie trailers and two well-publicized Los Angeles court trials.

Maybe it's Hollywood's fault or maybe it's our own, but when a murder involves the rich or famous, everyone has a scenario. And we think we recognize the players. No wonder, then, that so many jumped to conclusions about Ronald Lyle Goldman as soon as the body of the handsome 25-year-old was discovered near that of Nicole Brown Simpson early one morning last month outside her Brentwood condominium. He was a waiter and sometime model.

Philip Vannatter, the Los Angeles police detective who led the investigation of the 1994 slayings of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman, has died. Vannatter died of complications from cancer Friday in Santa Clarita, his wife, Rita, said. He was 70. "He was a real blue-collar detective," O.J. Simpson prosecutor Christopher Darden said in an emotional interview Sunday. "He did his job the best he could and he was a fine detective, one of the best. " Vannatter was among the first detectives to arrive at former football star Simpson's mansion in June 1994 after the stabbing deaths of Simpson's ex-wife, Nicole, and her friend, Goldman.

Like mourners at a wake, we glide silently into two empty rows of the courtroom's spectator section, our eyes drawn immediately to the eight large charts set up on easels several feet in front of us. There, on bright azure backgrounds below titles such as "Sharp Force Injuries to Left Flank, Left Thigh and Right Chest of Mr. Goldman," is the forensic record of the slayings of Ronald Lyle Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson.

Life for Ronald Lyle Goldman was a nonstop merry-go-round of working out at a trendy gym, serving dinner at a trendy restaurant and dancing at trendy nightclubs, those who knew him said Tuesday. He had model good looks, a body sculpted by daily weightlifting sessions and tennis, and a magnetic personality that friends said made them want to hang around him, just to see what he would be up to next.

He had model good looks, a body sculpted by weightlifting and tennis, and a magnetic personality that made friends want to hang around him just to see what he would be up to next. On the surface, it seemed that Ronald Lyle Goldman was living the exciting celebrity-centered life that draws good-looking young people to Los Angeles from across the country to hover at the fringes of Hollywood as waiters, tennis coaches and fitness trainers.

Each year around this time, television networks conclude their long and frenetic scramble to discover the next hit show. But one program to emerge from this process has never been broadcast--even though executives were certain it would have rivaled the Super Bowl as a prime-time attraction, out-rating "Friends" and "ER" combined. The program is "Frogmen," and in a business desperate for hits it remains an anomaly--the blockbuster no one saw.

I consider "Cirque du O.J" in "Laugh Lines" to be in extremely poor taste. The murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman are not joke material. BETSY JOHNSON, North Hollywood

A state appeals panel Friday denied O.J. Simpson's attempt to reverse the $33.5-million wrongful-death judgment against him in the 1994 deaths of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman. The 2nd District Court of Appeal found unanimously that "the trial court did not err, and the compensatory and punitive damages are not excessive." Simpson, who was acquitted in 1995 in a Los Angeles criminal trial, was found liable for the deaths in a 1997 civil trial in Santa Monica.

As Roger Clemens watches jury selection for his perjury trial this week, America prepares for another rendition of its real-life theater: sports figures on trial. Two high-profile cases in the 1990s put the spotlight on the public disciplining of sports legends: O.J. Simpson's 1995 criminal trial, in which the Hall of Fame running back was found not guilty of murdering his former wife and her friend, and heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson's conviction on rape charges in 1992.

A Nevada Supreme Court panel on Friday denied O.J. Simpson's appeal of his armed robbery and kidnapping convictions, finding his arguments that nearly every phase of the trial was flawed "without merit. " Simpson's legal team vowed to fight the decision. "This is not the end of the game," said attorney Malcolm LaVergne. "I'm not comfortable with the decision at all. " Separately, the three-justice panel ordered a new trial for Simpson codefendant Clarence "C.J. " Stewart.

Re "Simpson guilty on all counts," Oct. 4 Kudos to the Nevada judicial system. The entire O.J. Simpson trial took about three weeks to complete. The jury deliberated only one day. The judge was a no-nonsense jurist who kept the lawyers in check and kept sidebar conferences and objections to a minimum. I have served on many juries in Los Angeles County, where jurors are lucky if they hear more than two to three hours of testimony a day and cases are usually bogged down with objections and sidebar conferences.

Expecting to sell O.J. Simpson collectibles to a wealthy buyer at a hotel here, memorabilia dealer Bruce Fromong was instead shoved, patted down and threatened with a gun by associates of the former NFL star, Fromong testified Monday. Fromong said that during the six-minute confrontation, Simpson shouted: "Don't let anybody out of this room. Nobody gets out of here." Simpson, Fromong added, accused him of stealing the memorabilia, yelling, "I thought you were a good guy!" Fromong described the scene during the opening day of Simpson's trial -- a muted event compared with his "trial of the century" in Los Angeles, where Simpson was acquitted in the 1994 slayings of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman.

O.J. Simpson's acquittal on murder charges nearly 13 years ago loomed large over the first day of jury selection in his armed robbery trial here. "If you are here and think you are going to punish Mr. Simpson for what happened in 1995, this is not the case for you," Clark County District Court Judge Jackie Glass told potential jurors Monday. She added in a no-nonsense tone that she didn't want panelists who intended "to become famous and write a book and be on TV." Glass stopped short of allowing Simpson's attorneys to ask prospective jurors whether they considered the football great a murderer.

Oprah Winfrey says she won't buy or read the O.J. Simpson book, "If I Did It," but she helped promote it Thursday by having the father and sister of Ronald Goldman on her TV talk show. Fred Goldman and his daughter, Kim, said that by seizing control of the book, they are punishing the man they believe murdered their loved one. Simpson was acquitted in 1995 of killing his ex-wife, Nicole, and her friend Ron.

A federal judge Wednesday refused to hear a lawsuit filed by the father of murder victim Ronald Goldman seeking money paid to O.J. Simpson for his book "If I Did It." Simpson was acquitted in October 1995 of murdering Nicole Brown Simpson, his former wife, and her friend Goldman. But a civil jury later returned a $33.5-million judgment against Simpson, ruling that he was liable to the victims' families for their wrongful deaths. They have not received substantial money.

Oprah Winfrey says she won't buy or read the O.J. Simpson book, "If I Did It," but she helped promote it Thursday by having the father and sister of Ronald Goldman on her TV talk show. Fred Goldman and his daughter, Kim, said that by seizing control of the book, they are punishing the man they believe murdered their loved one. Simpson was acquitted in 1995 of killing his ex-wife, Nicole, and her friend Ron.

A federal judge Wednesday refused to hear a lawsuit filed by the father of murder victim Ronald Goldman seeking money paid to O.J. Simpson for his book "If I Did It." Simpson was acquitted in October 1995 of murdering Nicole Brown Simpson, his former wife, and her friend Goldman. But a civil jury later returned a $33.5-million judgment against Simpson, ruling that he was liable to the victims' families for their wrongful deaths. They have not received substantial money.

It was a recent Friday evening at one of South Florida's trendiest restaurants, and O.J. Simpson showed up for dinner. Predictably, there was near-pandemonium. "Half of the restaurant took pictures with O.J.," said his lawyer, Yale Galanter, who was dining with Simpson. "The waiters and cooks all came out of the kitchen. They wanted to be photographed with him or get his autograph. The guy that owns the restaurant almost got into a fight over paying the bill. He wouldn't take the money."