O.J. Simpson Gets Bail, But Judge Doubles It to $250,000
Updated: Former football hero O.J. Simpson appeared in a Nevada court today, and was granted release on $250,000 bail prior to his upcoming trial in an armed robbery case. The amount was twice the $125,000 bail he was initially granted in the case.
Although the Clark County, Nev., district attorney sought to have Simpson held without bail until his scheduled April trial, contending that he had violated the terms of his release, his lawyer contested this claim and experts predicted beforehand that the judge would grant Simpson bail once again, according to the Los Angeles Times and the Associated Press.
The Times reports that Clark County District Court Judge Jackie Glass approved Simpson’s release on $250,000 bail, after giving him a stern lecture.
“A person is entitled to bail under the Nevada Constitution,” attorney Tom Pitaro, who teaches at the Boyd School of Law of the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, said to the Associated Press before the hearing. “But the court can, and probably will, modify the conditions of his bail to get his attention.”
As discussed in a previous ABAJournal.com post, the 60-year-old Simpson was picked up by his bail bondsman and returned to Las Vegas five days ago, after he was accused of having contacted a co-defendant in the armed robbery he is accused of committing there. He has maintained from the outset that no firearms were involved and that the incident in a Las Vegas casino hotel room last year concerned sports memorabilia that belonged to him.
Additional details of Simpson’s alleged effort to contact his co-defendant are given in an earlier Associated Press article.
Updated at 11:45 a.m., CST.
