Goldman shrugs off critics in O.J. book plans

Fred Goldman brushes off criticism that he’s a hypocrite for now seeking to publish a book by O.J. Simpson that Goldman fought feverishly to quash nine months ago.

VIDEO: Fred Goldman discusses why he wanted the rights to O.J. Simpson's book

“We’re pursuing a judgment. I don’t have to justify anything we’re doing,” Goldman said in an interview with the Tribune. “I don’t apologize to anybody.”

Goldman is likely the best-known men’s clothing salesman in the Valley, having worked at Nordstrom at Scottsdale Fashion Square for several years.

Download Denise Brown's interview by Tribune Reporter John Leptich (MP3 - 9.45MB)

His about-face involving the publication of the controversial “If I Did It” book is being challenged by Denise Brown, whose sister Nicole Brown Simpson along with Goldman’s son, Ron, were slain on June 12, 1994.

“He is a hypocrite,” said Brown during a phone interview. “The morally right thing to do is not publish this book. The morally wrong thing to do is to publish the book and then Fred Goldman will be true to his last name — a man out for gold.”

The Goldman family plans to publish “If I Did It,” after receiving rights on July 30 from a federal bankruptcy court judge in Miami. Goldman said he’ll change the book’s title, but not its text. He may add a foreward or epilogue.

Judge A. Jay Cristol gave the Goldmans 90 percent of the gross revenue of the book to satisfy a $38 million wrongful judgment against the former football star acquitted of the slayings in 1995.

Simpson later lost civil lawsuits to the Brown and Goldman families.

Goldman said he and his daughter Kim thought the book was a “how-to” manual on committing murder. He said now that they have read parts of it, he wants it to be read. He said it’s the first asset of consequence his family has gotten its hands on in 11 years of trying.

“It’s an indictment of a murderer using his own words. It’s a confession. People need to read it,” Goldman said. “This is the beast that stabbed my son 30 times and nearly decapitated the mother of his children, and left both dead at the doorstep to his home for his children to find, potentially.”

Denise Brown, a women’s rights advocate, is seething. She hasn’t seen the book but said she has heard that a chapter in it about the slayings is quite detailed.

“I can’t even see straight when I think that Fred Goldman would use the American people and turn around and put money in his pocket,” Brown said.

Goldman said the bulk of funds raised from publishing would go to a recently formed Ron Goldman Foundation for Justice. He added that he wasn’t sure what would happen to the rest of the money, but called what the Goldmans do with it “unimportant.”

Last year, Simpson received a reported $630,000 advance from Rupert Murdoch’s NewsCorp. and HarperCollins for the book and planned two-part Fox-TV interview, which was also scrapped after public outcry. Simpson was allowed to keep the money. Goldman mounted a media campaign and created a Web site, dontpayoj.com, which helped shift public sentiment about the project.

“I guess it is a leap,” Goldman said of his about-face. “We were originally against it. We wanted to stop him from capitalizing on it. We want to do the right thing. We want to expose him for the monster that he is.”

During an online interview last week, Simpson criticized the Goldmans.

“I find it sort of hypocritical that they talked everybody in America to boycott the book: it was ‘immoral,’ it was ‘blood money,’” Simpson said. “But we now see it wasn’t ‘blood money’ if they got the money.”

Brown’s Web site, www.denisebrown.com, has a petition to stop Goldman’s effort, similar to what Goldman did last year to derail Simpson.

Under the settlement, the Brown family will get a part of the first 10 percent of gross proceeds from the book, with the Goldmans getting the rest. Lou Brown, acting as trustee for his daughter’s estate, sought 40 percent of the proceeds. Goldman said Judge Cristol heard arguments from Brown’s lawyers before denying their motion.

“For whatever reasons (the Brown family’s) choice is not to pursue judgment,” Goldman said. “I have a fiduciary right to the estate of Ron Goldman to pursue the judgment. So do the Browns to Nicole’s estate.”

Goldman said he sees no reason to reach out to the Brown family.

“She (Denise Brown) seems very clear and adamant that they’re not in favor of this,” Goldman said. “She has a right to her beliefs.”

Brown said despite anguish over losing a family member at the same time, the Goldmans and Browns never had a friendship.

“How could there be?” she said. “Fred tried to do a lot of stuff for victim’s rights but then he stopped. Why did you stop doing what’s right for victims of crime and now, all of a sudden, you’re starting it up again? Why, because you’re getting a bad rap from people? Because you’re not being honest?”

Goldman said he and Kim have continued to speak, at their own cost, to victims’ rights groups throughout the country. He realizes public sentiment can shift quickly.

“We have done the right thing for 11 years,” he said. “We’ll always feel that the only way to see some feeling of justice is to pursue this judgment. I don’t know that we’ve ever done anything that’s bad. I’m always willing to take a position and hold it up for public scrutiny.”

The Goldmans must find a publisher, market the book and bear all costs. Court-appointed bankruptcy trustee Drew Dillworth will also receive a portion of the proceeds. Goldman attorney David J. Cook told Newsweek magazine that he thinks a publisher might pay a seven-figure advance for the book.