O.J. charges too harsh, lawyer says
Bail was set at $32,000 for Michael McClinton, whose lawyer said his client won’t be able to raise the money to get out of jail.
‘The kidnapping allegation, particularly, is fairly thin, your honor,’ lawyer Bill Terry told Justice of the Peace Joe Bonaventure Jr.
Terry suggested a possible defense on the kidnapping charge, saying the crime would require moving people against their will and noting that, according to police reports, ‘everything occurred within one room.’
Two sports memorabilia collectors accuse former NFL great Simpson and five other men of bursting into a hotel room, displaying guns, and stealing autographed footballs and other items.
Another defendant, Charles Cashmore, also made an initial appearance before Bonaventure, who ordered him held without bail pending arraignment and a bail hearing Friday.
Alfred Beardsley, 46, an accuser along with Bruce Fromong, appeared in another courtroom and told a judge he would not contest his return to custody in California on a parole violation, a court spokesman said.
Beardsley, an ex-convict from Burbank, was arrested Wednesday at a Las Vegas Strip hotel on a warrant alleging he violated parole travel restrictions by traveling to Nevada. He remained held without bail.
Fromong, 53, is recovering from a heart attack in a Los Angeles hospital.
Authorities allege the suspects went to the hotel room on the pretext of brokering a deal with Beardsley and Fromong. According to police reports, the collectors were ordered at gunpoint to hand over items valued at as much as $100,000, including football game balls signed by Simpson, Joe Montana lithographs, baseballs autographed by Pete Rose and Duke Snider and framed awards and plaques.
Searches have turned up two semiautomatic handguns used in the holdup, police said. Warrants remained sealed, a court spokesman said.
After posting bond, Simpson flew home late Wednesday to the Miami area and refused to answer reporters’ questions about the case. Simpson, who was famously acquitted in 1995 of murdering his ex-wife and her friend but found liable for the deaths in a civil trial, left the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood airport in an SUV.