The Los Angeles Police Department confirmed Friday that it has recovered a knife reportedly found at the former home of O.J. Simpson.
The knife was reportedly turned over to an off-duty officer in the late 1990s by a construction worker who said it was found on the property, but the knife’s existence was never disclosed to the department until recently, according to LAPD Capt. Andrew Neiman.
“He held onto it until recently when we discovered that he had it,” Capt. Neiman said. “We discovered it in the last month.”
The knife was found on the property where Simpson, a former football star, was living at the time his ex-wife Nicole Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman were stabbed to death in 1994. Simpson was charged with the slayings but acquitted of the charges in 1995. The murder weapon was never recovered.
Capt. Neiman said he was “surprised” by the actions of the officer, who failed to turn over the knife to the department and that the department is investigating the circumstances of the events.
Forensic testing of the knife is underway to determine whether it may be connected with the murders.
Capt. Neiman declined to identify the officer, who he said is now retired.
Simpson’s Rockingham estate in Brentwood was demolished in 1998.
LAPD declined to provide details on how police were alerted about the existence of the knife, but TMZ, which first broke the story, reported that a friend of the officer who still worked on the department brought the evidence to light.
According to TMZ, the retired LAPD officer wanted to put the knife on display in his home and asked a friend who worked in LAPD’s Robbery Homicide Division if he could get the department record number for the case to have it engraved on a frame for the knife. Sources told TMZ that the friend became indignant and alerted his superiors at LAPD that the retired officer had kept the knife.
Police emphasized that they are looking to identify and question the person who reportedly handed the knife over to the police officer.
Capt. Neiman said that even if the knife was linked to the homicides, that “double jeopardy would be in place,” and prosecutors would not be able to re-charge Simpson in connection with the crime.
F. Lee Bailey, who was a member of Simpson’s legal team during the murder trial, told WFXT-TV in Boston that the allegations were “ridiculous.”
“O.J. did not drop [the knife] on his property any more than he did the gloves,” Mr. Bailey said.
He went on to tell the Boston station that “a police officer holding it has destroyed any credibility you might prescribe to it. … Any police officer with half a brain would realize this knife could be important.”
The discovery comes as interest has piqued in the Simpson case with FX’s airing of the 10-part series “The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story.”
A jury found Simpson civilly liable for the slayings in 1997. He’s now imprisoned in Nevada on a robbery-kidnap conviction.
• Kellan Howell contributed to this report.
• Andrea Noble can be reached at anoble@washingtontimes.com.
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