/ 16 September 2007

OJ Simpson arrested in Vegas hotel break-in

Las Vegas police arrested former football star OJ Simpson on Sunday in connection with a hotel room break-in, CNN said.

A source with the Las Vegas Police Department told CNN Simpson was taken into custody at the Palms hotel.

Celebrity website TMZ.com, citing unidentified sources, said several men broke into a memorabilia dealer’s room on Thursday night and held the dealer at gunpoint while they took memorabilia once owned by Simpson and other sports stars.

Simpson was among the men, according to the story on TMZ.com. The details could not be confirmed.

Police arrested a man who was with Simpson during the alleged armed robbery, the Las Vegas Review-Journal newspaper reported on Sunday.

Media have reported that Simpson has said he went to the hotel room to recover items that had been stolen from him.

Simpson was acquitted in 1995 of killing his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ron Goldman, in June 1994.

But a California jury later ruled in a civil suit brought by the victims’ families that he was responsible for their deaths and ordered him to pay $33,5-million in damages. — Reuters