LOS ANGELES, United States (AFP) — Twelve years after being cleared of double murder in a trial that transfixed the world, American football legend O.J. Simpson was behind bars in Las Vegas on Sunday on armed robbery charges.
Simpson, an iconic athlete of the 1970s who became a hate figure following his acquittal for the brutal stabbings of his ex-wife and her friend in 1994, was arrested following a robbery at a hotel in the city last week, police said.
Las Vegas Police Department captain James Dillon said Simpson has been charged with two counts of robbery with a deadly weapon, two counts of assault with a deadly weapon, conspiracy to commit burglary and burglary with a fiream.
If eventually convicted Simpson could face a lengthy jail term. Each robbery charge alone is punishable by up to 30 years in prison.
"This morning after a careful review ... the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department decided to effect the arrest of O.J. Simpson," Dillon said.
Simpson, who was arrested at his hotel, was transferred in handcuffs to the Clark County Detention Center later Sunday and would spend the night in prison, reports and officials said.
He is likely to be arraigned at court sometime in the the next 48 hours.
Simpson is accused of involvment in an incident at the Palace Station casino last Thursday, when a gang of men, including at least one brandishing firearms, stormed into a hotel room and snatched sporting memorabilia from two dealers.
The dealers, Alfred Beardsley and Bruce Fromong, have been quoted as saying that Simpson was the ringleader of the group.
Simpson was initially quizzed over the incident late Thursday before being released, police said.
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times on Sunday, Simpson brushed off the incident and said he had not done anything wrong.
"I'm not walking around feeling sad or anything. I've done nothing wrong," Simpson told The Times, apparently while lounging beside a swimming pool. "I'm having a great time."
Simpson said he and some friends had gone to the hotel to reclaim personal possessions, including photos allegedly taken by Nicole Brown-Simpson -- who he is accused of murdering -- and sports souvenirs.
He explained that the meeting with the sellers of the items was set up by a friend who had been suspicious about how the items were obtained.
Simpson told the Times he accompanied some "golfing buddies and some of their friends" to the meeting to help him reclaim his belongings.
He denied that he or anyone else in his group was armed.
"I'm O.J. Simpson. How am I going to think that I'm going to rob somebody and get away with it?" he said.
"You've got to understand, this ain't somebody going to steal somebody's drugs or something like that. This is somebody going to get his private (belongings) back. That's it. That's not robbery."
Simpson's arrest followed a series of raids carried out by police following the arrest of an associate of the former football star on Friday.
Dillon said information gleaned from Walter Alexander, who has also been charged with armed robbery, led directly to Simpson's arrest.
During the raids at separate undisclosed locations two guns and sporting memorabilia were recovered by detectives, Dillon said. Four other men who were with Simpson during the alleged robbery are being hunted, he added.
Simpson, one of the most famous American football players of his generation during the 1970s, was the prime suspect in the 1994 murders of his estranged wife Nicole and her friend Ron Goldman.
Nicole, who had filed for divorce from Simpson in 1992 citing his "abusive behavior," was attacked so savagely that she was almost decapitated.
Simpson, who has always vehemently denied the killings, was acquitted of them after a racially charged Los Angeles trial in 1995, a verdict that was greeted with widespread outrage across America.
Simpson was subsequently found liable for the deaths in a 1997 civil suit and was ordered to pay damages to the victims' families totaling 33.5 million dollars.
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