Nicole Brown Simpson: How She And Her Children Were Failed By The Legal System And Her Family

We really can’t have an entire post dedicated to Kim Kardashian’s where Nicole Brown Simpson’s death is mentioned and then not have an entire post dedicated to her. Most articles/news outlets/documentaries/any other informative source about the case of her death had her husband, OJ Simpson, as the primary subject. I, however, want to dedicated this informative article to her, as well as her friend, Ronald Goldman, who was murdered alongside her as he defended her.

If you’ve read my previous posts, and if you’ve been following me for a while, you’ll know that I use humour as a sense of distraction. This time, though, I won’t do such a thing. Humour just wouldn’t be appropriate in this situation. Domestic abuse isn’t funny. Intimate Partner Violence isn’t funny. Murder isn’t funny. The aftermath of murders isn’t funny. The grief the friends and family had to go through years after her death, and even now to this very day, isn’t funny.

If you didn’t know, Nicole Brown Simpson was OJ Simpson’s second wife. They met when Brown Simpson was an 18 year old working as a waitress, and were married between 1985 and 1992. Together they had two children, Sydney and Justin. Their relationship was anything but glorious. It was abusive, volatile, and hostile. Brown Simpson did call the police multiple times to report spousal abuse, but Simpson was only arrested once in 1989. The charges were dropped by Brown Simpson when her parents encouraged her to reconcile with Simpson.

The call Brown Simpson made to police in 1989 was on December 31. Brown Simpson told police that her husband would kill her. Police found Brown Simpson hiding in a bush half naked and badly beaten. Simpson had punched, slapped and kicked his wife. And what would Brown Simpson’s parents encourage their daughter to reconcile with someone who’d abused her, you ask? Because them staying together benefited the Brown family financially. Simpson was enabling his father-in-law to invest in a Heartz car rental facility at The Ritz Carlton at Monarch Bay, California.

Brown Simpson eventually filed for divorce in 1992. They remained co-parents and shared custody of their two children despite ongoing abuse post-divorce. Her time between 1992 and 1994 was a blissful one, as one could imagine. She moved into her own home, made friends, and rebuilt her life post-divorce. Ron Goldman was one of those new friends that she met. Goldman was a 25 year old waiter, an aspiring actor, and a volunteer who worked with children diagnosed with cerebral palsy. The duo met only six weeks before that fateful June 12th, 1994, and had a strictly platonic relationship.

On June 12th 1994, Brown Simpson was dining at the restaurant Goldman worked at with her mother. She realized her mother forgot her glasses at the restaurant, so she called Goldman to make arrangements to have them returned to her. Even though Goldman wasn’t working at the restaurant that day, he agreed to get to the restaurant and return the glasses to Brown Simpson. They made arrangements for Goldman to meet her outside her place, and at around 9:30 – 10 PM that night, they did. By midnight, the two were found deceased. It was believed that Brown Simpson was the intended target, and Goldman was killed simply because he was a witness.

And my thoughts on this matter are…

Not like anyone really cares about my thoughts on the matter anyway, but I figured I’d give my two cents regardless, especially as a woman who’d been a victim of domestic abuse and Intimate Partner Violence, and luckily, VERY luckily, survived. Even though I’d never been through anything remotely as severe as what Nicole Brown Simpson did, I still feel very much connected to her. That’s why I felt it was important to write about her.

OJ Simpson passed away on April 10th of this year, and suddenly he was in the news again. Suddenly Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman’s respective families were on the news again. Suddenly Brown Simpson’s family cared to share their two cents to discuss this tragic tale. Ron Goldman’s family spoke out to the public following Simpson’s death as well. But there’s a big difference between these two grieving families, and it’s that Goldman’s family isn’t to blame for what had happened, where Brown Simpson’s family is; at least partially, that is.

As I mentioned earlier, OJ Simpson was enabling his father-in-law to make a huge investment that would make the Brown family benefit a great deal financially speaking. That opportunity, though, cost them their daughter. Of course they knew their daughter was in danger by staying with that man, and yet they still encouraged her to reconcile with him. Money and greed became more important than their daughter’s safety. It’s not even happiness we’re talking about. We’re talking about SAFETY. How could someone ever choose money over their own child’s safety?

In hindsight…

Nicole Brown Simpson was failed. She was failed by the system AND her family. Though OJ Simpson was fully blamed for the crimes in the years since up until his death despite his acquittal, the system and her family were to blame for the two lives lost 30 years ago. The murders wouldn’t have happened if the police took Brown Simpson’s calls seriously and her family hadn’t put their greed before their daughter’s well-being. Simpson was a lot older than Brown – 12 years older. The fact that a 30 year old man was courting their 18 year old daughter should’ve been a red flag in itself.

Brown Simpson wasn’t the only of OJ Simpson’s victims. Their two kids suffered too. Their suffering began long before their mother was brutally murdered. Their suffering began as they witnessed the abuse their mother endured, as well as her not being heard and listened to by police and their mother’s family encouraging their mother to stay in an abusive relationship. And the worst part of it all was that after all the abuse that she’d endured from her ex-husband and the father of her children, she was still sharing custody with him.

In hindsight, not only did the police, the system, and Nicole Brown Simpson’s family failed her, but they failed her children as well. And Ron Goldman? He wasn’t supposed to be there. His mistake wasn’t that he became friends with Nicole Brown Simpson. It was that he was so kind and was willing to go out of his way for Nicole Brown Simpson. That was his mistake. If only he said no to Brown Simpson asking him to return her mother’s glasses, he would’ve still been alive today, and that’s the sad part of it all.

In the years that followed…

A lot happened sonce the brutal deaths of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. First, there was that infamous trial. It lasted 9 months. To everyone’s utter dissatisfaction, as well as Rob Kardashian’s utter surprise, Simpson was acquitted of all crimes. Rob Kardashian is Kim Kardashian’s father and Kris Jenner’s ex-husband. He represented OJ Simpson in the trial, which caused a rift between the family. Kris Jenner was close friends with Brown Simpson, and the two made plans to see each other on the night of the murders. Jenner gave her daughter, Kendall Jenner, the middle name ‘Nicole’ in honour of her deceased friend.

Following the criminal trial where OJ Simpson was acquitted of all charges against him in the murders of his ex-wife and her friend, a judge granted him full custody of the two children he shared with Nicole Brown Simpson. Nicole’s parents continued to fight for custody up until 2006 when Justin, the younger of the two, turned 18. They were unsuccessful. This is yet another example of how the system, the legal system in this case, failed the children.

In 1994, the Brown family launched a foundation in Nicole Brown Simpson’s name, and named it The Nicole Brown Charitable Foundation. It was cut back on grant making after a low amount of donations made and mismanagement of practices. Goldman’s family also launched a charity in his name, Ron Goldman Foundation for Justice. It provides grants for organizations and programs that provide support to victims and survivors of violent crimes.

In 1997, Fred Goldman, Ron Goldman’s father, filed a civil lawsuit against OJ Simpson. It was found that Simpson was liable for the wrongful death of both Goldman and Brown Simpson. It was found that Simpson owed Goldman’s parents $33 million. In 2008, Simpson was jailed for an unrelated armed robbery at a hotel in Las Vegas. Goldman’s parents were both present at the trial, and were very much satisfied with the end result. Simpson served 9 years in prison, and was released on parole in 2017.

‘If I Did It: Confessions Of A Killer’

To pay off his debt, OJ Simpson wrote a book, ‘If I Did It: Confessions Of A Killer’, which was a detailed personal accounts of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman had he committed the murders. In part, Simpson writes in the book, ‘Nicole. Jesus. I looked down and saw her on the ground in front of me, curled up in a fetal position at the base of the stairs, not moving. Goldman was only a few feet away, slumped against the bars of the fence. He wasn’t moving either. Both he and Nicole were lying in giant pools of blood. I had never seen so much blood in my life. It didn’t seem real, and none of it computed. (Page 81 of ‘If I Did It: Confessions Of A Killer’)

Many believe that this book was a confession rather than a reenactment of what would’ve been. In some versions of the book, the word ‘If’ is omitted from the title of the published book. No matter the case, after a decade of fighting the civil lawsuit in order to get that $33 million, it was determined by the law that Ron Goldman’s family would get all rights to the book. With that being said, the parents of Ron Goldman, Fred and Kim Goldman, the copyright, media rights, and movie rights. And to make sure that Simpson wouldn’t be able to make a single dime from the book, the Goldmans acquired his name, likeness and life story.

Nicole Brown Simpson’s sister, Denise Brown, criticized the Goldmans for publishing the book and went as far as accusing them of profiting from the deaths of their son and her sister. I personally find that it’s very big of her to even say that considering her own parents profited from Nicole Brown Simpson’s relationship with OJ Simpson, and encouraged their daughter to stay in an abusive relationship that eventually killed her for their own financial gain.

Fred and Kim Goldman didn’t care of the opinions of Denise Brown, nor anyone else for that matter. With the money they received from the proceedings of the book, the parents of Ron Goldman contributed a portion of the money to the Ron Goldman Foundation for Justice, which provides grants to organizations and programs that provide resources to victims and survivors of violence, something that the Brown family did, but were deemed unsuccessful.

In the media…

As I mentioned in my previous post, Ryan Murphy made an entire series about OJ Simpson’s trial in 2016 called ‘The People v. OJ Simpson: American Crime Story’. The series starred Cubs Goodning Jr. as OJ Simpson and David Schwimmer as Robert Kardashian’s Sr. According to Kim, the show was very well done and was accurate, with minor changes made. The filmmakers even rented the house where Kardashian’s and the rest of her siblings, with the exception of Kendall and Kylie Jenner, grew up.

Also in 2016, filmmaker Ezra Edelman produced and directed a five-part documentary series called ‘O.J: Made in America’. Fred Goldman appeared in the series. The documentary was a success and received critical acclaim. It won an Academy Award for Best Documentary at the 89th Academy Awards in 2017. When he accepted his award, Edelman dedicated the award to both Brown Simpson and Goldman.

Other not as well-known movies and works of art were made about the case, like made-for-TV movies and short films. An upcoming thriller film based on the case, ‘The Juice’, starring Boris Kodjoe as OJ Simpson and Charlotte Kirk as Nicole Brown Simpson is set to be released in 2025.

Recent years…

In 2022, Fred Goldman revealed that OJ Simpson still owed him $96 million. That’s with the consideration of today’s money worth, as well as interest. When Simpson passed away of cancer in April, Goldman’s statement read, ‘The only thing I have to say is that today is just a further reminder of how long we have missed my son, how long he’s been gone, and the only thing that is important today are the victims. That’s it.’

But it doesn’t seem the fight is over between Simpson and the Goldmans, as well as the Brown family. Following Simpson’s death, his longtime lawyer, Malcolm LaVergne, who’d been representing Simpson since 2009, was named as the executor of Simpson’s estate. Of the money still owed to the families, LaVergne told the Review-Journal, ‘It’s my hope that the Goldmans get zero, nothing. Them specifically. And I will do everything in my capacity as the executor or personal representative to try and ensure that they get nothing.’

To conclude…

The case of Nicole Brown Simpson is very personal to me. It represents what my life could’ve looked like if I’d stayed in the two abusive relationships I was involved in before I met my now-husband. The first relationship was emotionally and verbally abusive. It lasted 6 months. He was stalking me for months after I broke things off with him. When I saw him again years later, he sexually assaulted me. I didn’t say anything. I froze. I was too traumatized to move. I blocked him from ever contacting me, and I only told my husband of what happened a few weeks later. The second relationship also lasted around 6 months. It was also emotionally abusive, and then it became physically abusive. From the moment he laid his hands on me, I made plans to leave him. But he’d only himself stop wanting me after I got engaged to my now-husband.

OJ Simpson did the crime. If not with his own hands, then he hired someone to do it. We all know it. The one and only reasons Simpson got acquitted was that he had one of the best, if not the best, lawyers defending him in the trial. That’s how he knew he’d get away with it. He said so himself to Brosn Simpson, according to Caitlyn Jenner, formerly Bruce Jenner. The saddest part of it all is that no justice was served for Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman all these years later, and it doesn’t look like it will be served any time soon. I just hope that, somehow, the two victims can rest in peace. As Fred Goldman said, the victims are the ones that are important, not OJ Simpson himself.