O.J. Simpson was driven from the Clark County Detention Center in Las Vegas on Wednesday, after a judge released the former football star on US$125,000 bail.
Simpson is charged with 11 criminal offences in connection to an alleged armed robbery last weekend at a Las Vegas hotel room.
Earlier Wednesday, the 60-year-old walked into a courtroom in a blue jumpsuit and acknowledged the charges after they were read by justice of the peace Joe Bonaventure. Simpson's lawyers and the prosecutors told Bonaventure they had reached an agreement on the bail amount.
The conditions of the bail included that Simpson:
- Surrender his passport
- Has no contact with witnesses, victims or co-defendants in the case
- Does not travel outside the U.S.
Simpson is due back in court in October.
The charges against Simpson include first-degree kidnapping, which carries the possibility of a life sentence.
Simpson claims he was only trying to reclaim sports memorabilia that belonged to him.
He had been held in protective custody since his arrest Sunday.
Allegations
Authorities allege that Simpson was part of a group of men that went to a Palace Station casino hotel room under the pretext of negotiating a deal to buy sports memorabilia from two collectors, Alfred Beardsley and Bruce Fromong.
According to police reports, Simpson and the other men entered the room at gunpoint and ordered the collectors to hand over several items that Simpson claimed belonged to him.
Beardsley told police that one of the men with Simpson had a semiautomatic pistol and was impersonating a police officer.
"I'm a cop and you're lucky this ain't L.A. or you'd be dead,'' the man said, according to the report.
The man who arranged the meeting, Tom Riccio, also told police that a Simpson associate was "acting like a cop."
In an audio recording of the incident made by Riccio, which was released on TMZ.com, a man alleged to be Simpson can be heard swearing at the collectors.
The memorabilia taken from the room included football game balls signed by Simpson, Joe Montana lithographs, baseballs autographed by Pete Rose and Duke Snider and framed awards and plaques, together valued at as much as US$100,000.
Fromong was in critical condition Tuesday after suffering a heart attack on Monday.
Two other defendants named in the complaint, Walter Alexander, 46, and Clarence Stewart, 53, were arrested and released.
Michael McClinton, 49, of Las Vegas, surrendered to police Tuesday. Police are describing him as "a key player'' in the suspected theft.
Simpson and the other three men are charged with:
- Two counts of first-degree kidnapping
- Two counts of robbery with use of a deadly weapon
- Burglary while in possession of a deadly weapon
- Two counts of assault with a deadly weapon
- Conspiracy to commit kidnapping
- Conspiracy to commit robbery
- Conspiracy to commit a crime.
Simpson also faces one charge of coercion with use of a deadly weapon, a felony.
On Monday, Stewart turned in some of the missing goods and was released on $78,000 bail.
Alexander was arrested and released Saturday without bail after agreeing to co-operate with prosecutors.
On Saturday, Simpson told The Associated Press he did not call police to help reclaim the items because authorities have been unresponsive to him ever since his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ron Goldman, were killed in 1994.
Simpson was acquitted of murder charges but a jury later found him liable for the killings in a wrongful death lawsuit.
Meanwhile, a prison visitor list for Simpson, obtained by TMZ.com, shows he has been visited by his legal team, his sister Mattie Baker, and his longtime girlfriend Christine Prody.
Prison officials say Simpson has been co-operative. A jail chaplain gave Simpson reading glasses, a Bible, and a devotional book, "The Purpose Driven Life," reported AP.
With a report from The Associated Press
