The family of Ron Goldman has secured a long-awaited breakthrough in their decades-long effort to collect on a wrongful-death judgment against O.J. Simpson, with the executor of Simpson's estate agreeing to pay nearly $58 million.
Malcolm LaVergne, executor of the estate, accepted Fred Goldman's creditor claim for $57,997,858.12 plus ongoing interest, TMZ reported Saturday night.
The figure represents a negotiated amount after Goldman initially sought more than $117 million — the original 1995 civil judgment plus decades of accrued interest.
LaVergne said the estate plans to pay what it can through continued auctions of Simpson's belongings and is attempting to recover stolen memorabilia.
The IRS will be paid first, followed by other approved claims, the New York Post reported.
The agreement marks a major reversal for LaVergne, who had said the Goldmans would "never" be paid.
Simpson, acquitted of murder in 1995 but found civilly liable in 1997, paid only a small fraction of the $33.5 million judgment during his lifetime.
Famed legal expert Alan Dershowitz recalled his pushing against Simpson testifying in the criminal trial in which he won his freedom and against testifying in the civil trial he lost.
"There were some, like F. Lee Bailey, who very much wanted him to testify, but in the end, he didn't," Dershowitz told Newsmax on the day Simpson died in April 2024. "He testified in a civil case, and he lost that, so I think it was the right decision not to testify in a criminal case."
Dershowitz said he, like many others, believed Simpson was guilty after the news broke that Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman had been stabbed to death outside her home in the wealthy Los Angeles neighborhood of Brentwood.
Five days after the killings, millions of Americans watched as Simpson's white Ford Bronco, driven by longtime friend Al Cowlings, led police on a slow-speed chase through Los Angeles, and Dershowitz said he also believed when he saw the chase that Simpson was guilty.
"I said to my family when I was watching, 'Looks like he's probably guilty,'" Dershowitz said. "Otherwise, why would he be running away? Also, we thought he might have tried to kill himself, but that became a very memorable moment."
After becoming a key member of Simpson's legal team in the criminal trial, Dershowitz helped raise a reasonable doubt — the famed standard against conviction in the U.S. legal system.
"Whether or not O.J. Simpson did it — and I can't comment on that; I was his lawyer — the evidence was tampered with," Dershowitz told "Greg Kelly Reports." "We know that for sure.
"We were able to prove conclusively that the blood was poured from a test tube. Also, the blood splatter evidence showed that the sock had the blood poured on it when it was laying flat, not when it was being worn by somebody."
The entire jury believed that the police tampered with a piece of evidence, and it found reasonable doubt.
"That doesn't mean he didn't do it," Dershowitz said. "That's up to everybody to decide. What it does mean is that the process was deeply flawed."
The burden of proof switched to Simpson's legal team — that Dershowitz was not a part of — in the civil trial, which Simpson lost.
Newsmax writer Eric Mack contributed to this report.
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