O.J. Simpson could walk free as early as Sunday
The Juice could be back on the loose as early as Sunday, a prison spokeswoman told the Daily News.
While a Sunday release would be highly unusual, Simpson is far from an average inmate, and a weekend operation could sidestep the zoo-like atmosphere that descended on his July parole hearing, she said.
“They could easily get all the paperwork done early and just take him Sunday to where he’ll be monitored,” Brooke Keast with the Nevada Department of Corrections said.
“The whole point is keeping the public safe. If we release him and he gets chased through Las Vegas, we can’t have that,” she said. “We have to worry about public safety.”
Simpson, 70, has spent the last seven years at Nevada’s Lovelock Correctional Facility for robbing two memorabilia dealers at a Las Vegas casino hotel back in 2007.
When he was granted parole, officials set Oct. 1 as the earliest possible date for his release.
Keast said most Lovelock prisoners get transferred to High Desert State Prison outside Las Vegas and have to wait through the weekend to get processed and sent for a first meeting with their parole officers.
If officials don’t release Simpson Sunday, that’s not a guarantee it will happen Monday, Keast said.
“We can hold him as long as necessary,” she said.
“We’re trying to be transparent without being stupid.”
Timing wasn’t the only wild card for anyone hoping to catch a glimpse of Simpson leaving custody.
In the end, the former football star acquitted of two murders could be released from any one of 18 facilities throughout the state, Keast said.
For his part, Simpson’s best friend Tom Scotto said he wasn’t expecting a Sunday release.
“Nah, they won’t do it over the weekend,” Scotto told The News, declining to elaborate.
Scotto said he’s spoken to Simpson in recent days and knows the former TV pitchman and actor is ready to resume his life on the outside.
“Everybody’s stomach is in knots. He’s excited. He wants out,” Scotto said.
He said Simpson “eventually” plans to end up in Florida, but “I think he’s going to have to stay somewhere else first.”
