Officer tried to report knife found on O.J. Simpson’s property years ago, attorney says
O.J. Simpson reacts in 1995 as he is found not guilty of murdering his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman. With him are members of his defense team, F. Lee Bailey, left, and Johnnie Cochran Jr.
The retired Los Angeles police officer given a knife found by a construction worker at O.J. Simpson’s former estate called the LAPD to report it years ago, his attorney said Friday.
When the department showed no interest, retired officer George Maycott put it in his toolbox for more than a decade, attorney Trent Copeland said.
The LAPD is investigating whether the knife is tied to the deaths of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman and is conducting a forensic examination. Department officials say at this stage they have nothing to tie the knife to the slayings.
Copeland said Maycott, who retired in 1998, was working security on a movie set in 2003 when a construction worker at the demolished estate handed him the knife.
Los Angeles police are investigating and testing a knife that was reportedly recovered on property once owned by former football star O. J. Simpson.
“ ‘Hey look, I found this knife on what I think is O.J. Simpson’s property,’ ” Copeland said. “ ‘It is dirty, muddy and rusted out, but do you guys want it?’ ... Within moments of receiving that knife, he called West LAPD Traffic Division.”
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Copeland said his client was put on hold and later told that the Simpson case was over. He was told, “O.J. Simpson has been acquitted and there is double jeopardy ... there is nothing we can do.”
Maycott took the knife home and put it in his toolbox and left it there for 15 years, Copeland said. “He thought it had no evidentiary value,” the attorney said.
Copeland said his client feels the LAPD is being dragged through the mud.
“He also doesn’t want to be portrayed as the villain here, as the bumbling cop who had evidence here and did not do anything with it ... he did ask what he should do with that knife.”
Twitter: @lacrimes
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