How OJ Simpson Gave Everyone the Slip

Authorities crafted a trick play to spring Simpson
By Linda Hervieux,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 2, 2017 7:19 AM CDT

How did OJ Simpson slip out of a Nevada prison unseen in the dead of night? Fearing another Ford Bronco-style chase, Nevada corrections officials hoodwinked media eagerly awaiting the disgraced football great's release, the Los Angeles Times reports. Simpson, 70, wasn't transferred to the usual prison preceding parole, though reporters were led to believe he would be. Instead, Simpson walked out of Lovelock Correction Center, where he has spent the last nine years. Believing assurances that inmates aren't sprung on weekends, no press were there to record the moment when Simpson was released at 12:08am on Sunday. A Corrections spokeswoman says the sneaky strategy was hatched after the department was "inundated" with media requests and "aggressive" messages that raised concerns about Simpson's safety.

But one reporter tracked down the celebrity parolee about five hours later on the road some 75 miles northwest of Las Vegas, per ESPN. Sitting in the back of a white car, Simpson spots the video camera and says, "Man, how in the ... Have y'all been ... y'all stalking me?" Asked how it feels to be out, he says, "I'm in a car for the last five hours, so how do I know how it feels to be out? … Look, I've been in nowhere USA … doing nothing. Nothing has changed in my life. What do you expect?" As to where he was headed, Simpson says, "it's none of your business. … Can I have a break here?" While his reps were silent about his future, a parole official tells the AP Simpson will settle at an undisclosed home in the Vegas area. He cannot leave the state without permission, where he will be monitored during the maximum five years he is on parole. (More OJ Simpson stories.)

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