Ten years ago, Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman were found brutally murdered, their deaths igniting the infamous “Trial of the Century” of ex-NFL football star O.J. Simpson. Although deemed not guilty, Simpson has faced much public scrutiny, which he has just recently begun to speak out against. MSNBC’s Dan Abrams sat down with Denise Brown, sister of the late Nicole Brown Simpson, to get her thoughts on Simpson and the tenth anniversary of the murders.
A silent subject
ABRAMS: Let me begin by just asking you to respond to what we heard from O.J. Simpson recently. First, he says that the two children, Sydney and Justin, never talk about it. Have you ever heard them talk about Nicole’s death or who may have been responsible?
BROWN: No. That’s something that we don’t talk about either. If that’s the case down there in Florida, I don’t know. I truly believe, and everybody knows that I believe that Simpson murdered my sister. I can understand why the children don’t want to talk about it, because out of my mouth they would hear the truth. And so I can understand that they don’t want to hear that. Why put them through more pain than they’ve already been in? They’ve lost their mother.
O.J's search for the “real killer”
ABRAMS: The Associated Press just put out an interview that they did with O.J. Simpson. It says that Simpson said he has given up his much publicized pledge to search for the real killer because of the demands of raising two teenage children and paying for their education. Your reaction?
BROWN: He’s looking for the killer. He looks at the killer every morning when he shaves or when he washes his face in his bathroom.
But besides that, he makes $25,000 a month. A lot of people make that in a year. I think if I were to make $25,000 a month I would be very happy and I would be able to put my kids through college. Now he’s asking Sydney to dip into the money that her mother left her to pay for the rest of her college tuition. And that’s a lot of money that he’s asking her to dish out because he doesn’t think that he needs to pay for it.
Because he’s a batterer, I can understand his wanting to control everything that their mother has ever left the children. He is just trying to control Nicole in one more aspect. He’s still trying to control everything that she has and everything that she left for those children and everything she loved so dearly.
ABRAMS: People say he lost this $33.5 million judgment in a civil lawsuit. How does he have money?
BROWN: It’s from his NFL pension, which is untouchable.
ABRAMS: In an interview with Greta Van Susteren, Simpson was quoted as saying he was angry with Nicole for some things, more specifically for not being around to help him take care of the children. How do you feel about those sentiments?
BROWN: Well then why did he kill her? Nicole would still be here if he wouldn’t have murdered her. Sydney and Justin were ordered by the court to go live with their father. So if he’s having problems with them, why doesn’t he send them to talk to us or her grandmother.
ABRAMS: In the other part of the quote, he seems to be saying he’s angry about who she was hanging out with, suggesting that those people may have been responsible for what happened to Nicole. What are your comments on that?
BROWN: He’s been saying that all along. He won’t admit that he murdered Nicole and Ron and I don’t think he would ever admit that unless he had a $10 billion deal going and maybe then he’d finally admit it.
Courtroom TVs helped domestic violence cause
ABRAMS: You have recently been speaking out about Marcia Clark, the prosecutor, and you have said in retrospect that you really didn’t like her a whole lot, right?
BROWN: I think Marcia Clark was a very insensitive person. I think that what she did when my sister Dominique and I walked up to her office and she had the autopsy photos there of my sister’s throat cut open, I think was horribly insensitive because we had a choice whether or not we wanted to see those photos and go into the courtroom.
But I do tell you one thing, I am very happy that the televisions were in the courtroom because nobody would have believed that O.J. Simpson was capable of abusing my sister as badly as she was abused. I don’t think the Nicole Brown Charitable Foundation would have been able to accomplish as much as we have for victims of domestic violence by traveling around the country speaking out on behalf of women and children who are running for their lives if those cameras hadn’t been in that courtroom.