Simpson is released after posting bail

LAS VEGAS - O. J. Simpson, a top athlete of his generation who went from adulation to disgrace, was released from jail yesterday after posting $125,000 bail.

A Nevada judge set bail for the former football star on charges stemming from Simpson's confrontation last week with collectors of sports memorabilia. The defense and prosecution agreed to the bail amount, which was confirmed at a brief hearing before Justice Court Judge Joseph Bonaventure.

Dressed in dark prison clothes, Simpson entered the courtroom about 8:25 a.m. His hands were cuffed in front of him. In the audience packed with journalists were some members of Simpson's family.

Simpson, who was released in the early afternoon, had been held without bail for about three days in a 7-foot-by-14-foot cell at the Clark County Detention Center. He is to return to his Florida home, his lawyer, Yale Galanter, said at a televised news conference.

Before Simpson's release, Galanter praised the prosecution for its professionalism and said he expected authorities to move quickly to free Simpson.

"They want to get him out as soon as possible," he said, noting the media hoopla.

Simpson did not talk to the media.

Galanter said the defense team, which includes local lawyer Gabriel L. Grasso, succeeded in its goal to get a "fair and reasonable bond and get Mr. Simpson to go home to his family."

Simpson, 60, and three other men face 10 felony counts including kidnapping and robbery with a deadly weapon in an incident last Thursday in a Las Vegas hotel room. If convicted, the sports star could face life in prison.

As seems typical of almost anything involving Simpson, the crowds and cameramen gathered early for the proceedings.

T-shirts with Simpson's mug shot were prominent. The shirts parodied the tourist motto, "What happens in Las Vegas, stays in Las Vegas," with the wry twist, "Get arrested in Las Vegas, stay in Las Vegas."

Simpson, who was acquitted in the deaths of former wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman, was arrested Sunday after a collector reported a group of armed men charged into his room at the Palace Station Hotel and Casino and took at least $80,000 of items that Simpson asserted belonged to him.

Also charged in the alleged armed robbery are Walter Alexander, 46, of Arizona, and Las Vegas residents Clarence Stewart, 53, and Michael McClinton, 49. Alexander was released earlier this week on his own recognizance, and his lawyer, Robert Rentzer, said he had struck a plea deal with prosecutors. Stewart posted $78,000 bail. McClinton turned himself in to police Tuesday.

"My client didn't know what O. J. was going to do [when he agreed to drive him to the Palace Station]," said Stewart's lawyer, Robert G. Lucherini.

According to his client, Lucherini said, no one in Room 1203 - where two collectors were trying to sell photos and sports memorabilia that Simpson said were stolen from him - pulled out a gun.

The four men face charges of conspiracy to commit a kidnapping; coercion with a deadly weapon; burglary while in possession of a deadly weapon; conspiracy to commit robbery; and two counts each of first-degree kidnapping with use of a deadly weapon, robbery with use of a deadly weapon, and assault with a deadly weapon. They also were each charged with one misdemeanor count of conspiracy to commit a crime.

Simpson has said he was in Las Vegas for the wedding of Thomas Scotto, 45, who was one of the initial suspects but was cleared, said Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Lieutenant Clint Nichols.

Simpson's daughter was the wedding planner, Lucherini said, and on Thursday had asked Stewart, a Simpson golfing buddy, to help her run errands. When Stewart dropped her off, Simpson jumped into Stewart's Lincoln Navigator with two other men. Simpson told Stewart that he needed a ride to reclaim his stolen property.

Thomas Riccio, a California auctioneer, has said he arranged the meeting between Simpson and collectors Alfred Beardsley and Bruce Fromong, who had possession of signed baseballs and game footballs, among other items.

Riccio surreptitiously tape-recorded the meeting and provided it to the celebrity website TMZ.com, which posted the expletive-laced confrontation Monday.

Beardsley, one of two sports memorabilia collectors Simpson is alleged to have robbed, was arrested yesterday and booked into the Clark County Detention Center.

Beardsley, 46, was being held without bail as a fugitive, according to jail records.

Authorities said Beardsley, of Burbank, Calif., was paroled in March 2006 after serving 11 months of a two-year sentence for stalking a woman in Riverside County.

He was arrested at his room at the Luxor hotel yesterday for allegedly violating parole. A California corrections spokesman said Beardsley was required to get written approval before traveling more than 50 miles from home or leaving home for more than 24 hours.

Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.