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In February 2001, O.J. Simpson was arrested and charged with battery and burglary after a road rage incident two months earlier, all over him running a red light. He was accused of tearing the glasses off an irate driver, scratching his face in the process, and faced 16 years in prison if convicted; he was cleared of all charges. The same year, he was investigated and his home raided by the FBI for potentially being part of a money-laundering crime ring. Simpson was found in possession of TV pirating equipment, and was sued by a satellite network in March 2004. He was ordered to pay a fine of $25,000 plus legal costs.
One year later, Simpson was in the news again, this time after driving a power boat through a manatee zone off the coast of Miami. He was ticketed for the offence, but failed to pay the $65 fine, leading to an arrest warrant. Simpson pleaded innocent to the ticketing, and claimed through his defense attorney, Yale Galanter, that he missed an earlier hearing on the case due to a communication error. The warrant was withdrawn.
It wasn’t just tickets Simpson was averse to paying; in 2007, his name appeared alongside the singer Dionne Warwick and the comedian Sinbad on the tax delinquent list for California, on which the Franchise Tax Board shames the top 250 people owing back taxes in the state. The list showed that he owed more than $1.4 million, and that a tax lien had been filed against him in 1999.
