CNS - O.J. Simpson and Fred Goldman were united as defendants November 6 by a Los Angeles County man whose federal lawsuit claims they stole his ideas to create Simpson’s book “If I Did It.” Amir Pourtemour, who filed his lawsuit Tuesday in U.S. District Court in downtown Los Angeles, alleges that Simpson, Goldman, the entertainment news Website TMZ.com, the book’s ghost writer, Pablo Fenjves, and others stole elements from his 1995 book “Perfect Alibi: O.J. Simpson’s Strategy for Murder.”

Representatives for Beaufort Books, who published “If I Did It,” were not immediately available for comment.

In “If I Did It,” Simpson gives a hypothesis of how he would have killed his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Goldman’s son, Ronald, had he been guilty of their 1994 murders. Although the original 2006 release of the book was canceled due to public outcry, Fred Goldman, who won a civil judgment against Simpson for his son’s death, won the rights to the book and published it in September. Tuesday, Pourtemour said both Simpson and Goldman stole his theory that Simpson was guilty of the murders and framed the LAPD instead.

In particular, Pourtemour alleges that Simpson borrowed heavily from his book when he wrote chapters six and seven of “If I Did It,” which describe the murders and contain a transcript of Simpson’s interview with Los Angeles police officers shortly after the killings. Pourtemour claims the two chapters contain “the same premises and conclusions” in his book. Chapter Seven, in particular, contains “the same LAPD interview, word for word, complete with the same typographical errors as those which appeared in (Pourtemour’s) book,” the lawsuit said.

Pourtemour claims he made his book available to Simpson, Goldman, TMZ and the other defendants, who then misappropriated its key premises and conclusions. In 1995, Simpson was found not guilty of murdering his ex-wife and Goldman. But two years later, a Santa Monica jury found him civilly liable for their deaths. Among the unlawful activities the lawsuit alleges are copyright infringement and breach of implied contract. The lawsuit also seeks an injunction against further sales of “If I Did It,” unspecified damages and attorneys fees.

Published in : News, National

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