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Surprise, Knife Found At O.J.'s Probably Not Important
Early Friday morning, panopticon-news-agency TMZ dropped the bombshell that a dirty, rusted knife was found buried at O.J. Simpson’s house. Unsurprisingly, the already sketchy facts are becoming even less reliable as new details about just what happened almost 20 years ago are made public. In all likelihood, the new knife is probably a farce.
Per the L.A. Times, law enforcement sources say that though a full investigation is underway, the knife appears to be unconnected to the murder of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman.
In the original narrative constructed by TMZ, a construction worker found the folding buck knife buried on O.J.’s property at an ambiguous time in the past. Alarmed, the construction worker did the reasonable thing, and took the knife to an off-duty LAPD cop who just happened to be out on the street at the same time. The cop kept the knife.
But reporting from the L.A. Times this morning challenges new information, notably that this happened in 2003 and that the off-duty LAPD cop was actually a retired LAPD officer who did try to turn the knife in.
In their version of events, a construction worker discovered the knife in 2003 while working on the property where O.J.’s house had once stood. When he discovered the knife, he brought the knife out to where George Maycott, the retired cop, was working a security gig on a movie set.
The worker gave Maycott the knife, and Maycott allegedly immediately called LAPD’s West LA Traffic Division.
Maycott’s attorney Trent Copeland offered a dynamic recreation of the events for the Times:
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"'Hey look, I found this knife on what I think is O.J. Simpson's property. It is dirty, muddy and rusted out, but do you guys want it?’” the worker apparently said. “Within moments of receiving that knife, he called West LAPD Traffic Division," Copeland explained.
But apparently the West LA traffic cops weren’t interested, and told Maycott “O.J. Simpson has been acquitted and there is double jeopardy… there is nothing we can do.”
Satisfied with the explanation, Maycott took the knife home, somehow believing the knife that O.J. might have used had no “evidentiary value.”
LAPD Captain Andrew Neiman added that he believes the timing is “interesting” given the new knife comes so close to the surprisingly intelligent, thrilling and sensitive FX miniseries, “The People V. O.J. Simpson.”
Whatever.
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