Sometimes, in the end, all we have for people to know us is the company we keep.
Robert Kardashian, a Lawyer for O. J. Simpson, Dies at 59
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
LOS ANGELES, Oct. 2 (AP) [~] Robert Kardashian, a businessman and lawyer who was a major figure in the O. J. Simpson case, both as a friend of Mr. Simpson and as part of his legal team, died on Tuesday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 59.
He died eight weeks after learning he had cancer of the esophagus, said his former wife, Kris Jenner, who is now married to the Olympic champion Bruce Jenner.
Mr. Simpson stayed at Mr. Kardashian’s home in the days after Mr. Simpson’s former wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald L. Goldman were stabbed to death in 1994. An infamous televised police chase involving Mr. Simpson in a white Ford Bronco began after he fled Mr. Kardashian’s home.
Mr. Kardashian, who attended the University of Southern California before Mr. Simpson arrived on campus, became friends with him in the 1970’s.
“He stood by O. J. irrespective of how he felt because he felt that nobody else was standing by O. J., not because of his innocence or guilt, but because there was a friendship there,” said Larry Schiller, whose book “American Tragedy” focused on the tensions and strategies of Mr. Simpson’s legal team.
Mr. Kardashian was a collaborating source for the book but not its primary source, Mr. Schiller said.
Mr. Simpson and Mr. Kardashian had a falling out over the book and a television miniseries based on it. Mr. Simpson said Mr. Kardashian had betrayed attorney-client privilege by telling details of the case.
Mr. Kardashian was also an important figure in the case because he was seen carrying away a garment bag from Mr. Simpson’s Rockingham Avenue home the day after the double killing. In the criminal case, he asserted attorney-client privilege and was never called to testify.
Mr. Kardashian said in a 1996 ABC interview that he questioned Mr. Simpson’s innocence: “I have doubts. The blood evidence is the biggest thorn in my side; that causes me the greatest problems. So I struggle with the blood evidence.”
Mr. Simpson was acquitted in the killings but was found liable for them in a later civil trial and ordered to pay $33.5 million in damages.
Mr. Kardashian, who received his law degree in 1967 from the University of San Diego, reactivated his dormant lawyer’s license after Mr. Simpson’s arrest. As a businessman, he turned the idea to have music play between films into a company and in recent years served as president of Movie Tunes.
Mr. Kardashian is survived by his wife, Ellen Pierson, and his children from his first marriage, three daughters, Kourtney, Kimberly and Khloe, and a son, Robert.
Copyright 2003 New York Times