Investigator: Simpson paid off witness

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 12 (UPI) -- A witness in O.J. Simpson's Las Vegas trial said the former football star paid him to alter his testimony, an investigator said.

The Los Angeles Times reported Friday that an investigator from the Clark County district attorney's office said witness Alfred Beardsley said Simpson gave him his Hall of Fame ring in exchange for altering his testimony.

"I asked what did you get to change your testimony," said investigator Bill Falkner, who worked with prosecutors to build the armed robbery and kidnapping case against Simpson, who was sentenced to nine years earlier this month.

The newspaper reported that the witness's allegation emerged at a civil court hearing in Los Angeles in which attorneys for Fred Goldman asked a judge to order Beardsley to turn over the ring to help satisfy the $33.5 million wrongful-death judgment against Simpson.

Although a jury acquitted Simpson of the 1994 murders of Goldman's son, Ron, and Simpson's ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, a civil jury found him liable for the deaths.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Gerald Rosenberg ordered Beardsley back to court next Friday to hand over the ring.