Vegas casino says O.J. Simpson too tarnished to defame


LAS VEGAS -- A Las Vegas Strip hotel-casino has told a judge that O.J. Simpson couldn’t have been defamed by accounts that he was drunk and disruptive before being banned from the property, because his reputation was already tarnished.

The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas cites Simpson’s criminal and civil trials in the 1994 deaths of his ex-wife and her friend in Los Angeles and his conviction and imprisonment in Nevada in a 2007 armed robbery case.

Simpson alleges he was defamed by unnamed hotel staff accounts to a celebrity website after his visit to a Cosmopolitan restaurant and lounge in November 2017.  His lawyer alleges undertones of racial bias. Cosmopolitan officials declined comment.