Simpson Says 911 Call Was Misunderstanding

Jet, Nov 1, 1999

O.J. Simpson said that a call he made to 911 in Miami to get help for a woman on cocaine turned into a big misunderstanding.

Simpson called 911 and said he was trying to get help for a woman he said had been on a two-day cocaine binge with a former baseball player, police said.

He placed the call from the town house of his 26-year-old girlfriend, Christie Prody, in southwest Miami-Dade County, Florida, police said.

Miami-Dade police said Simpson was trying to get help for Prody. But Simpson and Prody later told WSVN-TV in Miami the 911 call was to get help for someone else.

"We have a problem here," Simpson was heard telling the 911 operator, according to WSVN's broadcast of the call. "I'm trying to get a girl to go to rehab.... She's been doing drugs for two days with Pedro Guerrero, who just got arrested for cocaine, and I'm trying to get her to leave her house and go into rehab right now."

Guerrero, a former Los Angeles Dodgers star, was charged with cocaine conspiracy in Miami federal court Oct. 1. Drug Enforcement Administration agents accused him of agreeing to put up the money for a nephew to buy 15 kilograms of cocaine, according to news reports. He posted $100,000 bond.

To the 911 operator, Simpson added: "This girl has spent the last two days doing drugs with him. Me and a friend just came over and said, `You're going into a rehab.' She got mad, and she just got her car and now she's loaded out of her mind in her Mustang driving around town. She needs to be stopped."

Two police officers went to Prody's town house after the 911 call and found only Simpson. He said the woman had left.

In the police report, Simpson listed Prody's address as his own. Police returned the following morning and Prody answered the door. She said she was fine and "showed no signs of injury or impairment," said police spokesman Juan DelCastillo.

The police report also said Simpson stated the couple had a "verbal dispute" before she left. Police gave Simpson a brochure on domestic violence and left.

Simpson has since denied that Prody was on the drug binge he described to police. He said that he was trying to get help for one of Prody's friends, whom he identified as "Pinky."

"Then I go to the airport to leave and, lo and behold, here comes a TV camera," he said. "I went down there to support my friends who were concerned about a missing person, and this is what happens."

Simpson was acquitted in 1995 of murdering his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman. He was later found liable for their deaths in a civil trial and was ordered to pay $33.5 million in damages.