Before we get back to the summary of financial condition of Mr. Simpson and his statement of net worth, let me ask you a couple questions. You heard yesterday about the six trademarks that were applied for Mr. Simpson?
And, by the way, we've heard these assertions from Mr. Freeman, who didn't see any documents relative to expenditures, were you asked to bring one piece of paper relative to Mr. Simpson's expenditures for your testimony here today?
Were you required by that subpoena to bring one piece of paper relative to Mr. Simpson's expenditures?
Not that I recall. All I recall is that we complied completely with both the Court order ordering certain records to be produced and the personal subpoena duces tecum served on me.
All right. Now, we talked a little bit about the video situation that Mr. Simpson was in, and it wasn't a commercial success. Do you recall that?
Would you tell the ladies and gentlemen of the jury what happened relative to the marketing of that video produced by, I guess, Mr. Hoffman?
Yes. The video itself, as a production product, was considered very successful by many people. The problem was we couldn't market it very successfully, or the production company couldn't market it very successfully, because it was marketing under two sources. One, an 800 telephone line and, two, it had a budget for infomercials to be sold on television. The infomercials course -- we couldn't get one television company, not one, to take our money or the production company money to produce an infomercial to advertise the video. So we were completely blocked on one of the main sources for marketing. The other source, Mr. Baker, was the -- was the telephone, the 800 number, which as soon as that number was announced, we were flooded, that is, the operators were flooded by crank calls, people that didn't agree with the criminal verdict were blocking virtually -- blocking hundreds of thousands of calls within hours, blocking the lines from those people that wanted to get in to order the video.
When Mr. Simpson has attempted to market any type of memorabilia or sports items, have similar things occurred, i.e., blocking or demonstrations?
Well, one specifically was a show that was to be scheduled in Atlantic City where we got bomb -- where the promoter got bomb threats and threats there was going to be a mass demonstration, and the promoter finally had to cancel the show. He even attempted to move it to New Jersey and met with a similar fate.
And do you have an opinion whether it's a concentrated effort by people in the public to ensure that Mr. Simpson cannot sell any of his memorabilia?
(BY MR. BAKER) You have in the past years watched and attempted to sell some of Mr. Simpson's name and likeness to produce income for him to live on, have you not?
You have, you in your duties and responsibilities as business manager of Mr. Simpson, had occasion to become familiar with what is going on relative to preclude Mr. Simpson from marketing any memorabilia or his name and likeness?
And tell the ladies and gentlemen of the jury what your opinion is relative to whether or not there's organized members of our country trying to preclude Mr. Simpson from earning a living?
(BY MR. BAKER) What did you observe relative to the -- anything that's organized to prevent Mr. Simpson from selling sports memorabilia?
Well, in the several discussions I had with people that do promote shows for sports memorabilia --
In discussing these matters relative to their interest to promote a show where Mr. Simpson would attend, they -- they themselves felt that it wasn't worth the grief because they knew from prior experience, and they'd seen it, that there was organized and unorganized demonstrations, and it also concerned the other athletes that might also be in attendance at those shows.
(BY MR. BAKER) Okay. Now, Mr. Taft, we've heard testimony from Mr. Roesler, who's sitting here in the audience, that Mr. Simpson could earn between two and a half and three million dollars a year.
I'm sorry. It's two to three million. That's about a 50 percent difference; is that right. Two to three million.
(BY MR. BAKER) In any event, would you tell the ladies and gentlemen of the jury when Mr. Simpson had a contract with NBC, had a contract with Hertz, had an untarnished image, and was selling memorabilia, would you tell the most he earned including all of his contracts, all of his personal appearances, and sports memorabilia?
Yeah. I would say as an average, in what I would call his glory days, where he was working for NBC, he was working for Hertz, he was doing movies, he was doing television appearances, and he was selling some sports memorabilia through sports shows, maybe during that time he might have reached two and a half million dollars a year, gross. Then he had taxes of 45 percent. Then he had expenses on top of that. So it's -- it's ludicrous to say, in my opinion, that he could earn this kind of money that Mr. Roesler testified to.
And what was, approximately, your best estimate as to how --the most he ever earned on sports memorabilia in any given year?
we couldn't get one television company, not one, to take our money or the production company money to produce an infomercial to advertise the video
it's ludicrous to say, in my opinion, that he could earn this kind of money that Mr. Roesler testified to
before any of this occurred it would have been maybe 200,000
the promoter got bomb threats and threats there was going to be a mass demonstration, and the promoter finally had to cancel the show