Attorney says O.J. Simpson cremated; no public memorial planned - ESPN

LAS VEGAS — Former football star and celebrity criminal defendant O.J. Simpson was cremated Wednesday, the lawyer handling his estate said Wednesday.

Simpson died April 10 at his Las Vegas home at age 76. He had been diagnosed last year with prostate cancer.

Attorney Malcolm LaVergne told The Associated Press that he was present, along with unspecified other people, for the event at Palm Mortuary in downtown Las Vegas on Wednesday morning.

«I am able to verify that O.J. Simpson was cremated today,» LaVergne said shortly afterward. «Others were present, but I'm not disclosing who.»

He declined to provide details of the process.

A telephone message for Palm Mortuary was not immediately returned.

LaVergne is handling Simpson's trust and estate in Nevada state court. He said Simpson's cremains will be given to Simpson's children «to do with as they please, according to the wishes of their father.»

No public memorial was planned, the attorney said.

«You have to remember that they've shared O.J. with the world their entire lives,» LaVergne said Tuesday of Simpson's surviving adult children of his first marriage — Arnelle Simpson, now 55, and Jason Simpson, 53 — and the children Simpson had with ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson before she was killed in 1994: Sydney Simpson, 38, and Justin Simpson, 35.

«They have the added burden that he is one of the most famous people on the planet, and who is polarizing and who is surrounded by controversy.»

Simpson's children are the only beneficiaries of his estate, LaVergne said, adding he is now working to determine the value of Simpson's assets. He said Tuesday that Simpson did not own a home in states where he had lived — including Nevada, California and Florida.

Simpson was a