This is a rush transcript from “Hannity & Colmes,” September 18, 2007. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
SEAN HANNITY, CO-HOST: This is a FOX News alert.
Associated Press is reporting that police say that they’ve arrested a fourth suspect in the O.J. Simpson armed robbery case. He is 49-year-old Michael McClinton, and he is described as, “a key player” in the alleged armed robbery.
McClinton arranged his surrender tonight through his attorney and is now in custody. We’re gonna bring you more details as they become available tonight.
Meanwhile, the district attorney in Clark County, Nevada, has now charged O.J. Simpson with 10 felonies, including kidnapping and conspiracy to commit kidnapping. If convicted, O.J. Simpson could potentially face life in prison. He is still being held without bail tonight and will be arraigned in Nevada tomorrow morning.
And just a short time ago, O.J.’s associate Tom Riccio appeared on FOX and, for the first time, gave our own Geraldo Rivera new details about how the now-famous audiotape was made.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GERALDO RIVERA, FOX NEWS HOST: Did you, Tom Riccio, set up O.J. Simpson? I’m getting e-mails from people who say you set him up, you led him right down the primrose path where you’d know he’d get in a jam.
THOMAS RICCIO, WITNESS OF SIMPSON HOTEL INCIDENT: I told him that there was stuff that was stolen that I was notified about, and I thought that he needed to know about it. And he wanted to get his stuff back. If that’s settin’ him up, I had no idea any of this stuff would happen. I documented it well in case someone did dispute anything that went on.
RIVERA: Why didn’t you give that tape of the break-in to the cops instead of selling it to TMZ? You could have given it to the cops and then sold it.
RICCIO: Um, in fact, that’s what I — I gave — I notified the cops at the exact minute we made the deal with TMZ. It just seemed like the best thing to do, to release it to the public rather than wait for the police to release it whenever they wanted to release.
RIVERA: But it makes you seem so greedy, man. It makes you seem greedy.
RICCIO: Um, you know, I missed out on a lot of business this week. I never got the deal done with O.J.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Our own Geraldo Rivera joins us with more details and some never-before-heard audiotapes from Riccio.
Geraldo, that’s an explosive interview here. I am hearing more and more, a lot of people saying, “Wait a minute, these guys didn’t know it was O.J. that was coming up there. This guy knew both parties were going to be there.” Is O.J. potentially building a defense here?
RIVERA: I think there’s no doubt that Simpson’s entire hopes lie in the fact, Sean, that he can impeach the credibility of these complaining witnesses. But, remember, you have three other alleged perpetrators now arrested. Those guys are going to race each other to see who can testify against O.J. Simpson first. They understand that Simpson is the true target of the Clark County district attorney now.
So you have those three as all — and if I’m not mistaken, the first two are already out on their own recognizance, which indicates that they are cooperating witnesses. The only person, as I see, in the key playing — key player in the whole drama who’s not been arrested, Tom Riccio, I really believe Riccio, weirdly, even though he is an ex-con, even though he’s been in this shady business, even though he did set up Simpson, to an extent, and videotaped everything and then sell it for major money — I won’t, you know, tell you the estimates we’ve heard, but they are in — north of six figures.
So here you have Riccio saying, “O.J., these guys have your stuff.” What does Riccio get from Simpson in exchange for his setting up this so- called sting? According to Riccio, O.J. Simpson agreed to autograph 200 copies of the book, “If I Did It,” and say in his salutation, “This book is B.S. None of it is true. Regards, O.J. Simpson.” Simpson was gonna sign 200 books for Riccio in exchange for Riccio setting up this sting where Simpson could get his stuff back.
HANNITY: All right, we’re goning to play a lot more of these tapes in just a second here, but here’s my question. And you’re an attorney, Geraldo. Simpson is told, “They have your property, your stolen goods.” The guys on the other end told by Riccio, “I have a buyer for some of your memorabilia.” He’s orchestrating all of this, and yet he’s taping all of this. It’s, It’s — I’m not defending O.J. I thought he was guilty, the evidence was overwhelming, but I’m thinking in here, at least on the surface, he’s getting an opening. “Hey, I didn’t know about the guns. I didn’t know what he was doing. I was told I was gonna pick up my stuff.”
RIVERA: That’s why the TMZ tape is so crucial, Sean, because in so far as O.J. Simpson is concerned, no crime is committed until that hotel room door bursts open, Simpson leads this posse in, of six, seven or eight men, two of them armed, and Simpson starts ordering people, “Don’t you move. You, up against the wall. Give me that phone,” rips a cell phone out of the hands of one of the alleged victims.
It is when they get to the room that Simpson’s crimes, including now false imprisonment or kidnapping, allegedly, are committed, not before the — not before they get up there. The deal, according to Riccio, was Simpson would go in the room, surprise them with his presence, and then say, “I want my stuff back or I’m gonna call the cops.”
Instead what happened is he became a “Death Wish” vigilante, if the tape is undoctored. And I really do believe it is. I have several tapes, Sean. Let me, Let me play — these tapes are between Tom Riccio and Alfred Beardsley, one of the purported victims, on the day of the incident. This is on Thursday. There’s a series of three tapes.
The first one, where Riccio says, “This is kind of like a drug deal.” Beardsley and Riccio, remember, both have checkered pasts, in terms of crime being convicts, ex-cons. So here’s the first one, Riccio, first voice you hear, Beardsley, the second.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RICCIO: What are you gonna do, a drug deal or something?
ALFRED BEARDSLEY, BUSINESS MAN AT LAS VEGAS HOTEL: Like I told him, there’s nothing illegal going on here. I said everything we’re doing is (INAUDIBLE).
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RIVERA: OK, so Beardsley is saying there’s nothing illegal here. Now here’s Riccio saying, “What if my potential buyer is O.J. Simpson?” So, again, the first voice, Riccio, second voice, Beardsley. Roll it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BEARDSLEY: Between you and I, this is the stuff O.J. personally loves. It was in his trophy room in his house. The (EXPLETIVE DELETED) guy doesn’t pay his (EXPLETIVE DELETED) bills.
RICCIO: Let me ask you this. If I can get hold of O.J., would you be interested in buying this later on from (INAUDIBLE)?
BEARDSLEY: He doesn’t pay anybody. That’s why he’s in this situation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RIVERA: He doesn’t pay anybody. That’s why they don’t want to do it, they don’t want to do the deal with O.J. Now Beardsley starts to suspect that Riccio may have been setting him up with O.J., that it may be O.J. as the surprise millionaire buyer for these stolen goods. And Beardsley is saying, “Oh, my god, if it’s O.J.” — well, listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RICCIO: I mean, the guy’s got — I’ve done business before with him. I’m not worried about it.
BEARDSLEY: What is he going to do with this stuff?
RICCIO: Why don’t you ask him when you see him?
BEARDSLEY: It’s not O.J., is it? If it is, I will…
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RIVERA: OK, and, finally, here is O.J. himself and Tom Riccio discussing Alfred Beardsley, the victim. Here’s O.J. and Riccio from Thursday:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
O.J. SIMPSON, ACCUSED OF ARMED ROBBERY: This other guy, whatever his name is…he’s just a big goof.
RICCIO: Al Beardsley? I don’t know him, other than the fact that he says he’s friends with you.
SIMPSON: He’s always trying to buy some of my clothes. He wanted to pay $3,000 for an overcoat. I haven’t seen that overcoat. Mike obviously sold it.
RICCIO: Did you ever meet that guy, Al Beardsley? You’re gonna see him tonight. He’s a big, old dude. He’s like six-foot-four or something.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RIVERA: “You will see him tonight.” Simpson says, “It’s Beardsley?” Riccio says, “You will see him tonight.”
ALAN COLMES, CO-HOST: Hey, Geraldo, it’s interesting…
RIVERA: Very interesting stuff, all of it will be evidence.
COLMES: How is a tape — now, was there a tape recorder in the room at the time? Did Riccio come in there with a tape recorder on his person? Do we know how it was set up to be taped?
RIVERA: I believe he had the recording device on his — in his hand as they went in that room. He was rolling on it. And I also think that there’s more tape to come from the room itself, because I believe they wired the room, Alan.
HANNITY: Hey, Geraldo, those words, “You will see him tonight,” I think are key, because then he went in with everything that we heard that night, so I think that is — that is going to be very difficult for O.J. Simpson to say he didn’t have knowledge of. So I think that brings it around full circle for everybody.
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