Will the Juice Stay Loose?

On top of which, the alleged victims aren't entirely sympathetic. By even being in Las Vegas, Beardsley was jailed for violating a parole agreement stemming from a California stalking conviction. For his part, Fromong went on eBay, within a week of the alleged robbery, advertising other memorabilia as "IDENTICAL to the ones OJ STOLE from me!!!!!!!!" Beardsley has since said he doesn't feel victimized, but Fromong said he can prove that the Simpson memorabilia in question was rightfully his.

"It's not a case of me being after O.J. because of what happened 14 years ago, because I supported O.J. 14 years ago," Fromong told NEWSWEEK. "This is a case of right or wrong. I was wronged."

The likely after-the-fact profiteering of both Riccio and Fromong, however, will be a key element of the defense argument that Simpson is being unjustly persecuted.

"If you're going to treat it as robbery, it was a robbery that was conceived as a media event by Mr. Riccio, who received immunity and got away scot free," says Simpson-attorney, Gabriel Grasso, whose team has rejected plea offers from the district attorney because any deal would likely require prison time for Simpson. "You have the two alleged victims talking on the tape about calling 'Inside Edition' or wherever before even calling the police."

TV commentator Figler and others believe the prosecution's success depends not so much on witness testimony as on what the jury hears on Riccio's recording. If Simpson sounds menacing and out of control, the jury may be reminded of the 1994 murders and think he's a dangerous man who needs to be punished, says former prosecutor Laurie Levenson, who covered the 1995 trial for CBS News.

Yet while the specter of those famous murders will loom large, the names of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman probably won't be uttered once the jury is seated, even though some of the memorabilia taken in the incident include a tie Simpson wore during the 1995 trial. "When they select the jury, they're going to have to talk about the prior case, but the direct mention of those names once the trial has begun would be a real basis for a mistrial," says Las Vegas defense attorney David Chesnoff, who has represented Mike Tyson and Martha Stewart. "If I was the defense, I'd file a motion of in limine, asking that there be no reference to items from that trial."

Many of those whose fame was borne out of, or enhanced by, the original Simpson potboiler, will be back on the scene. The Associated Press's Linda Deutsch is serving as a pool reporter during jury selection. Dominic Dunne has put in for media credentials. Former prosecutor Marcia Clark, who was deliberately seated by Clark County court officers far away from Simpson during the preliminary trial,  to avoid a media frenzy of capturing the two former nemeses in the same frame, is expected back as a commentator for "Entertainment Tonight."

For her part, Levenson has declined offers to go to Vegas for this round. "I don't see running off to Vegas to handle this case. But even if this were in L.A., it's not as important legally," she says. "I've done my O.J. time. This is O.J. light."

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