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Tape allegedly recorded Simpson `robbery'

An apparent audiotape of the alleged armed robbery involving O.J. Simpson emerged on Monday as the disgraced US football star languished behind bars in a Las Vegas jail.

Simpson, an iconic athlete who was famously acquitted of the 1994 murders of his ex-wife and her friend, was arrested by police in the gambling haven on Sunday in connection with an incident last Thursday.

The 60-year-old was charged with two counts each of robbery with a deadly weapon and assault with a deadly weapon as well as burglary charges. If convicted he could face years in prison.

On a tape that surfaced in US media reports on Monday, a man identified as Simpson could be heard angrily confronting two dealers of sports memorabilia, who claim they were robbed at gunpoint by Simpson and a gang of associates.

"Think you can steal my shit and sell it?" the man purported to be Simpson is heard to say after telling his associates: "Don't let nobody out of here!"

Several unidentified voices are heard barking aggressive, expletive-laden demands at the victims of the heist, Alfred Beardsley and Bruce Fromong.

In interviews with US media, Simpson has insisted he is innocent, saying he was merely collecting personal possessions that had been stolen from him.

Fromong meanwhile told ABC's Good Morning America on Monday how Simpson and his associates had stormed into his hotel room.

"The door burst open and they came in commando style, O.J. Simpson and some of his people, I guess you would call it, with guns drawn," Fromong said.

"The thing in my mind as soon as I saw him, I'm thinking, `O.J., how can you be this dumb?'" he said.

Simpson spent the night in jail in Las Vegas on Sunday and was due to remain behind bars until a court hearing on Wednesday, Clark County Court judge Nancy Oesterle told reporters on Monday.

Police are also searching for four other men believed to be with Simpson during the incident.

Simpson, one of the best known US football players of his generation during the 1970s before going on to appear in several movies and television shows, was the prime suspect in the horrific 1994 murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown-Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman.

Simpson, who has vehemently denied the killings, was acquitted after a racially charged Los Angeles trial in 1995, a verdict that was greeted with widespread outrage across the US.

Simpson was later found liable for the deaths in a 1997 civil suit and was ordered to pay damages to the victims' families totaling US$33.5 million.

The father of Ron Goldman, Fred Goldman, who has campaigned relentlessly to prevent Simpson from profiting from his alleged crimes, said he had been struck by the former sports star's "arrogant swagger" following his arrest.

"I guess the first reaction I had to seeing him in handcuffs and walking was he still had that arrogant swagger about him, `I'm still in charge of the world,'" Goldman told CBS' The Early Show.

"Which is what I think this whole thing is all about. He thinks he can do whatever he wants, whenever he wants, the world is his stage and he's the master puppeteer," he said.

Last year the Goldman family led a storm of protest against Simpson's book If I Did It, a hypothetical account of the murders, before it was published.

Publication of the book was then canceled following a nationwide outcry, and the rights to it were subsequently awarded to the victim's families.

It was finally published last week and is second on Amazon's best-seller list, with all proceeds going to the victim's families.
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