Cheryl Hines is friends with many Hollywood celebrities, but there’s one figure she has a particularly strange bond with: OJ Simpson.
The late football star and murder suspect, who died on April 10 at the age of 76 after a brief battle with cancer, was the subject of endless press coverage following the 1994 murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown and her friend Ron Goldman. prior to Simpson’s trial. allegedly killed the two, who began opening statements in January 1995.
While talking to Mayim Bialik about her Breakdown podcast On Tuesday, Hines revealed that she had worked at the Hotel-Intercontinental in Los Angeles during the 1995 trial.
The hotel would serve as the location where the jury in the trial was confined until the trial concluded in October 1995.
During that time, Hines worked as a bartender and waitress at the Hotel-Intercontinental, which was later renamed the Omni Los Angeles Hotel.
Cheryl Hines is friends with many Hollywood celebrities, but there’s one figure she shares a particularly strange bond with: OJ Simpson; pictured April 18 in Hollywood
She revealed on Mayim Bialik’s Breakdown podcast on Tuesday that she was working; Simpson pictured during the trial on December 8, 1994
Hines was a bartender and waitress at the Hotel-Intercontinental – later renamed the Omni Los Angeles Hotel – where jurors were confined to fifth-floor suites; in the photo in 2016
The juror seizure, which lasted nearly a year, pushed many jurors to their limits, even though they could at least count on the hotel’s luxurious accommodations from the fifth-floor suites.
As part of the requirements to avoid being unduly influenced by information not presented at trial, jurors were prohibited from watching TV, reading newspapers or even calling from the hotel telephone, and had to evening curfew, according to Newsweek.
Although jurors were allowed to leave the hotel, this was only allowed when accompanied by a security guard.
Jury selection began in October 1994, and by the following month twelve jurors had been selected, along with an unusually large list of twelve alternate jurors.
It turned out to be a wise move, as ten members of the jury were dismissed for various reasons during the course of the trial, while only four from the original list were still on the jury when the jury returned its verdict in late 1995.
Hines recalled that during her stay at the Hotel-Intercontinental, she was instructed to stay away from the incarcerated jurors — who she said began to go “crazy” over time.
“I forget what floor they were on, but we weren’t allowed to go to that floor, we weren’t allowed to tell anyone they were there,” she told Bialik.
Despite having to avoid the jurors, she still saw signs of their desperation as the trial – and their isolation – continued.
Hines was not allowed to go to the jury floor or talk to them; pictured with Larry David in Curb Your Enthusiasm
Simpson stood trial in 1994 and ’95 for the murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown and her friend Ron Goldman; seen with lawyer Peter Neufeld
Jurors were not allowed to watch TV, read newspapers or make phone calls on hotel telephones, and they required a security guard to leave the hotel; Simpson with (L-R) Robert Blasier, Johnnie Cochran Jr. and Robert Shapiro in 1995
Hines recalled a hotel pianist who performed on the judges’ floor to cheer them up, saying, “They’re going crazy, they’re not going to make it”; seen with husband Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in January in Los Angeles
“One of them etched ‘help me’ in their window and you could see it. I thought, “What’s going on on that floor?” she recalled.
The hotel tried to make up for the judges’ unfortunate situation by sending one of the pianists to the fifth-floor suites to serenade them on the ivories, but Hines said the woman felt he was of little comfort to offered them.
“They’re going crazy, they’re not going to make it,” she remembered the pianist telling her after a musical session.
Hines – who is married to presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. – made it clear that she had no contact with the jurors because she was told not to go to their floor to talk to them.
However, her performance during the months-long sequestration was strong enough that her boss decided to reward her – with a stay at the same hotel where she worked.
“My manager during that trial asked me to pack a bag and keep it by my door because when they got the news that there was going to be a verdict, I had to drive straight to the hotel to check in,” she says. “I think it was the first time I stayed in a really nice hotel.”
Simpson was ultimately acquitted by the majority-black jury, and polls have shown that black Americans, a large majority of black Americans at the time, believed Simpson was innocent, while a majority of white Americans believed him guilty of his murder ex. woman and her boyfriend Goldman.
he was later found liable for their deaths in a 1997 civil lawsuit brought by Goldman’s father. Simpson was ordered to pay $33.5 million in the judgment.
Simpson was ultimately acquitted by the majority-black jury, although he was found liable for the deaths of Brown and Goldman in a subsequent civil suit; pictured in 1995
Hines revealed that her manager rewarded her for her good service by allowing her to stay at the luxury hotel as soon as the verdict was pronounced; pictured with Larry David in 2002
Simpson was sentenced to 33 years in prison in 2008 for armed robbery and kidnapping, but was released on parole in 2017 after the minimum of nine years; seen in 2013
In 2007, Simpson was arrested in Las Vegas for armed robbery and kidnapping after he and a group of men entered a hotel room and held men at gunpoint while taking sports memorabilia that Simpson claimed had been stolen from him.
After his accomplices all took plea deals, he was subsequently convicted of armed robbery and kidnapping and sentenced to 33 years in prison, although he was released on parole in 2017 after serving a minimum of nine years behind bars.
Simpson announced in May 2023 that he had been diagnosed with cancer, which was reported to be prostate cancer in February this year.
He died on April 10 at his home in Las Vegas.