JAILBIRD O.J. SIMPSON is enraged because his ex-girlfriend has been arrested twice recently and he’s afraid the bad publicity will torpedo his plans to get out of prison!
The disgraced gridiron great is hoping to get a new trial, but he believes his ex-lover Christie Prody’s legal woes could keep him behind bars, say sources.
“O.J. has been trying to keep a low profile in prison because he desperately wants the judge to give him a new trial,” said a source close to the 67-year-old convict.
“When he heard Christie was back in the news, he was appalled. O.J. said, ‘That woman is making me look real bad. Every time she screws up, my name is dragged into it!’ ”
Christie, 37, dated Simpson off and on for 13 years after he was acquitted of the 1994 murders of his ex-wife Nicole and her friend Ronald Goldman.
She battled booze and drug problems during their stormy relationship, and after Simpson went to prison in 2008, she returned to her hometown near Fargo, N.D., to start a new life as a nursing assistant.
But she couldn’t beat her drug demons, and in April she was arrested for stealing painkillers from a home where she was working as an aide. Christie told cops that she was addicted to pain pills, and she was ordered to attend rehab after pleading guilty.
The single mom was busted again on Sept. 3 at a mall in Fargo after cops say she tried to snatch someone’s purse. She was being held on $10,000 bond.
“Christie was let off easy on the first theft incident, but she’s in deep trouble now,” said a source.
“With this latest arrest, I’m afraid the judge will throw the book at her and send her to prison.”
Meanwhile, Simpson is locked up in Nevada after being convicted of taking sports memorabilia at gunpoint during a confrontation in a Las Vegas hotel room. He was sentenced to up to 33 years behind bars with no possibility of parole until 2017.
BUT in October, a judge agreed to reopen the case after Simpson’s appeals attorney accused his trial lawyer, Yale Galanter, of misconduct, including Galanter’s prior knowledge that the former football Hall of Famer was planning to retrieve the memorabilia.
Simpson has been optimistic that he’ll be granted bail, sources say, but now he’s worried that Christie’s arrests will hurt his chances.
“O.J. doesn’t care for Christie anymore, but he doesn’t need her making a spectacle of herself,” said the close source.
“He’s worried that her problems are going to affect his image. He said, ‘Man, I can’t believe she’s doing this to me! I finally catch a break, and here she comes screwing things up! ’
