O.J. GETS DEBT PENALTY : JURY HITS SIMPSON WITH $25 MILLION IN PUNITIVE DAMAGES.

Byline: Anne Burke Daily News Staff Writer

A jury ordered O.J. Simpson on Monday to pay $25 million in punitive damages for the killings of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman.

The judgment, a potentially crushing financial blow to Simpson, comes on top of last week's $8.5 million in compensatory damages to Goldman's father, Fred, and mother, Sharon Rufo. The judgments totaling $33.5 million exceed by $9.3 million even the highest estimate of Simpson's net worth.

The victims' families - each awarded $12.5 million - said they were relieved to put their legal ordeal behind them.

``It's something we wanted to hear for 2-1/2 years,'' Juditha Brown, mother of Nicole Brown Simpson, said as she fought back tears.

Fred Goldman, for whom the verdicts capped a long crusade to hold Simpson responsible for the killings, said the money is irrelevant.

``If I were to think of each dollar as one day in prison, I think the jury would have wanted to have him spend 33-1/2 million days in prison,'' Goldman said, adding: ``Perhaps, not enough.''

Simpson, 49, who was acquitted of murder in October 1995, was not in court for the verdict. He learned of the verdicts while watching television after a round of golf at Knollwood Country Club in Granada Hills.

According to a club bartender who refused to give her name, Simpson did not appear to be paying close attention. Friends appeared to be ribbing him about the verdict, and called on the bartender to turn up the TV volume, she said.

After reaching their verdict in the punitive damages phase, jurors said they believed without a shadow of a doubt that Simpson was a killer.

``It was 100 percent for me. I really believed Mr. Simpson was guilty,'' said a white female juror, who wore badge No. 400.

``The guy was lying on the stand,'' added a male alternate juror, badge No. 27.

An alternate juror, an African-American female who did not participate in the deliberations, disagreed. The woman, badge No. 295, said she believed evidence was planted, and ``those (Bruno Magli shoe) pictures didn't prove it to me, either.''

Simpson's friend, Leo Terrell, a civil rights attorney, decried the verdict.

``This was a wrong decision,'' Terrell said. ``This will have to be appealed. You can't grant more in punitive damages than the man has.''

The mostly white panel voted 10-2 on the $25 million judgment. The juror with badge No. 199, an African-American and Asian man in his 30s, voted against any punitive damages.

One juror, in her 20s, white and wearing badge No. 294, voted in favor of punitive damages, but thought $25 million was too much.

``I basically felt the financial situation of O.J. Simpson was possibly not as high as the plaintiffs said,'' the woman said.

The jury split the $25 million equally between the estate of Ronald Goldman, whose heirs are his father and mother, and the estate of Nicole Brown Simpson, whose heirs are her children, Sydney, 11, and Justin, 8.

Judge Hiroshi Fujisaki stayed execution of the judgment for 10 days. After that, the plaintiffs could go after Simpson's assets unless the former NFL great declares bankruptcy or posts an appeal bond valued at 150 percent of the combined $33.5 million jury award.

Legal experts said it is likely Simpson will appeal.

Before then, Simpson's chief lawyer, Robert Baker, is expected to file motions seeking a new trial and a reduction of damages. A date for a hearing in that matter has not been set.

The $8.5 million compensatory judgment goes to Ronald Goldman's parents. The Browns were not entitled to compensatory damages because of the type of lawsuit they filed.

Fujisaki may lower the awards if he finds them unreasonable. Given their high amount, legal experts said it is likely he will do so - especially with regard to punitive damages.

Civil attorney Cynthia McClain-Hill said punitive damages, by law, are supposed to punish a defendant, but not destroy him financially.

``I would be shocked if that were not reduced,'' McClain-Hill said.

Simpson claimed he already was $850,000 in debt even before the verdicts. The plaintiffs, however, contend that he has been making more money than ever since the slayings, and is capable of earning $2 million to $3 million a year for the rest of his life.

The plaintiffs claim that Simpson has a current net worth of $15.7 million, largely based on his future earning potential from autograph and memorabilia sales, trademarks, and books and movie deals. Simpson's name and likeness, if sold today, would bring $25 million, according to the plaintiffs.

Simpson's lawyers, however, claim that the onetime actor, pitchman and broadcaster is a pariah who can't make a nickel off his name.

Simpson's assets include a $250,000 San Francisco condominium where his mother, Eunice, lives; his Bentley automobile; and a debt owed to him from his own Orenthal Productions. His Rockingham Avenue estate is heavily encumbered.

Simpson also has a $175,000 NFL pension and two other pensions worth a combined $4.1 million. Those are out of reach of the plaintiffs, unless Simpson borrows on them early, legal experts said.

The civil jury deliberated more than five hours over two days before reaching its decision. The panel deliberated 11 hours over three days before finding Simpson liable in the killings Feb. 4.

Criminal jurors acquitted Simpson in the June 1994 slayings because, they said, prosecutors failed to prove the murder case ``beyond a reasonable doubt.'' The civil case required only nine of 12 votes, with the basic legal standard being that Simpson committed the slayings based on a ``preponderance of the evidence.''

Because no cameras were allowed inside the courtroom during the four-month trial at the seaside Santa Monica courthouse, Monday's verdicts were announced to the world at 1:44 p.m. by newspeople who held up signs at the windows of a media trailer equipped with a courtroom audio feed.

In other developments, the lawyer who represented the children in a custody dispute between Simpson and the Browns said Sunday that police and a social worker rushed to Simpson's home on the night of the first civil trial verdict, acting on a tip that he might kill his children and himself.

The court-appointed lawyer, Marjorie Fuller, said the tip was bogus.

She said the anonymous caller claimed Sydney Simpson suggested to someone that if the verdict went against her father, he would kill her, her brother and himself.

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos, 2 boxes

PHOTO (1) Ronald Goldman

His father says money irrelevant

(2) Nicole Brown Simpson

Family awarded $12.5 million

Box: (1) Simpson's finances

(2) O.J. Simpson's legal options