O.J. Simpson ordered to stand trial in April

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A Las Vegas judge on Wednesday ordered O.J. Simpson and two co-defendants to stand trial in April in what prosecutors call the armed robbery of his own memorabilia from two collectors.

Clark County District Court Judge Jackie Glass set an April 7 trial date for Simpson, Clarence Stewart and Charles Ehrlich on 12 counts of conspiracy, kidnapping, robbery and burglary stemming from the September 13 incident.

The football star-turned-actor, who was acquitted of double murder in 1995, also entered a not guilty plea to the charges during the brief hearing in Las Vegas, a court spokesman said. Steward and Ehrlich also pleaded not guilty.

Simpson, 60, is accused of leading a group of men who stormed a room at the Palace Station Hotel and Casino and took his own memorabilia from two collectors, Alfred Beardsley and Bruce Fromong, at gunpoint.

Simpson's defense attorneys deny the charges, arguing that he never brandished a weapon and went to the hotel room only to retrieve his own stolen property.

He was ordered to stand trial after a hearing before another Las Vegas judge on November 14. Three other men originally charged in the case have agreed to plead guilty and testify against Simpson.

Simpson, who parlayed his fame as an athlete into a career in Hollywood, was found not guilty of the June 12, 1994, murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman after a sensational trial.

A civil court jury later found Simpson liable for the deaths and ordered him to pay $33.5 million in damages to the victims' families, a judgment that remains largely unpaid.

(Reporting by Dan Whitcomb, editing by Eric Beech)