O.J. Simpson has been arrested and released by Nevada authorities this week in relation to an armed robbery in the Palace Station hotel on the Las Vegas strip.

Thomas Riccio, a California auctioneer, said he arranged a meeting with Simpson and two other collectors, Alfred Beardsley and Bruce Fromong, to discuss the memorabilia. Upon arrival, authorities said Simpson and five others attempted to take the sports memorabilia that supposedly belonged to Simpson with the use of a firearm. Nevada police first questioned and released Simpson on Wednesday, Sept. 14 with the assurance that he would stay in Las Vegas.

The situation escalated Monday when a recorded tape of the event was leaked to the press. Riccio taped the entire event and later sent it to tmz.com, a co-owned group by Telepictures Productions and AOL. The tape identifies one of the speakers as Simpson.

According to the tape, Simpson is heard saying, “You think you can steal my s— and get away with it?” Of the accomplices that were arrested there is still one unknown. Walter Alexander and Clarence Stewart were arrested and then released Wednesday. Michael McClinton, one of the main suspects in the case, has surrendered to police, and Charles Howard Cashmore is the fifth and most recent suspect to be apprehended in this case. Police say Cashmore had several of the stolen items in his possession at the time of the arrest.

The case was complicated Wednesday with the arrest of Alfred Beardsley, one of the memorabilia sellers in the case. Authorities say Beardsley broke his probation by being in Las Vegas. Beardsley was convicted in October 2003 for stalking women in Riverside County.

The Associated Press announced Wednesday that Riccio also has a criminal record, which includes a grand larceny charge in Florida in 1984. Fromong, another victim in the case, is in intensive care at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. According to the Associated Press, hospital spokeswoman Simi Singer Fromong had a massive heart attack on Sept. 18. He is in critical condition.

This is not the first time Simpson has been involved with the law. The landmark beginning of the Simpson cases began in 1995 when he was acquitted for the slayings of ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman. Just this past summer, Simpson was ordered to pay $38 million in a wrongful death suit to the Goldman family. Simpson also had to give up his book rights to the Goldman family.

Simpson‘s version of the book, entitled, “If I Did It,” offered grisly details surrounding the deaths of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman. Original copies were destroyed after the Goldman’s court settlement. The father and sister of Goldman appeared on the Oprah Winfrey show Sept. 13, explaining why they chose to market the book.

“It’s sending him a message. He spent hours putting together this confession about how he killed Ron and Nicole, and he worked hard thinking he was going to make millions off of it, and we snatched it right out from under him,” Kim Goldman, the sister of Goldman, said to Associated Press reporters.

The Goldmans changed the title of the book to read “If I Did It: The Confessions of the Killer” and added commentary. Denise Brown, sister of Nicole, does not believe the book should have been published. The Associated Press reports that as of Thursday the book was No. 8 in sales on BarnesandNoble.com and No. 52 on Amazon.com.

James Hirsen, a law professor at Biola and a legal analyst for various stations, believes this case will be different from the case in 1995.

“I think that it’s very different from the first trial because Vegas and Nevada police have approached it knowing the mistakes, so they were careful to have all the evidence,” Hirsen said.

Hirsen said many defense lawyers are arguing that “O.J. was just getting back his own stuff.” Hirsen also said that Simpson has lost his dream team of lawyers and part of his celebrity status.

“I think he is a sociopathic narcissist who has come to believe he’s immune from any censoring of his acts,” Hirsen said.

Simpson was released Wednesday after three days in jail on a $125,000 bail. His charges include kidnapping and armed robbery. Simpson maintains his innocence and is expected to plead not guilty in the case.