Countywide : Shelter Gets $10,000 From Brown Charity

The Nicole Brown Simpson Charitable Foundation has written its first check--a $10,000 donation Tuesday to an Orange County domestic abuse shelter to pay for a playground.

The play area would be named after Nicole Brown Simpson “because of her love for her children” Sydney, 8, and Justin, 6, said Jan Tyler, program director for the Human Options shelter.

Simpson and her friend Ronald Lyle Goldman were found slain June 12, 1994, outside her Brentwood condo. O.J. Simpson, her ex-husband, is standing trial on murder charges.

The charitable foundation founded seven months ago has been the subject of questions about its fund-raising and lack of contributions, despite having raised about $200,000.

The family in March ousted founding president Jeff C. Noebel amid concerns over his legal troubles.

Noebel, a 40-year-old Dallas businessman, is awaiting sentencing in federal court for lying to authorities in a savings-and-loan investment scam. Noebel also was the subject of a restraining order granted to his estranged wife and two children. Noebel has said the restraining order was a ploy in a custody battle with his wife.

At a news conference with family members at which the check was presented, Nicole Brown Simpson’s sister, Denise, said the media--including the Los Angeles Times, which reported on the foundation’s progress in a July 10 article--had overblown the controversy. She said Human Options was long targeted as the first recipient of the foundation’s money.