Charges urged over web posting of O.J.'s If I Did It

The family of murder victim Ron Goldman is urging contempt charges against gossip website TMZ.com after it posted a manuscript of O.J. Simpson's If I Did It.

The manuscript was posted for about 10 minutes on Tuesday, lawyers for the website have said.

On Wednesday, excerpts from the book are still on the website as part of a news story.

At an emergency hearing in Miami, U.S. bankruptcy Judge A. Jay Cristol heard from lawyer's for Goldman's family requesting the contempt citation.

Goldman was killed along with Simpson's wife, Nicole Brown Simpson. Simpson has always denied involvement in the killings and was acquitted on criminal charges.

TheGoldman family, who won a wrongful death civil suit against Simpson,gained rights to the book in another lawsuit.

The judge said he would schedule a second hearing to determine whether to hold TMZ in contempt.

TMZ is a joint venture ofAmerica Online Inc. and a Time Warner Co. subsidiary, and could be held financially liable for any violation.

O.J. Simpson told the Associated Press on Wednesday he had nothing to do with TMZ postingthe manuscript and that he never saw a final copy of his book, which was cancelled before it was published.

"The book was stopped and the only people who made this book come back are the Goldmans, and TMZ also profited," Simpson said in a telephone interview.

"If the book is out on the internet, I wish they would tell me where it is."

The Goldman family plans to rewrite the book and put it out under the title Confessions of a Double Murderer. A judge last week ordered all copies turned over to them.

Goldman attorney Paul Battista said TMZ's posting of the manuscript on Tuesday violated that court order and may do irreparable harm to the family's attempt to benefit financially from it.

"I can't tell you how distraught the Goldmans are to hear that this hit the internet for free," Battista said.

TMZ lawyers argued the book has been out already on other internet sites.