O.J.'s girlfriend, Minnesota native Christie Prody, seriously hurt in fall

By PAUL WALSH , Star Tribune

Last update: February 14, 2008 - 3:02 PM

Christie Prody, the Twin Cities native who has been O.J. Simpson's longtime girlfriend, hit her head during a fall at a Miami gasoline station and was hospitalized in intensive care, a police report said.

Prody, 32, is being treated for a "significant head injury" that she suffered Monday, Baptist Hospital in Miami said this afternoon. She is in serious condition, the hospital statement said.

The Miami Herald reported that officers went to the hospital Tuesday to speak with Prody's mother, Cathy Bellmore, who in 2001 moved from Edina to Florida. Bellmore told them that her daughter and Simpson recently returned from San Antonio, where they attended a Super Bowl party.

The Herald said that investigators interviewed Simpson, and he told them that he and Prody returned from Texas on separate flights many days apart.

They took separate flights because Prody ''was unable to fly back with [Simpson] due to being intoxicated and having a dog on the flight,'' the police report said.

Simpson's attorney, Yale Galanter, told the Herald that his client was not being investigated and had nothing to do with Prody's injury.

Simpson, a Heisman Trophy winner, ex-NFL star and actor, lives near Miami and has been a tabloid staple since his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Goldman were killed in 1994. Simpson was acquitted of murder charges, but a civil jury later held him liable for the killings in a wrongful-death lawsuit.

Simpson has been dating Prody, a Brown Simpson look-alike, on and off since 1999.

Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482

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