O.J. Takes Stand, Can't Stand Noise

By C. Young

10/23/2001 at 08:47 AM EDT

"The guy got behind me and he started beeping his horn and he sat on his horn," O.J. Simpson testified in his road rage trial in Miami. "It was just one constant blare of the horn. I got out of my car. I said, 'You can't do this. I got a couple kids in this car. You can't do it.' . . . He just blew up. He puffed up like a bull frog and went off." That's his side of the story, as reported by Reuters. The other guy, Jeffrey Pattinson, who lives near Simpson, says the former gridiron star ran a stop sign and flew into a rage when Pattinson honked his horn. Simpson allegedly reached into Pattinson's car and ripped his glasses off his face. Yale Galanter, Simpson's attorney, said in his opening statement that Pattinson had been spoiling for a fight. Acquitted in 1995 of the murder of his ex-wife Nichole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman, Simpson was later held responsible for their deaths in a civil trial. If convicted of felony auto burglary and misdemeanor battery in this case, Simpson could face up to sixteen years in prison.