Restaurant Owner Asks O.J. Simpson to Leave Steakhouse in Louisville, Kentucky

Jeff Ruby has been sickened by the attention O.J. Simpson continues to attract. So, when Simpson brought a group of his friends to Ruby's Louisville steakhouse on the eve of the Kentucky Derby, the restauranteur asked the NFL Hall of Famer to leave the establishment. And Ruby's patrons responded with a standing ovation.

Ruby, who also owns restaurants in Belterra, Indiana and Cincinnati, says he was at his Louisville location for the Kentucky Derby weekend when an employee approached him, excited that O.J. Simpson was sitting down to dinner in the restaurant. Deciding he didn't want Simpson there, Ruby went into the restaurant's Churchill Room, where he found Simpson and asked him to leave. Simpson and his party left the steakhouse quietly.

"I didn't want that experience in my restaurant," Ruby said, adding that seeing the attention O.J. Simpson attracts twelve years after his murder trial "makes me sick to my stomach." Simpson was found guilty in the murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman in 1995, but was found liable later in a civil suit. The restaurant owner added that his convictions moved him to ask The Juice to leave, saying he did it for the Brown and Goldman families. Ruby said he was did not want to serve Simpson because of "the way he continues to torture the lives of those families...with his behavior, attitude and conduct."

After Simpson and his party left, the guests in the Churchill room stood up and applauded Ruby. As he walked throughout the restaurant, patrons in the other dining rooms also got up to applaud. Ruby said he has received over 100 positive e-mails following the incident.

The walls of all three of Jeff Ruby's restaurants are adorned with photos of celebrities. A photo of Ruby and O.J. Simpson taken years ago used to hang on the walls of one restaurant. Ruby said he took it down after the deaths of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. He regards Simpson's decision to leave quietly as a classy move, saying "It was the first time since 1994 he has ever show any class."

Ruby said no one was talking about the Kentucky Derby the next day. "They were just talking about 'O.J. got thrown out of the place.'" Simpson's attorney had not returned any calls as of Tuesday evening from journalists seeking comments.