THE SIMPSON MURDER CASE : The News Conferences : Law Enforcement Agencies Scramble to Explain and Deal With Bizarre Events of Day : DIST. ATTY. GIL GARCETTI : ‘We Saw, Perhaps, the Falling of an American Hero’

Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti was visibly upset as he strode into a packed news conference in what reporters call “the war room” at the Downtown Criminal Courts Building on Friday.

His anger, he told the eager crush of reporters, was directed at Orenthal James Simpson, who failed to surrender himself earlier in the day for arrest on charges that he killed his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and Ronald Lyle Goldman.

“We are going to find O.J. Simpson and we are going to bring him to justice,” Garcetti said confidently before opening the floor to questions.

“Who do you blame for this?” one reporter blurted above the sudden din.

“I’m not going to criticize the Los Angeles Police Department,” Garcetti shot back. “They did an outstanding job.”

No one had mentioned the LAPD.

“Now you can tell that I’m a little upset and I am upset,” he told reporters. “This is a very serious case. Many of us, perhaps, had empathy to some extent. We saw, perhaps, the falling of an American hero. To some extent, I viewed Mr. Simpson in the same way. But let’s remember. We have two innocent people who have been brutally killed. We have their families who are still with us today who are going to suffer for the rest of their lives, including the children of the Simpsons.”

Garcetti seemed to agree with reporters that Simpson was a flight risk, but a source in the district attorney’s office said the prosecutors did not think so before Friday.

A top Garcetti deputy assigned to help police with their investigation was quoted by the source as saying she was stunned when Simpson did not surrender himself for arrest.

“She said that Simpson had done everything he had been asked to do, returned from Chicago and kept in frequent touch with police,” the source said. “He had been very cooperative.”

At what should have been a moment of triumph for Garcetti--a relatively speedy decision to prosecute in a high-profile case--the Los Angeles County district attorney once again found himself defending his office’s performance.

Bombarded with criticism in recent months that deputies in his office too often fumble big cases, he testily and emphatically denied to reporters Friday that it had been prosecutors who were responsible for delaying Simpson’s arrest.

The district attorney’s office--under Garcetti and his predecessor Ira Reiner--has seen its share of controversial cases in recent years:

* Hung juries in the trial of Erik and Lyle Menendez, who admitted killing their parents at their Beverly Hills mansion in 1989.

* Not guilty verdicts against four police officers accused in the videotaped beating of Rodney G. King.

* Acquittals on most serious charges against three men charged in the beating of trucker Reginald O. Denny in first hours of the 1992 Los Angeles riots.

* Acquittals and jury deadlocks in the McMartin child molestation case after the nation’s longest and most expensive criminal trial.

On Friday, Garcetti never directly answered repeated questions as to why Simpson, at some point, was not taken into custody during the 48 hours that the law allows a suspect to be held as police investigate a crime.

Marcia Clark and David Conn, the two high-ranking deputy district attorneys assigned to help police on the Simpson case, flanked Garcetti during the news conference, but neither spoke.

When Garcetti, Conn and Clark left, the reporters descended on one of Garcetti’s press secretaries, pumping him for the slightest detail about the case.

It had been like that since midmorning, when the media got the word that charges had been filed against Simpson.

Anyone with a remote connection to the case who might have a morsel to offer was surrounded and bombarded with questions in the corridor outside Garcetti’s office, where scores of reporters and camera operators were gathering.

At one point, when they mistakenly thought Simpson was about to be arraigned, journalists rushed en masse to the courthouse’s heavily guarded security floor to line up for spots in the designated courtroom. They had to compete with county workers who also were lining up for good seats.

Later, as the media crowd once again found itself milling about outside Garcetti’s office, rumors and theories about the case swirled around.

By time reporters were allowed in the war room, a veritable feeding frenzy was under way.

When Garcetti appeared, there was barely a space in the large conference room that was not occupied by someone with a notebook or a camera.

Garcetti, normally the picture of coolness and restraint, was purposeful in his anger as he directed a message to the public.

“If you in any way assist Mr. Simpson in avoiding justice, if you assist him in any way, you are committing a felony,” he said as he began his remarks. “Think about it. You will be prosecuted as a felon.”

And at one point, Garcetti turned the attention back on his inquisitors.

“Don’t blame anyone,” he said. “I mean, look at how many people are here today. How many members of the media have been surrounding Mr. Simpson’s house and he was able to get away somehow.”