Robbery suspect arrested

Las Vegas police arrested on Saturday a man they believe accompanied O.J. Simpson during an armed robbery of two sports memorabilia dealers at the Palace Station, sources close to the investigation said.

Charges against the man, who was detained and questioned Saturday for his role in the incident, include conspiracy to commit robbery.

He was expected to be booked into the Clark County Detention Center Saturday night, sources said.

The man's name was withheld, but sources said it was not Simpson.

Sports memorabilia dealers Alfred Beardsley and Bruce Fromong said they had expected a potential buyer to walk into a Palace Station hotel room on Thursday night, when Simpson and several other men entered instead and one of the men stuck a gun in Fromong's face. Simpson and the men left with more than $75,000 in sports memorabilia, including six or seven footballs and three plaques, along with items signed by Joe Montana and baseball greats Duke Snyder and Pete Rose, according to Fromong.

Adding another twist to the investigation Saturday, Beardsley told The Associated Press that he no longer wants to press charges.

"I want this thing to go away. I have health problems," he said from Burbank, Calif.

"I have no desire to fly back and forth to Las Vegas to prosecute this," he said. "How are they going to have a witness who's on O.J.'s side?"

Fromong, who lives in North Las Vegas, told the Review-Journal that he still intends to press charges.

"I'm the one who had stuff stolen," Fromong said. "I was the one who was injured. I'm the one they need to worry about. He (Beardsley) was just a guy in the room."

Capt. James Dillon, head of the Metropolitan Police Department's Robbery/Homicide Bureau, said Simpson remained a suspect in the case and could face several felony charges, including robbery with a deadly weapon, conspiracy to commit robbery and burglary with a deadly weapon.

The Hall of Fame running back has said the items had been stolen from him and rightfully belonged to him.

While there is a chance that some of the property that was taken may have been Simpson's, Dillon said, "that doesn't mean a crime didn't occur."

Simpson, accompanied by his lawyer, is expected to make a full statement to police on Monday. He told investigators he has no plans to leave Las Vegas before that happens.

The former running back met with investigators Friday and made a statement but would not allow detectives to ask questions, Dillon said.

Fromong testified at the civil trial in the wrongful death lawsuit of Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson, in which Simpson was ordered to pay $38 million in restitution. The civil trial followed the 1994 trial in which Simpson was acquitted of the slayings.

Simpson appeared to be taking his latest run-in with the law in stride in an interview with The Los Angeles Times.

"I'm not walking around feeling sad or anything. I've done nothing wrong," he said. "I'm having a great time."

Besides, he quipped, "I thought what happens in Las Vegas stays in Las Vegas."

He told the newspaper he and his friends went to the Palace Station to reclaim personal photos, some snapped by his slain ex-wife, and football souvenirs.

The meeting was arranged by a California auctioneer who had been contacted by the prospective sellers and was suspicious about how the men had obtained the items, Simpson said. The auctioneer, Thomas Riccio, set up the meeting with the sellers, Beardsley and Fromong, Simpson said.

Simpson said he brought some "golfing buddies and some of their friends" to the meeting to help him carry his belongings out of the hotel.

He denied that he or anyone else in his group was armed, the Los Angeles Times reported.

"I'm O.J. Simpson. How am I going to think that I'm going to rob somebody and get away with it?" he said during a 20-minute interview with the newspaper. "You've got to understand, this ain't somebody going to steal somebody's drugs or something like that. This is somebody going to get his private (belongings) back. That's it. That's not robbery."

Simpson declined to identify the men who were with him, but he said they were dressed in suits and headed to a dinner party later in the evening.

The incident happened the night before the release of Simpson's new book, "If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer." It includes a chapter in which Simpson describes how he would have killed his wife and Goldman if he had carried out the crimes.

The book was selling briskly, according to online book vendors. Simpson will not profit from it after a federal bankruptcy judge awarded the rights to the Goldman family to pay off his debt from the wrongful death lawsuit.