TWO L.A. OFFICERS CONVICTED, TWO ACQUITTED IN RODNEY KING CIVIL RIGHTS TRIAL LOS ANGELES (APRIL 17) UPI - A jury found two Los Angeles police officers guilty and two others innocent of violating the civil rights of Rodney King during his 1991 arrest and beating, it was announced Saturday.
The federal court jury of eight men and four women found Sgt. Stacey Koon, 42, guilty of permitting the use of excessive force during the March 3, 1991, arrest of King that followed a police chase when the black motorist was spotted speeding.
Laurence Powell, 30, was found guilty of using excessive force during King's arrest. Officer Theodore Briseno, 40, and fired rookie Timothy Wind, 32, were found innocent of using excessive force.
The officers, all white, were charged with violating King's civil rights to be protected from the use of excessive force during his arrest.
Before the verdict was read, U.S. District Court Judge John Davies said the jury had reached its verdict Friday at 3:35 p.m., the seventh day of deliberations. The verdict, however, was kept secret until Saturday.
Koon, the top ranking officer, shot the black motorist with a Taser stun gun and watched as the other three white officers beat King with batons and kicked him. The beating, videotaped by a bystander, stunned television news viewers around the world and shook up Los Angeles city politics.
The defendants' state trial on assault and excessive force charges ended April 29, 1992, with acquittals on all but one excessive force count against Powell. The District Attorney's Office has decided to drop that charge.
The verdicts sparked three days of rioting in Los Angeles that left 53 people dead and caused $2 billion in damages.
Los Angeles was tense as the trial drew to a close, with thousands of police and National Guard troops poised to prevent a repeat of the deadly violence.
During a Los Angeles news conference, Acting Assistant Attorney General Jim Turner, speaking for U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, said "The jury has spoken and justice has prevailed."
Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson said he felt "relief" at the guilty verdicts, but said the Rodney King case was only "one of 47,000" police brutality cases around the country. He said Los Angeles, still scarred by last year's riots, needed long-term "solutions" to help it heal.
"It was a delight that the key forces were found to be guilty, but the focus (of preparation for the verdicts) has been on law and order. The solutions must be on jobs, education and health care," said Jackson, who went to the A.M.E. church in South Central Los Angeles to hear the verdicts. A crowd gathered in the church burst into jubilant applause when the verdicts were read.
Federal prosecutors accused the officers of beating King excessively and then covering up the act with a series of lies and false police reports.
Defense attorneys claimed that the officers feared King, believing he was under the influence of PCP, a hallucinogenic drug that makes a user extremely violent. The officers said King was "aggressive and combative" during his arrest.
But prosecutors, noting he tested negative for PCP, said King never posed a threat to the officers, even though he was "drunk and acted stupid."
Koon was the only officer to testify in the federal trial. He accepted full responsibility for each and every baton blow and stomp to King's body.
Briseno refused to take the stand in this case, but prosecutors were permitted to play portions of his videotaped state trial testimony for the federal jury. He testified that Powell appeared to strike King in the head several times with his baton and that King was not resisting arrest during much of the beating.
Prosecutors presented medical evidence and eyewitnesses to show King suffered his most serious injuries from baton blows to the head. The officers contended King's facial bones were broken when he fell to the pavement.
Los Angeles Police Department policy forbids officers from intentionally clubbing a suspect in the head because of the potential for long-term or even fatal injury. None of the officers reported any blows to King's head in police reports.
Prosecutors said in closing arguments that the omission of that information demonstrates that the defendants engaged in a coverup, not realizing their actions were captured on videotape.
King, who did not testify in the state trial, captivated jurors with two days of testimony in the federal trial.
King said he was merely trying to stay alive during the beating and tried to comply with orders. He also said the officers told him to run and chanted racial epithets during the beating, an allegation denied by the defendants.
King said he was not sure whether the officers said "What's up, killer?" or "What's up, nigger?"
