LAPD (King Beating) Trial(英)

ified in my life."

　　The State Trial in Simi Valley

　　Both sides understood that jury selection could be critical to the trial outcome. The prosecution would have loved to seat some blacks——who tend to be skeptical of police practices——, but the jury pool of 260 people included only a half dozen African Americans——and five of those had no interest in serving on a jury in what they considered hostile territory. Michael Stone, attorney for Officer Powell, used a peremptory challenge to strike the one black to make it to the jury box. Even more troubling for the prosecution, all the potential jurors seemed to be very pro-law enforcement. Two jurors were N.R.A. members. Two other jurors were retired military veterans. Terry White, chief prosecutor in the case and an African-American, complained that "everyone seemed very pro-police; they all seemed to come from the same background." White later recalled thinking "we were going to lose this case." Jo-Ann Dimitrius, jury consultant for the defense, was understandably delighted with the final twelve. She called it "a gem of a jury."

　　The media underappreciated the importance of the composition of the jury. Perhaps placing too much confidence in the ability of the videotape to secure a conviction, the media failed to adequately prepare the public for the verdict that would come weeks later.

　　During his opening statement for the prosecution on March 5, 1992, Deputy District Attorney White played the entire Holliday videotape. Jurors would see the same tape over and over again before the trial was over.

　　Opening statements by the four defense attorneys revealed a split in defense strategy. Darryl Mounger, attorney for Koon, and Michael Stone, portrayed King as to blame for the beating. Mounger told jurors that "Rodney King alone was in control of the situation." On the other hand, John Barnett, attorney for Theodore Briseno, characterized Officer Powell as "out of control," and told jurors that the videotape would show his client tried to intervene to stop the beating.

　　The prosecution sa

w CHP officer Melanie Singer, as its star witness. (King would not testify. He was too drunk to remember much about the beating, and putting him on the stand would open him up to cross-examination about his prior criminal offenses. Moreover, prosecutors feared King would lose his temper during cross-examination and antagonize jurors.) Singer testified, "Officer Powell came up to the right of [King] and in a matter of seconds, he took out his baton, he had it in a power swing, and he struck the driver across the top of his cheekbone, splitting the face from the top of his ear to his chin." Asked by White whether "there any reason for the strike to the head by Officer Powell at the time he struck him," Singer answered, "In my opinion, no sir, there was no reason for it." In cross-examination, Powell's attorney, Michael Stone, tried to cast doubt upon Singer's account:

　　Stone: Well, you described in your earlier testimony……the skin was split from the ear to the chin, was that right?

　　Singer: Yes.

　　Stone: Does that [pointing to a hospital photo of King's face] appear to be sutured in that photograph?

　　Singer: No, sir.

　　Stone: Does that appear to be split in that photograph?

　　Singer: No, sir.

　　Stone: Do you have any explanation for that?

　　Singer: I saw what I saw, sir.

　　Other prosecution witnesses focused their testimony on statements by Powell that suggested his callousness——or worse. An LAPD communications officer told jurors about Powell's typed message to another officer after the beating. Two emergency room nurses testified concerning a conversation at the hospital between Powell and King. Lawrence Davis said that Powell compared the beating to "a good hardball game," and boasted that he had hit "quite a few home runs." Carol Edwards claimed also to have heard Powell's "hardball" remark, and added that he said, "'We won and you lost' or something to that effect." On cross-examination, Powell's attorneys suggested that the overheard remarks actually came from another officer.

　　The prosecution rested on March 17. Almost all of its evidence (except the videotape) had concerned just two of the four officers, Koon and——especially——Powell. The evidence against Wind was so close to non-existent that Wind's attorney, Paul DePasquale, began rethinking his original decision to put his client on the stand.

　　One of the first defense witnesses, LAPD Officer Susan Clemmer, developed the defense story of a scary suspect and scared officers. Clemmer said King spit blood at her and repeatedly laughed and said "fuck you" to officers as he lay handcuffed on the road. She quoted Powell as telling her at the time, "I was scared. The guy threw me off his back. I thought I was going to have to shoot him." Clemmer testified that later, at the emergency room, King had looked at Koon, smiled, and told the sergeant, "I love you."

　　Stacey Koon was of three defendants to take the stand. He proved to be an impressive witness. Koon testified that he had quickly identified King as dangerous, believing him to be an ex-con on PCP. He said he was "concerned" and "a little frightened" by King. He described the use of escalating force——verbal commands, swarming, use of the electric stun guns, and finally metal batons——and how they were used on the night of March 3, 1991. Koon seemed to sincerely believe that the use of force against King had been appropriate and controlled. The most effective moment in his testimony came when he was asked by Mounger, what he was "thinking at the time you saw Melanie Singer approaching with a gun in her hand?" Koon fought back tears as he answered: "They show you a picture when you are in the Academy [taken] at the morgue, and it is four [highway patrol] officers in full uniform that are on a slab and they are dead, and it is the Newhall shooting."

　　In a frame-by-frame analysis of the videotape, expert witness Serge

ant Charles Duke backed up Koon's contention that only reasonable force was used against King. Duke, a critic of LAPD policy banning use of chokeholds, suggested that the King incident showed the inevitable result of a policy that left the police with few viable options short of deadly force. Duke said it was sometimes necessary "to break a bone" and that every one of the fifty-six baton swings shown on the videotape was justified.

　　The defense, it would turn out, won its case with Koon and Duke. After Duke left the stand, it was mostly downhill.

　　Laurence Powell nervously offered lengthy answers to the questions from his attorney, Michael Stone. He told jurors, "I was completely in fear for my life, scared to death that [if] this guy got back up, he was going to take my gun away from me." On cross-examination, Terry White sarcastically questioned Powell about his "Gorillas in the Mist" message:

　　White: Now this call that involved these African Americans, was it in a jungle?

　　Powell: In a what?

　　White: A jungle?

　　Powell: No.

　　White: Was it at the zoo?

　　Powell: No.

　　White: Were there any gorillas around?

　　Powell: I didn't see any.

　　Later in the cross-examination, after Powell offered a "just-following-orders" defense for this actions, White forced Powell to concede "Everybody out there was responsible for their own actions."

　　Defendant Theodore Briseno turned out to be a better witness for the prosecution than any witness called in their own case. He told jurors that he thought Powell "was out of control" and had "a look I'd never seen before." In Briseno's opinion, the beating was "excessive." He said that he yelled to Powell to "get the hell off" King, but that Powell ignored him. "It was like he moved, they hit him," Briseno testified. "I just didn't understand what was going on out there……It didn't make any sense to me."

　　The only use of force shown on the videotape involving Briseno was a single stomp on King's shoulders at about the time Powell was reaching for his handcuffs. Briseno testified that the stomp was an effort to get King down so that the other officers would stop their clubbing. He said he stomped on King——rather than put his knee on him, as LAPD policy dictates——because he feared getting accidentally struck by a baton if he lowered himself to his knees.

　　In his closing argument, Terry White argued that the videotape showed Powell intentionally hitting King in the head and lying twenty-six times in his police report or testimony. King held up Briseno's black boots used to stomp King and told jurors Briseno "just got caught up in the frenzy." Ridiculing Koon's description of the arrest and a "managed and controlled use of force," White called the affair "a managed and controlled cover-up."

　　White saved his real theatrics for his rebuttal. Moving quickly across the courtroom, White came within a few feet of a startled Laurence Powell and pointed a finger directly in his face. "This is the man," White shouted. "Look at him." Judge Stanley Weisberg ordered White back to his podium.

　　In his closing, Michael Stone described his client, Laurence Powell, as a man who "stood his ground and did his duty." He suggested to jurors that they try to put themselves in the police officers' place: "These are not Robo-cops……There are no second-place ribbons in a street fight."

　　After summations by attorneys for Officers Wind and Briseno, Darryl Mounger offered his defense of Sergeant Stacey Koon. Mounger again placed all the blame for the incident on King. He reminded jurors that Koon worked with three relatively inexperienced younger

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