Proof of Bias Sought in Los Angeles Beating
- New York Times, January 21, 1993

Defense lawyers for four white police officers facing a Federal civil rights trial in the beating of Rodney G. King have filed a motion saying the Government should be required to prove that the incident was racially motivated.

The motion contended that the only way the officers could be convicted of violating the civil rights of Mr. King was if the prosecution proved that they beat him because he is black. The motion was filed Tuesday with Judge John G. Davies of Federal District Court. He will preside at the trial, scheduled to start next month.

Government prosecutors, led by Steven Clymer, an assistant United States attorney, had indicated in earlier court filings that they did not intend to try to prove that the officers had any prejudice against blacks, only that the force used against Mr. King was unreasonable. One motion said, “The United States has prosecuted a multitude” of civil rights cases in which the use of unreasonable force by police officers was alleged, “without being required to prove racial animus.”

Judge Davies is expected to rule on the defense motion in the next few days. Harland Braun, the lawyer for one of the officers, Theodore J. Briseno, said that if the judge ruled in favor of the defendants, “it could mean the end of the case,” because the Government has no “evidence of racial motivation.”

Mr. Briseno’s co-defendants are Stacey C. Koon, Laurence M. Powell and Timothy E. Wind.

Addressing the issue of unreasonable force, the defense motion also said that the officers had used only that level of force that had been necessary to subdue a “PCP-crazed giant.” The motion said Mr. King had been subdued only after leading the authorities on a car chase at more than 100 miles an hour, fighting off officers and withstanding a shock from a stun gun.

“The picture of the force used on Rodney King may not be pretty, but who started the whole trail of events?” the defense lawyers said. “How much force is needed to subdue this unruly, PCP-crazed giant?”

Mr. King’s lawyer, Milton Grimes, condemned that characterization and noted that Mr. King had never tested positive for the drug PCP. The description of Mr. King, Mr. Grimes said, is a “sickening attempt to influence the public through the media with statements that have absolutely no foundation.”

The beating of Mr. King, on March 3, 1991, was videotaped by a Los Angeles resident and later broadcast nationwide. The four officers, charged with assault in a state trial, were found not guilty on virtually all counts, a verdict that spawned three days of rioting in Los Angeles last spring.