Commander Switch Called Unrelated to Beating : Police: Transferred officer, Gates and others say the move was planned a month ago.

From Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl F. Gates to rank-and-file officers, there was virtually unanimous agreement Wednesday that former Valley Bureau Cmdr. Jim Jones--transferred downtown after only six weeks on the job--should not be made the scapegoat for the videotaped beating of Rodney G. King.

As for Jones, he said Wednesday that he “didn’t like” the inferences in the media that he was being punished for the March 3 clubbing of King. Jones said he and his superiors know he had committed no wrongdoing to provoke the transfer.

In an interview Wednesday while he was packing boxes for his move today to command the Support Services Bureau, Jones said he had assured his three children and a neighbor--”who was on the verge of tears”--that he was not being punished. He said the transfer had been planned about a month ago.

“It doesn’t bother me,” he said of some of the media assumptions. “Honestly, I know what my performance as a bureau commanding officer has been.”

Jones, 49, of Newhall, has put in 27 years with the Police Department. His wife is a Los Angeles deputy city attorney.

Among Jones’ many commendations is the Police Department’s highest honor--the Medal of Valor--awarded for his actions in a shootout with five armed robbery suspects in 1968 when he was a sergeant.

Jones’ new job includes supervision of the Police Department’s crime lab, computer systems, communications, jail, records and planning and research.

“I know in a command as huge as the Valley Bureau that I reasonably could not have been expected to prevent what I believe is an isolated and highly unusual incident,” he said.

“I have not talked to a police officer at street level or above who was not sickened by what they saw. We are anxious to bring this to a speedy solution.”

Jones had stinging words for officers who participated in the beating, which occurred after a car chase through the San Fernando Valley. The Los Angeles County Grand Jury is investigating the incident.

“Good,” said Jones, when asked about the possibility of criminal action against his officers. “The sooner the better on an indictment.”

He was highly critical of Sgt. Stacey Koon, 40, the supervisor at the scene of the beating who apparently stood by and watched officers pummel King.

“I would not want to be going before a (police) Board of Rights knowing that I stood there and allowed a severe beating to take place, whether it’s this case or any other case,” Jones said. A Board of Rights hearing is similar to a court trial but is presided over by a panel of three high-ranking police officers.

Koon and three other officers, who are still drawing pay, were relieved of field duty and ordered to remain home during working hours pending completion of an internal police investigation, Jones said.

The commander said his transfer from the Valley Bureau--one of four Los Angeles Police Department regional command centers--was directly linked to the announcement Feb. 14 of the retirement of Assistant Chief Jesse A. Brewer, 69. Jones had just been transferred from the West Bureau to the Valley Bureau.

The announcement that Brewer was ending his 38-year career, Jones said, gave Gates the opportunity to begin a chain of moves that would allow him to fill the Valley Bureau with a deputy chief, Mark Kroeker. As a result, he said, each of the four regional bureaus now has a deputy chief as supervisor.

“Gates did not know Brewer was going to retire,” Jones said. “My feeling is that had he known, he would not have put me out there.”

The end result, Jones said, was that his Valley tenure was only six weeks.

Gates, too, underscored the theme while giving a keynote speech at a Wednesday luncheon of the Los Angeles County Peace Officers Assn.

“It has been my desire for a long time to balance out the four bureaus . . . and put deputy chiefs in charge,” Gates said. “This is the opportunity I’ve been looking for.”

At the same time, the outspoken Gates blasted the news media for assuming that Jones’ transfer was a form of punishment.

He said the news media’s “knee-jerk” reaction that Jones was somehow being punished was wrong.

“The poor guy’s only been out there a couple of weeks,” Gates said.

Times staff writers Leslie Berger and Sheryl Stolberg contributed to this story.