Federal Charges Being Considered in King Beating : Law: Justice Dept. lawyers are investigating whether his rights may have been violated by officers who failed to protect him from harm.

Justice Department civil rights lawyers are considering ways to bring federal charges against some of the Los Angeles police officers who stood by passively during the videotaped beating of a motorist, government sources told The Times on Friday.

While no decision has been made to go before a federal grand jury, the lawyers are studying the possibility of moving against the officers on grounds that they had a legal obligation to keep the victim, Rodney G. King, free from harm, according to the sources who declined to be named.

That theory, based on Reconstruction Era statutes, has been used primarily to prosecute jailers who allow prisoners to beat other inmates.

Meanwhile, responding to U.S. Atty. Gen. Dick Thornburgh’s order to review police brutality nationwide, Justice Department civil rights division lawyers and paralegals began the prodigious task of sifting through about 15,000 federal files of brutality complaints to determine whether any systemic pattern of police abuses exists around the country.

Because the files--some computerized and some only paper records--are so voluminous, the review is likely to be time-consuming. And it is not likely to result in individual indictments.

In the Los Angeles case, three officers who allegedly took part in the beating of King, a 25-year-old Altadena construction worker who is on parole after a robbery conviction, and a supervising sergeant at the scene were indicted Thursday on state charges.

Federal civil rights lawyers and FBI agents, working independently of the nationwide review ordered by Thornburgh, are understood to be focusing on a number of the 11 other officers at the scene who allegedly did nothing to stop the prolonged beating.

Federal charges could be brought under two laws that date to the years immediately after the Civil War--one that bars conspiracy against the rights of citizens and another that forbids depriving individuals of their rights “under color of law,” civil rights lawyers said.

Neither statute specifies what rights are protected, other than to note that they are rights or privileges secured or protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States. In past cases brought under those statutes by Justice Department prosecutors, courts have held that a person has a right to be kept free from harm and that beating someone without just cause violates this right.

Any federal prosecution could be withheld if the officers are charged by Los Angeles authorities, one source said. The source added that the federal laws may provide the best opportunity to prosecute the officers. But it is possible to proceed under both federal and state laws without violating double jeopardy protections, the source said.

Discussing the overall review of brutality, which will cover complaints filed with the Justice Department, the FBI and U.S. attorneys over the last six years, John R. Dunne, assistant attorney general for civil rights, described it as “a matter of priority” and said his division’s “most experienced people” have been assigned to it.

But he declined to estimate whether the process would take days, weeks or even months.

Because the records are not kept by small enough geographical units, the first job is sorting them into areas that correspond with law enforcement departments. The file reviewers are starting with the most recent cases and working their way back, Dunne said.

“Our object is not to reopen any of these cases,” he said, noting that only 2% of the roughly 2,500 complaints filed annually develop sufficient evidence to be presented to a grand jury, and that only two-thirds of those cases result in indictments.

Instead, the review will seek to determine whether the complaints, while in most instances not meriting prosecution, nevertheless reveal a pattern of police brutality. Such findings could lead to legislation or steps to help a police department undertake attitudinal changes or other training to curb abuse, Dunne said.

“In addition to punishing, we want to prevent (police abuse),” he said.

Thornburgh ordered the review Thursday after he met with two senior members of the Congressional Black Caucus, Reps. Edolphus Towns (D-N.Y.), who is caucus chairman, and John Conyers (D-Mich.). Conyers agreed with Dunne, saying: “Prosecution is not the only issue here. We’re talking about training and racial sensitization--ending abuses before they occur.”

If the review establishes a pattern of police brutality, it could lead Congress to adopt solutions ranging from unannounced FBI audits of suspect police departments to mandatory training to end abuses, a congressional source said.