FBI Starts Fast With Inquiry of King Beating

FBI agents approached Los Angeles police officers at home and at work Monday, opening what a top FBI official described as an “unusual” investigation into the Rodney G. King beating and other allegations of officer misconduct within the Police Department’s Foothill Division.

Scores of FBI agents were involved in the exercise, forming two-member teams with the intent of contacting all 246 officers assigned to the division, which patrols the northeast San Fernando Valley.

William M. Baker, assistant FBI director in charge of the criminal investigative division in Washington, said the fast-paced and sweeping investigation was “unusual, but the beating was different.”

Another Justice Department source familiar with the investigation said, “Usually (the FBI is) working with state and local law enforcement--and now it’s like adversaries investigating the people they work with on everything else.”

The source said that agents are pursuing evidence of “trends or any instructions or management directions which would indicate that police supervisors would allow this to happen.”

Agents are pursuing a few specific leads unrelated to the King case, the source said, but added that “the vast majority of the questioning is very general.”

Justice Department civil rights attorneys dispatched to Los Angeles are directing the operation.

At least a dozen officers declined Monday to be interviewed after FBI agents would not guarantee that what was said would not be used against them in a criminal investigation, police sources said.

Four Foothill officers have been indicted on state charges in the beating of King, an unemployed Altadena construction worker who has served time for armed robbery. King was clubbed and kicked after his Hyundai automobile was stopped in Lake View Terrace for allegedly speeding after a short pursuit. His treatment, captured on videotape, has prompted national outrage and various investigations, including the Justice Department probe being conducted by the FBI.

While the FBI has investigated police departments in other cities, the speed with which agents are moving in the King matter was seen by law enforcement officials as remarkable. It was learned that the FBI hoped to finish the questioning of officers by Wednesday.

“This suddenly has become the top priority in the bureau,” an FBI agent said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

Sources said the FBI’s interest in the case accelerated after President Bush’s strong condemnation last week of the King beating, which he said “made me sick.”

Initially, Justice Department officials said they would consider employing a Reconstruction-era law to indict officers who allegedly stood by without interfering while King was beaten. A source close to the investigation said that approach is now in question.

The theory was that under two Reconstruction-era statutes the officers violated obligations to stop the attack. But U.S. civil rights attorneys are concerned that the presence of the supervising sergeant would weaken a charge that his subordinates had an obligation to keep King free from harm. The prosecutors are concerned that defense attorneys could easily persuade jurors that officers had no obligation to overrule a superior who was doing nothing to stop the beating, the source said.

Questions asked of five officers known to have been interviewed by agents ranged from their knowledge of any previous displays of excessive force to whether they knew of any nicknames of officers in the division, police sources said.

Agents also were said to have asked officers whether they knew any of the officers involved in the incident and if they were aware of any racial bias in the Foothill station.

While Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl F. Gates has criticized FBI plans to approach officers at home, the bureau’s chief spokesman in Washington, Tom Jones, said the interview process was designed “to cause the least amount of disruption.”

FBI officials in Washington said that Gates initially did not want to make officers’ addresses available to the FBI on privacy grounds, but then recognized that a federal subpoena for the information would make the addresses public.

In addition to home contacts, agents set up appointments with officers at the Foothill station. Cecil Marr, a Police Protective League lawyer, was on hand in a room to advise the officers of their rights.

Jones said the decision to conduct the interviews was made by the Justice Department’s civil rights division lawyers now in Los Angeles, and “probably in concert with the FBI office” in the city.

The FBI spokesman said orders for the interviews did not come from FBI Director William S. Sessions or other FBI top officials in Washington.

Jones said FBI agents have been given 21 working days to complete the initial report of the investigation. That deadline stems from the U.S. attorney general’s guidelines that govern the conduct of civil rights investigations, according to the FBI’s Baker.

“Particularly in this case, we’re trying to complete the investigation as quickly as possible,” Jones said, citing the publicity surrounding the issue.

The FBI inquiry ran into obstacles almost immediately, as several officers refused to be interviewed by six federal agents at the Foothill station.

Marr said at least four officers at the station directly declined to be interviewed after the FBI refused a request from them for protection from criminal prosecution.

The attorney said he also had informed the FBI on behalf of a dozen additional Foothill officers that they did not want to be interviewed without assurances that what they said would not be used against them in a criminal case. Dozens of officers called Marr’s office Monday, seeking advice, he said.

“They want to be cooperative, but also in a way consistent with their rights, and they don’t want to be sandbagged,” Marr said.

“The sense that I get from the officers I’ve talked to is that some of them are offended that they’ve been contacted at home because that’s a private place and they don’t want to talk there. But most are willing to cooperate and have been directed to do that.”

The officers believe that they have been coerced into the interviews because Gates has ordered them to cooperate with the FBI, said Lt. George Aliano, president of the Police Protective League. They reason, he said, that because the interviews are the product of coercion they should be promised at the outset that whatever they say will not be used against them.

As FBI agents descended upon their homes, police officers flooded league attorneys with questions, said Diane Marchant, an attorney hired by the league.

Marchant said some officers did not find out that they would be questioned until they received telephone calls from the FBI. Others learned about the investigation by reading newspaper accounts, and still others were told about the investigation at roll call Sunday at the Foothill station.

FBI agents began knocking on the doors of officers as early as 7:30 Monday morning, Marchant said.

Aliano of the Police Protective League said many officers realize they could face administrative charges of insubordination if they refuse to talk to the FBI. He added that the officers are taking the position that the FBI cannot use coerced information against them.

“You have a right not to incriminate yourself,” he said, adding that the officers are also insisting on tape-recording the interviews to protect themselves.

“We want the actual words preserved,” Aliano said. “Who knows what might get twisted around, and we don’t want to get to that point.”

Aliano said that the officers are being called in early to the station and are being paid overtime for the interviews.

Four Foothill officers--Laurence M. Powell, Ted Briseno, Timothy Wind and Sgt. Stacey C. Koon--were indicted March 15 by the Los Angeles County Grand Jury on charges of assault with a deadly weapon and unnecessarily beating a suspect under the color of authority. Koon and Powell were also indicted for filing a false police report.

The second phase of the grand jury investigation began Monday, as the panel began to consider the case of those officers who stood by as King was beaten.

According to sources, some of the officers could be charged with filing false police reports, aiding and abetting in the King beating or with violations of California civil rights laws.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Terry White, the prosecutor, made only brief appearances before the grand jury Monday and no testimony was taken, according to sources. The panel will reconvene Thursday.

Times staff writers Ronald J. Ostrow in Washington and Richard A. Serrano, Ronald L. Soble, Hector Tobar and Lois Timnick in Los Angeles contributed to this report.