Anti-Police Bias May Disqualify Juror : Courts: A judge is to decide today whether a panel member should be removed for discussing the King beating in deliberations on a murder case.

A Van Nuys Superior Court judge will decide today whether a black juror in the murder trial of two black men should be disqualified on the grounds that she is biased against police and told other jurors the Rodney G. King beating shows police are unfair to blacks.

The prosecution has asked the judge to replace the juror with an alternate. Defense attorneys asked that she remain or that the judge declare a mistrial.

The unusual development occurred in the 2-month-old retrial of Devin M. Feagin, 21, and Terrill Ross, 19, who are accused of killing a Woodland Hills man while robbing his home. Their first trial ended in a hung jury last year.

The jury in the second trial began deliberations last week. On Monday, one of the two black jurors sent Judge Kathryne Ann Stoltz a note saying the jury would be unable to reach a unanimous verdict.

“The other jurors are doing everything possible to assume guilt without giving the defendants the benefit of the doubt,” wrote the juror, identified in court as Kathy Perdue.

On Tuesday, Stoltz questioned all 12 jurors in her chambers about the problems in their deliberations.

Their answers were discussed and, in a hearing afterward, the judge, defense attorneys and the prosecutor revealed that the jury has not voted yet but that Perdue has strongly disagreed with the others in discussions of the case.

In asking Stoltz to dismiss the juror, Deputy Dist. Atty. Antoinette Decker said other jurors reported that Perdue would not cooperate in deliberations “because police lie and police are unfair to black people.”

Decker said the juror had brought up the highly publicized March 3 beating by Los Angeles police officers of Rodney King to support her own bias against police. “She is being ruled by her emotions and by bias,” Decker told Stoltz. “I think she is making this a case of race when no one else is.”

Ross’ attorney, E. St. Patrick Atkinson, asked Stoltz to declare a mistrial, arguing that the animosity between jurors made it unlikely that they could deliberate fairly.

Jack R. Stone, an attorney for Feagin, said that not all of the jurors said Perdue was uncooperative. He urged Stoltz to let deliberations continue with Perdue on the jury.

Stoltz continued the hearing until this morning, when she is expected to rule on the requests from attorneys.

Feagin and Ross are charged with killing Howard David King, 67, during an April 29, 1988, robbery.

The beating of Rodney King--no relation to Howard King--was videotaped by a bystander and caused a national uproar over police brutality. Four Los Angeles police officers have been indicted and a grand jury investigation is continuing.