Grand Jury Widens Probe of King Beating

The Los Angeles County Grand Jury began taking testimony Thursday from a series of Los Angeles police officers who were bystanders at the Rodney G. King beating, placing the officers in the position of either testifying against each other or facing the possibility of being fired.

The testimony, which follows indictments against four Los Angeles Police Department officers for allegedly assaulting King on March 3, signals that the grand jury is widening its criminal investigation and weighing evidence against another 17 officers for not stopping their colleagues as they repeatedly struck and kicked the 25-year-old black man in the north San Fernando Valley.

In another development, a black police officer told The Times that she found a Knights of the Ku Klux Klan business card proclaiming “Racial Purity Is America’s Security” on her car while it was parked in a secured police lot at the Foothill Division station.

Officer Janine Bouey said she observed several examples of racial bigotry while she worked at the station between 1987 and 1989, including white officers freely using derogatory terms against black officers.

The beating of King, captured by a man using a home video camera, has ignited cries from some community leaders that longtime Police Chief Daryl F. Gates should be removed because he has allowed racism in his department.

The crisis has also polarized the Foothill Division, where the actions of many of the officers are being reviewed by the FBI and the police internal affairs unit for possible civil rights violations and other acts of misconduct.

As the grand jury probe broadens, the panel is gathering evidence on whether any Foothill officer who stood by during the beating actually committed a felony by “aiding and abetting” the assault on King.

Their testimony inside the grand jury room is placing the officers in a delicate position. Some may be hesitant to provide evidence against their fellow officers, and also may be worried about what their colleagues are saying about them.

Also, a “special order” issued two years ago by Gates warns that all police officers risk losing their jobs if they refuse to testify before grand juries about any criminal activity they witness.

“We’re walking a very thin line here,” said Diane Marchant, a criminal defense attorney who is advising the officers who were spectators during the beating. “We’re trying to stay within the chief’s order without giving away the store.”

She said four rookie officers who were at the scene have told her of their frustrations over being called before the grand jury.

“This came on very suddenly,” she said. “The officers are calling up and saying, ‘What should we do?’ And all we can say to them is that the information can in some way be used against them.”

Marchant said that each officer who stood by brings a different perspective to what happened to King. The Altadena man, who had been on parole for an armed robbery conviction for two months, was stopped in Lake View Terrace after a police chase that began on Interstate 210.

Police officials have said 21 LAPD officers went to the scene, including the four indicted, 15 others on the ground, and two in a police helicopter. Four California Highway Patrol officers and two security officers from the Los Angeles Unified School District also were present.

“It was broadcast on a frequency the LAPD monitors,” Marchant said of the chase. “All of the units heard it and they were responding from various distances and arriving at various times.

“As for what they saw, it depends on when they arrived, where they parked, what they could see, whether they saw enough officers already at the scene, and if they turned around and left.

“It’s a real mixed bag, and every officer remembers something a little different. Each officer has a slightly different viewpoint.”

If the officers refuse to describe how their colleagues stood around during the beating, they could be severely punished.

In November, 1988, Gates issued Special Order No. 24, which established a Police Department policy informing officers of their duty to testify before any grand jury, coroner’s inquest or court proceeding.

The order states:

“When police officers acquire knowledge of facts which will tend to incriminate any person, it is their duty to disclose such facts to their superiors and to testify freely concerning such facts when called upon to do so, even at the risk of self-incrimination.

“It is a violation of duty for police officers to refuse to disclose pertinent facts within their knowledge, and such neglect of duty can result in disciplinary action up to and including termination.”

Said Marchant: “To a peace officer, particularly in the LAPD, his job is very important to him and he’s going to do everything he can to not get an insubordination charge against him, because that can be a firing offense.”

A Los Angeles Police Protective League source added: “They don’t have any choice. They have to go in and rat on each other.”

One officer who has come forward is Janine Bouey, 31, who told The Times how in the early spring of 1989, she was startled to discover a small card displaying the KKK signature tucked under the windshield wiper of her late-model Volvo station wagon. The car was parked in an area accessible only to officers, she said.

Along with the words “Holy Order Knights of the Ku Klux Klan,” the card displayed a logo with a cross inside a circle and gave a Sunland post office box for inquiries and copies of the Klansman Newsletter.

“It made me nervous,” she said.

Bouey said she complained to Foothill Capt. Valentino Paniccia, who told her racism does not exist at the northern San Fernando Valley station. “No one else has ever complained, you’re the first one,” she said in quoting Paniccia.

But Bouey said it was the second incident she knew of involving a KKK card appearing at Foothill. The first instance, she said, occurred a few days earlier when a black male officer found one on his locker.

Paniccia could not be reached for comment. But Lt. Fred Nixon, a Police Department spokesman, said: “We need time to look into Bouey’s allegations and after doing that we will respond in any way that seems appropriate.”

Bouey said she has been suspended without pay by the LAPD for three minor infractions, each time for a period not exceeding five days.

Ultimately, she was given a transfer out of Foothill and is now an officer in the Harbor Division where she also works as a police defense representative. Bouey said she plans to continue her LAPD career despite her perception of deeply rooted racism in some of the divisions such as Foothill. “To be black in the LAPD,” she said, “is a liability.”

Bouey said she hopes to tell her story to the FBI as part of its investigation of the Foothill station.

On Monday, after news of the FBI inquiries at Foothill surfaced, Bouey said she received an unexpected call from Sgt. Charles Beck of the internal affairs unit. She said Beck wanted to assure her that another officer who sent her a racist message more than two years ago had been suspended for a few days without pay.

Bouey asked Beck if the FBI actions suddenly prompted the call. She said he replied, “No.” Beck could not be reached for comment.

Also on Thursday:

* Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Bernard Kamins ordered the four indicted officers--Sgt. Stacey C. Koon, Laurence M. Powell, Timothy E. Wind and Theodore J. Briseno--to stand trial May 13.

Kamins, a 48-year-old one-time public defender who took the bench in 1986, was given the case after attorney Paul De Pasquale, who represents Wind, objected to the first trial judge, Superior Court Judge John Reid.

Defense attorneys complained that the case is moving too fast to trial, with one saying he was not sure whether he could be ready because he could not predict the future.

“Well, I can predict the future,” Kamins said. “The future is you should be ready to go.”

After the court hearing, De Pasquale wondered, “Are they pushing this case because it’s the media football of the year?”

* The Rev. Al Sharpton, a New York preacher and civil rights advocate, sat quietly in the back of the courtroom watching the proceedings, and then held a news conference outside the courthouse. He announced a noon march today from City Hall to Parker Center to call for Gates’ removal.

Wearing his trademark “I Have a Dream” medal, Sharpton also tossed aside criticism from some Los Angeles community leaders who have suggested that he is interfering in a local problem.

“The issue is not who invited me or why I came,” he said. “The issue is Gates. No one asked the people that came from around the country to support Gates last week why they were here. We’re here because police brutality’s here. . . . The question is, why isn’t everybody here?”

* The city attorney’s office issued an opinion that Gates can be disciplined by the Police Commission and the Civil Service Commission upon a showing of “good and sufficient cause.”

The Police Commission, which has been deluged with demands by community leaders to fire the chief, would need to initiate a disciplinary hearing and refer it to the Civil Service Commission for review.

According to the 12-page report, “good and sufficient cause” would involve conduct by the chief that “can be shown to have been detrimental to the discipline and efficient achievement of the Police Department’s mission to assure public safety.” The misconduct would have to have occurred during the previous year, meaning that any insensitive remarks made by Gates before last year that were not the subject of reprimands could not be used against him, according to labor law experts.

* City Councilman Michael Woo and a group of community leaders criticized Gates’ plan to appoint his own commission to review Police Department policies on the use of force. The chief on Wednesday unveiled a 10-point program to examine police misconduct and improve community relations.

But Woo said, “It would be very hard for the chief’s own commission to bring back findings that were critical of the chief. Such a commission might fail to make the LAPD’s top brass truly accountable.”

Woo said he supports a plan, like one being drawn by Mayor Tom Bradley, that would have a commission report to the mayor and City Council. The councilman said the commission should be funded by private foundations and individuals, rather than the city, to assure its impartiality.

Among those backing Woo’s position were Joseph Duff, president of the Los Angeles chapter of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People; Mark Ridley-Thomas, director of the local chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and Alan Clayton, a representative of the League of United Latin-American Citizens.

* Bradley said he will ask the Police Commission to establish a computer data base with records of all cases of excessive force, so that problem officers and police stations can be tracked “at a punch of the computer button.”

“You’ll be able to see if there is a pattern that demonstrates a danger,” Bradley said.

* The United Neighborhoods Organization (UNO) became the latest group to call for Gates to resign.

“We want to show our African-American brothers and sisters that we stand with them,” said the Rev. Joseph Pina, a spokesman for the group. “What Chief Gates is doing is dividing the city by neighborhood, income level and race.”

* In New York, Gloria Molina, the newest member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, appeared at an annual convention of Latino journalists in New York, predicting that aggressive media coverage of the King case and the constant public clamor will force Gates “to quit by the end of the year.”

“That would be my guess because I think this is the beginning of the end for Gates,” she said.

However, she added, it would be unfair to call for Gates’ resignation now because he received outstanding performance ratings during the last three years.

Times staff writers Glenn F. Bunting, James Rainey, George Ramos, Lois Timnick and Hector Tobar contributed to this story.