Atty. Gen. Agrees to Conduct Robbery Investigation of King

The state attorney general’s office has agreed to investigate whether Rodney G. King committed an armed robbery 10 days before his beating by police, officials said Thursday.

The Los Angeles Police Department, under fire for the nationally televised beating of King, asked the state to handle the case to avoid a potential conflict of interest. The Feb. 21 robbery occurred in Sun Valley in the Police Department’s Foothill Division, the patrol area in which King was arrested March 3 for alleged speeding.

Officials said state agents would start from scratch in checking allegations that King committed the robbery. A store clerk was shot in the shoulder in the robbery at 1:40 p.m. at Video All Stars, in the 8700 block of Glenoaks Boulevard.

“We are conducting the investigation because the LAPD says he is a suspect, but as far as we’re concerned, we are starting at step one,” said Kati Corsaut, a state spokeswoman. Special Agent David Genens, in charge of the office’s investigation bureau, said the matter “will be given top priority.”

Los Angeles Police Cmdr. Rick Dinse said the department stopped its own investigation as soon as King became a suspect. He and other police officials have declined to disclose how King, who was convicted of robbery in 1989, was connected to the Feb. 21 case.

King’s attorney, Steven Lerman, charged Thursday that the police were conducting “a smear campaign . . . to besmirch Mr. King’s credibility in the hopes of lowering a jury award.”

“They almost killed this guy and now they’re trying to smear his reputation,” Lerman said.

Dinse responded: “This is not a smear campaign in any fashion. . . . Even if this were proven to be true, it would still not change anything that is in the process of happening in the King incident.”

Four LAPD officers have been indicted for King’s beating, and 17 other LAPD officers are under investigation for their roles during his arrest.