Ex-Maywood Officer to Seek New Trial in Jail Beating of Inmate : Law enforcement: His attorney questions the extent of victim’s injuries. Two former Orange County deputies also were convicted in the case.

The lawyer for a former Maywood police officer convicted with two former Orange County sheriff’s deputies in the cellblock beating of a jailed man said Tuesday he will ask for a new trial.

Paul Geragos, attorney for Michael A. Elliott, 31, said there are still serious questions about the extent of injuries claimed by Marino D. Martillo, 30, a Huntington Park auto parts clerk who prosecutors say was beaten by the three off-duty officers at the Maywood jail after they had attended a raucous bachelor party on March 23, 1990.

Elliott and former sheriff’s deputies Ivan Budiselich and John Rice, both 26, were each found guilty Monday of one felony count of assault under color of authority and a misdemeanor count of battery. They were found innocent of felony assault and battery with serious bodily injury.

Assault under color of authority can only be filed against law enforcement officers and carries a maximum sentence of three years in prison. An indictment listing similar charges was issued March 15 against four Los Angeles police officers allegedly involved in the March 3 beating of motorist Rodney G. King.

Because the Maywood case was heard before a judge rather than a jury, Geragos and a prosecutor said they did not believe that intense scrutiny cast on law enforcement--and on brutality cases in particular--after the King beating played a role in the ruling.

Martillo had been jailed in Maywood on traffic warrants and a bad check charge. He suffers from blurred vision, hearing loss and dizziness as a result of the attack, according to his doctor and a physician hired by the prosecution.

However, Geragos raised doubts about whether any injuries Martillo suffered resulted from a police beating.

“I think there is still a serious question as to whether he was beaten or not. The not-guilty verdict on the felony assault with serious bodily injury charge justifies that thinking,” said Geragos, who said he also will file an appeal.

He described Elliott, who has been working as a private investigator in the Los Angeles area, as “devastated” by the verdict.

“He had planned on making law enforcement his life. . . . It’s a very unhappy time for him.”

During the trial before Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Judith L. Champagne, prosecutors charged that the beating occurred after Budiselich, Rice and Elliott had spent a night of heavy drinking at a bachelor party for another Maywood officer.

Witnesses testified that they went to the Maywood Jail in a chauffeur-driven limousine after midnight to visit friends who were on duty and play with a Breathalyzer, an instrument used to determine sobriety.

After hearing that a jail inmate had been involved in a scuffle with another Maywood officer, the three entered the cellblock and mistakenly singled out Martillo, prosecutors said.

The three officers lost their jobs after departmental investigations into the incident.

Geragos and attorney Paul DePasquale, who represents Rice and Budiselich, earlier had said Martillo had exaggerated the incident and the extent of his injuries in an attempt to pursue a frivolous lawsuit against Maywood and the defendants.

DePasquale could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Jeffrey D. Oscodar called the verdict “just and fair.”

“The verdict showed the judge believed that Martillo had been beaten but she had doubts about the extent that he was beaten,” Oscodar said. “We knew that the injuries he sustained would be difficult to prove. . . . I think it’s a reasonable judgement.”

Though attorneys in the case said they did not think the King beating influenced the judge’s ruling, Oscodar acknowledged that prosecutors had agreed to a non-jury trial to prevent possible emotional bias on the part of jurors from benefiting the prosecution.

Jury selection had been scheduled to begin a day after the King video was first broadcast.

Sentencing for the former officers is scheduled for April 30.