Gates, Bradley Declare a Truce : Police: Mayor and chief join City Council President Ferraro in agreeing to stop public feuding. Ten rookie officers say they have immunity in beating case.

Seeking to reunite a city deeply divided over the Rodney G. King beating, the city’s top three public officials agreed Tuesday to put an end to their feuding while investigations continue into allegations of police brutality and racism in the Los Angeles Police Department.

However, Mayor Tom Bradley, Police Chief Daryl F. Gates and City Council President John Ferraro--standing shoulder-to-shoulder at a late afternoon City Hall press conference--made it clear that they still have major differences over who should control the LAPD and whether Gates should step aside.

“It’s true we do not agree on everything,” Gates said, “but we do agree that we need to get this city in shape. We need to get it back in order.”

Bradley, who said he still believes Gates should resign, also called for unity.

“We hope that we can reduce the rhetoric that has developed over the past few weeks and begin the process by which this culturally diverse city comes together,” the mayor said.

In other developments Tuesday:

* About 10 rookie Los Angeles police officers who were bystanders during the police beating of King say they are being granted immunity from criminal prosecution in return for their testimony about what veteran officers did or failed to do at the scene. But prosecutors said no decision had been made.

* New internal police documents obtained by The Times show that police investigators searched the lockers of the four officers charged with assault in the March 3 beating, looking for traces of blood on the officers’ batons and boots.

* Michael Yamaki, a criminal defense attorney, was appointed to fill the fifth and final seat on the Los Angeles Police Commission. Meanwhile, the panel’s weekly meeting was delayed after about 100 protesters leaped to their feet shouting “No blue! No blue!” as LAPD personnel attempted to place a blue cloth--the LAPD’s color--on the commission’s table.

* The newly formed independent citizens commission investigating the Police Department met for the first time, promising a top-to-bottom probe of every aspect of the department. Gates, returning to work after a five-day forced leave of absence, was welcomed by 150 cheering supporters as he arrived at Parker Center.

The Press Conference

The City Hall press conference was a marked difference from the vitriolic statements made last week as the Police Commission and City Council fought over Gates’ future.

Ferraro said he brought Bradley and Gates together to set aside their personal differences and “give the people of this city a chance to cool off.”

The council president said he called Bradley and Gates on Monday night and the three met in Ferraro’s office at 4 p.m. Tuesday. They had “a nice long discussion,” Ferraro said.

“We shook hands when we went into his office and when we left,” Bradley recalled.

At the press conference, the chief thanked Ferraro for taking the initiative in a situation that, he said, demanded leadership. “Blessed are the peacemakers,” Gates said. “John is a peacemaker here.”

But it was evident that not all tensions between Gates and Bradley had eased. Each time a controversial question was asked of either Gates or Bradley, Ferraro stepped in to try to deflect it.

When Bradley was asked if he still thought Gates should resign, Ferraro stepped to the microphone and responded: “We’re going to work together now.”

But the mayor answered anyway. “I did make that statement,” Bradley said. “I believed it then and I stand by that statement.”

When it was over, the council president forcibly lifted the hands of Bradley and Gates in an attempt at a victory gesture. But the mayor and the chief looked tense and they did not join hands.

“I thought if they buried the hatchet, they didn’t bury it too deeply,” said Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky afterward. “I didn’t detect a lot of warmth.”

Grand Jury Probe

On Friday and Monday, the district attorney’s office began conducting interviews with about 10 rookie police officers employed in the rank of Police Officer I. The rookie officers also were subpoenaed to testify before the grand jury, a process that began Tuesday and is scheduled to continue through this week.

They are among 21 LAPD officers who were at the scene of the King beating, which occurred after a car chase in the San Fernando Valley. A sergeant and three officers have been indicted in the beating, but an investigation is continuing into the onlookers.

Diane Marchant, an attorney for the rookie officers, said her clients could be fired if they refuse to cooperate with the grand jury. Because of that dilemma, she said, the officers are being “coerced” into cooperating.

Because they are coerced, she said, their statements cannot be used to file criminal charges against them.

“You can draw a conclusion from this that the district attorney does not consider these officers as suspects,” she said. “That is based on the fact that the district attorney is accepting statements made under duress. And these are statements that cannot be used against the officers in a court of law.”

While prosecutors said that no decision had been made on immunity for the rookie officers, it is reasonable for them to assume that they will not be indicted in connection with the March 3 beating.

“Defense attorneys could draw that conclusion,” said Mike Botula, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office. No decision on immunity had been reached, he said, adding, “But we’re still examining it. We’re still assessing it.”

Botula said there have been other police abuse cases, such as the 39th and Dalton incident, where some officers were not charged with crimes after they agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.

“We recognize there is a legal situation here involving the officers being compelled to testify because of Police Department policy,” he said. “That has come up in other cases as well.”

Other sources in the district attorney’s office and at police headquarters said the prosecutors have grouped the 21 officers at the scene in three categories: the four already indicted, the rookie officers and the other veteran officers who were bystanders.

Prosecutors believe that the rookie officers may be the least liable, particularly since they are probationary employees. Further, several sources at the Los Angeles Police Protective League, the police union, said some of the rookie officers were genuinely troubled by what they saw that night.

“One of the kids said he asked one of officers, ‘Did you have to hit him that many times? Was it really necessary?’ ” a league official said. “Another one of them made the statement, ‘It was horrible.’ ”

“It was a shocking experience for them,” the union official added. “If you interviewed those rookie officers and asked them if they still would have joined the Police Department if they thought anything like this was going to happen, the answer would be ‘No.’ ”

The LAPD Files

New police documents obtained by The Times show that after the beating, investigators used a search warrant to look through the lockers of the four officers charged with assault. The lockers are at the Foothill Division police station, and sources said investigators were checking for signs of blood on the officers’ batons and boots.

It was unclear from the records what was found in the lockers.

In another document, Rodney King told investigators that he believed he was handcuffed and hogtied before he was beaten, a scenario that contradicts what is seen on a videotape of the incident shot by an amateur cameraman.

In describing the beating, police investigators wrote:

“Victim (King) felt a slight shock to his right shoulder and was struck on the right side of his face with a billy club. Victim felt a second shock on his left shoulder blade. Victim stated he could not see who was hitting him. Victim was struck numerous times about the head and body area.

“Victim stated from the time he exited the vehicle he did not resist or attempt to flee from officers.”

The Police Commission

Moving to fill the last vacancy on the civilian Police Commission, Mayor Bradley appointed Los Angeles criminal defense attorney Michael Yamaki. Calling himself a “supporter of the Police Department,” Yamaki said one of his primary objectives is to increase police recruiting of Asian-American.

The commission met Tuesday, but before the session could get started, about 100 people in the audience jumped to their feet and booed when two men tried to replace a brown cloth covering the commissioners’ table with a blue one.

As the crowd screamed “Gates must go! Gates must go!” Danny Bakewell, president of the Brotherhood Crusade, a Los Angeles community group, rushed onto the stage of the Parker Center auditorium and tried to roll up the cloth.

Bakewell was instantly surrounded by six police officers who briefly scuffled with him over the cloth. The audience shouted “No blue! No blue!” and threw wadded paper at the stage.

“It’s a symbol and we do not accept it!” Bakewell yelled as television news crews thrust their microphones in front of him. “An ego feed, that’s all it is!” Bakewell said, referring to the Police Department.

Bakewell then turned and pleaded with the crowd to calm down.

“There will be no meeting today as long as that blue stays up there,” he said in a deliberately staccato voice as the crowd broke into a wild cheer.

Seconds later, a police officer removed the blue covering from the 25-foot table and returned the brown covering.

The commissioners’ meeting was delayed 15 minutes. “The problem is that this crowd is so incensed in the aftermath of the King beating and the court’s decision to temporarily reinstate Gates that little things are being blown out of proportion,” said commission Vice President Melanie Lomax.

Probing the LAPD

An independent commission chaired by former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Warren Christopher intends to bring about changes in the way the Police Department and the city do business, Christopher said. “We don’t want to have just a sterile report, one that goes on the shelf,” he said.

The 10-member panel--armed with subpoena power and formed after the merger of two separate commissions appointed by Bradley and Gates--met privately for more than five hours, appointing a staff of 13 local lawyers and hearing testimony from its first witnesses, former Assistant Police Chief Jesse A. Brewer and former Deputy Dist. Atty. Curt Livesay.

Brewer was the highest-ranking black officer in the history of the LAPD until he retired two months ago. Livesay, who stepped down within the past month, was the county’s chief prosecutor on cases involving the use of excessive force by police officers.

While the details of their testimony were not made public, Christopher said Brewer, who was asked by Bradley to advise the commission, briefed the panel on Police Department hierarchy and is likely to return to talk about a wide range of issues, including racial discrimination and police brutality.

“We have a good distance to go with Chief Brewer,” Christopher said.

Times staff writers Louis Sahagun and James Rainey contributed to this story.