Christopher Brings Savvy, Diplomacy to Police Probe : Investigation: The commission head has blue ribbon credentials. Hearings on the department open today.

It was late summer, 1980. Warren Christopher, then deputy secretary of state under President Jimmy Carter, was playing tennis with his good friend, CBS News correspondent Bob Pierpoint. Anything interesting going on at State? Pierpoint asked. No, Christopher replied, nothing he could think of.

That afternoon, Pierpoint received a call at home from his bosses at CBS. A news crew had just spotted Christopher boarding an Air Force plane. The deputy secretary of state, he discovered later, had played his Saturday tennis game and then calmly jetted off to Europe for secret negotiations with Iran over the fate of 52 American hostages.

The story speaks volumes about Christopher, renowned as a coolheaded negotiator, discreet diplomat and savvy political adviser. They are the traits that prompted Mayor Tom Bradley to offer him his current assignment, as head of the independent citizens commission investigating the Los Angeles Police Department in the wake of the Rodney G. King beating.

Today, as the commission holds its first public hearing, citizens of Los Angeles will have an opportunity to meet Christopher, the man who holds the future of the Police Department--and to a certain extent the city--in his hands.

They will find someone who is soft-spoken, cautious and reserved, intensely private and deliberative about his every move. Christopher plays his cards so close to the vest that even his wife says she sometimes goes for weeks without knowing what he is working on. “Firm and steady and focused,” is how one colleague described him. In his memoirs, Carter called Christopher “the best public servant I ever knew.”

He is an insider’s insider, with a blue-ribbon list of credentials in law, business and Democratic politics: deputy attorney general under President Lyndon B. Johnson; vice chairman of the McCone Commission, which investigated the Watts riots; member of the board of trustees of Stanford University; chairman of the Carnegie Corp., a New York philanthropic organization; political adviser to two senators, as well as to Bradley.

The list goes on: member of the board of directors of First Interstate Bancorp and Southern California Edison; former president of the Los Angeles County Bar Assn.; recipient of the Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian award, for his work negotiating the release of the hostages; chairman of O’Melveny & Myers, the oldest and one of the most prestigious law firms in Los Angeles.

“He probably advises more of our prominent figures than anyone I know,” said attorney Seth Hufstedler, a longtime friend who, with Christopher, founded Stanford’s Law Review. “He is able to give them good advice, and it never becomes public.”

Yet, Christopher’s connections and white-collar resume may be a stumbling block as he attempts to probe the volatile, racially charged issues surrounding the police beating of King, a black Altadena man who was stopped by the Police Department after a car chase March 3. The incident has divided the city, sparking calls for the resignation of Police Chief Daryl F. Gates and a political battle between Gates and Bradley.

Too Establishment?

Civil rights activists have complained that Christopher--as well as the nine other members of the Independent Commission on the Los Angeles Police Department and its staff of 13 high-powered corporate lawyers--is too far removed from the pressures of life in the city’s black community, and too closely tied to the city’s Establishment, to effect real change within the Police Department.

“You’re really talking about people that are in the very basic power structure that has worked hand in hand with the Police Department,” said Joe Duff, president of the Los Angeles chapter of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People. “A lot of people are concerned that this is all being done to take the heat off the mayor and the police chief and the business community.”

Christopher’s friends and colleagues say the public should not be fooled by his corporate appearance. Beneath his businessman’s suit, they say, is a public-spirited, liberal thinker who will not be afraid to follow the evidence, wherever it leads.

“I think Christopher will size up the situation and will be not at all reluctant to come up with a very hard-hitting characterization if it is called for,” said John R. Phillips, who worked with Christopher at O’Melveny & Myers before founding the Center for Law in the Public Interest. “He is not going to use inflammatory rhetoric but he is not going to back away from conclusions that are solidly based.”

True to form, Christopher has given little indication of what he thinks about the beating of King or what reforms might be necessary. He says he and other commissioners have watched the videotape of the beating several times in slow motion and that “no person can watch the videotape and not be impressed by the level of violence.”

He would not go beyond that. “I have a certain responsibility as chairman of the commission to maintain a semi-judicial role.”

The commission is charged with conducting a top-to-bottom study of the Police Department. Although it will focus on the use of excessive force, the panel will also look at police training, recruitment, and the roles of the chief and the Police Commission, among other issues. Its report is expected by July 1.

Christopher said he is “very sensitive” to the views of minority leaders, and that is one reason the commission has invited them to air their views at today’s public hearing. He also insists that he will not be shy about calling for change.

“Although I plead guilty to being reserved,” he said, “I don’t want to accept the notion that we would fail to rock the boat if that’s the judgment that we reach based upon the data and information and evidence.

“Even though I’m the chairman of a large law firm and (people) see me as a representative of whatever the quote-Establishment-unquote is, it’s worth remembering that I didn’t begin that way. I came here as a young lawyer, one of the first Democrats in a very conservative law firm, and I have not changed.”

He is aware of the inevitable comparisons with his work 25 years ago as vice chairman of the McCone Commission. At the time of its release, the McCone report was criticized by some who said it failed to probe deeply enough into the causes of the riots, particularly the resentment within the black community. Christopher stands by the report, although in retrospect, he acknowledges: “I think the problem was deeper than we understood it to be at the time.”

Today, the chief complaint of civil rights leaders and others is that many of the McCone recommendations were never implemented, among them one that called for the creation of an independent “inspector general” to respond to citizen complaints about the Police Department.

“I worry,” said John Mack, president of the Urban League, “that we will end up with another very comprehensive, impressive study and report that ends up just sitting on somebody’s shelf, becoming a good conversation topic.”

Christopher shares that concern, and said he hopes that city leaders have since learned a “lesson of follow-through.”

According to Mark Fabiani, Bradley’s chief of staff, Christopher raised this issue with the mayor. “Paramount in both the mayor’s mind and Mr. Christopher’s mind was the need to create a report that would result in change,” Fabiani said. He added that Christopher, who advised the mayor during his 1982 and 1986 campaigns for governor, was Bradley’s “one and only choice to chair the commission.”

When Bradley made the request, Christopher did not accept immediately. Instead, characteristically, he discussed it with his friends and colleagues. Some, including Pierpoint, now retired from CBS, advised the 65-year-old attorney against it.

“At this age, in his stage in his career, it isn’t going to enhance his career in any way,” Pierpoint said. “It’s a no-win situation. If he does a good job he is still going to have a lot of people angry with him no matter how it comes out. . . . I don’t really understand why he has agreed to do this, except that he does it because he wants to serve.”

Christopher has deep feelings about public service, but he is extremely reluctant to talk about them. “Self-analysis,” he said, “is probably not very useful.”

The most he will allow is this: He was born in Scranton, N.D., and moved with his family to Los Angeles. His father, a banker, became seriously ill when Christopher was 10, and died when he was 13. As a young boy, Christopher recalled, he rode through North Dakota’s farm country with his father, visiting farmers who were suffering in deep poverty during the Depression. Sometimes, the elder Christopher was forced, reluctantly, to conduct foreclosure sales.

“That period probably accounts for my liberal leanings,” Christopher said. “Those leanings don’t necessarily equate to public service, but they have led to public service.”

One thing is clear: He does not do it for the publicity. Christopher--most people call him “Chris,” although in Washington he is known as Warren--steadfastly avoids the limelight. Even the walls of his 15th-floor office in downtown Los Angeles are devoid of any photographs of famous people he has worked with. He keeps no clippings of newspaper and magazine stories about himself.

According to one colleague at O’Melveny & Myers, Christopher makes it a policy to turn down awards in his honor, believing the expensive black-tie dinners that accompany them are an imposition on those invited. “You don’t see him getting very many awards,” said Bill Vaughn, head of the firm’s litigation department, “and that is not because they are not offered.”

Throughout his career, Christopher has gained a reputation for being an excellent negotiator. Observers say he has a remarkable talent for handling controversial issues objectively and forging a consensus when opinions conflict.

“He is a master diplomat,” said retired Superior Court Judge Earl C. Broady, who served with Christopher on the McCone Commission. “He’s the kind of man who lights up the scene without creating any heat.”

Is he tough?

“Tough isn’t the word I would apply,” said former U.S. Atty. Gen. Ramsey Clark, who met Christopher during a trip to Los Angeles in the wake of the Watts riots and then selected Christopher as his deputy at the Justice Department. “Very effective and persevering and result-oriented. Organized.”

As deputy attorney general, Christopher defied then-Gov. George Romney in recommending that the United States call up the Michigan National Guard to quell the Detroit riots in the summer of 1967. He also guided the prosecution of cases involving excessive police force after civil rights demonstrations in Detroit, Chicago and elsewhere.

Skilled Diplomat

When President Richard M. Nixon was in the White House, he offered the job of Watergate special prosecutor to Christopher, who had returned to Los Angeles to practice law. Christopher turned it down, fearing that he would not have the independence he needed.

Later, while at the State Department during his second tour in Washington, Christopher was intimately involved in negotiating the Panama Canal treaty, and played a key role in the reformulation of U.S. relations with Taiwan and China. In addition, he helped draft President Carter’s human rights policies and was responsible for implementing them.

In that role, Christopher had the delicate responsibility of recommending financial aid and arms sales to other countries, depending on their record on human rights. According to Peter Tarnoff, who was then executive secretary at the State Department, Christopher never voiced his viewpoint until all issues had been aired and all problems identified.

“He was able to gain the respect of . . . a spectrum of people who have sometimes simply never talked to each other,” said Tarnoff. “He was simply masterful.”

Christopher’s crowning moment at the State Department came with the release of the hostages from Iran. Roberts Owen, then legal counsel to the State Department and now a good friend of Christopher, recalls Christopher during the final period of negotiations in Algiers:

“He was able, if necessary, to stay up all night. When a break occurred, he would go off and lie down and sleep and you woke him up two hours later and he got up and went strongly forward. He has terrific concentration and terrific stamina.”

Back in Washington after the hostages were released, newsman Pierpoint took Christopher and his wife, Marie, out to celebrate. As they entered the restaurant, diners recognized Christopher and burst into applause. Christopher, Pierpoint said, looked a little confused.

He had to be told the applause was for him.

A LOOK AT THE COMMISSION

The following are members of the Independent Commission on the Los Angeles Police Department, which is charged with investigating the LAPD in the wake of the police beating of Rodney G. King.

Who: Warren Christopher, chairman

Position: Chairman, law firm of O’Melveny & Myers

Background: Deputy secretary of state under President Jimmy Carter, deputy attorney general under President Lyndon B. Johnson, vice chairman of the McCone Commission, which investigated the Watts riots. Active in Democratic politics.

Who: John A. Arguelles, vice chairman.

Position: Retired California Supreme Court justice.

Background: Active in Republican political circles. Asked by Police Chief Daryl F. Gates to chair a panel that would investigate the LAPD. Became vice chairman of the Christopher Commission when the two panels merged.

Who: Roy A. Anderson

Position: Chairman emeritus, Lockheed Corp.

Background: Former chairman and chief executive officer of Lockheed. Serves, along with Christopher, on the Stanford University Board of Trustees and the Board of Directors of First Interstate Bancorp and Southern California Edison.

Who: Willie R. Barnes

Position: Partner, law firm of Katten, Muchin, Zavis & Weitzman.

Background: Former California commissioner of corporations. Specializes in corporate and securities law.

Who: Leobardo F. Estrada

Position: Associate professor of architecture and urban planning, UCLA.

Background: Expert in racial and ethnic statistics, focusing on the Latino population. Former staff assistant to deputy director of the U.S. Census Bureau.

Who: Mickey Kantor

Position: Partner, law firm of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips.

Background: Los Angeles lawyer and lobbyist. Well-known Democratic party strategist.

Who: Richard M. Mosk

Position: Partner, law firm of Sanders, Barnet, Jacobson, Goldman & Mosk.

Background: Former president of the Federal Bar Assn. Member of the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal. Member of the staff of the Warren Commission, which investigated assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

Who: Andrea Sheridan Ordin

Position: Partner, law firm of Pepper, Hamilton & Schaetz.

Background: Recently stepped down as California’s chief assistant attorney general, supervising antitrust, consumer protection, environmental and civil rights cases. Former U.S. attorney in Los Angeles. Former adjunct professor at UCLA Law School.

Who: John Brooks Slaughter

Position: President, Occidental College

Background: Specializes in electronics engineering, active in efforts to involve minorities in science and engineering. Former director of the National Science Foundation.

Who: Robert E. Tranquada

Position: Dean of the USC School of Medicine

Background: Expert in diabetes and metabolic diseases. Former associate director of the South Central Multipurpose Health Center after the Watts riots.

SOURCE: Independent Commission on the Los Angeles Police Department