Judge Denies Access to LAPD Files : King beating: The Christopher Commission is seeking records on four officers. The court rules that release of the material might jeopardize a fair trial.

Neither police personnel files nor Internal Affairs investigation records concerning four Los Angeles police officers charged in the beating of Rodney G. King can be released to the Christopher Commission or made public through departmental tribunals, a judge ruled Monday.

The citizens panel investigating the Police Department in the wake of the March 3 incident had gone to court to get records that Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Bernard Kamins had ordered sealed.

John Spiegel, general counsel for the 10-member Independent Commission on the Los Angeles Police Department, promised that only its chairman, former Deputy Secretary of State Warren Christopher, would review the confidential material.

The judge refused the request, saying that he feared the confidential information would find its way into the commission’s report, due July 1, or be leaked to the press.

“After the luminaries see the information, what would happen to it?” Kamins asked. “It would have a huge impact on this case . . . (and) jeopardize the trial for both sides.

“I don’t want the court to be sucked into the political arena,” he said, explaining that his primary concern is to afford the four officers a fair trial.

Kamins noted that the Christopher Commission was formed by Mayor Tom Bradley and Police Chief Daryl F. Gates, and suggested that its findings could be viewed as “a cover-your-backside report.”

“The goals appear to be political, not goals in the interest of justice,” he said, adding that the group’s haste and focus on the King incident may be an attempt “to bolster the political positions of the people who asked that it be written (by) casting blame elsewhere.”

Spiegel said the probe necessarily focuses on the King beating because it is an example of “a disturbing event that needs to be understood so we can take steps to prevent its recurrence.”

Defense attorneys had argued that the release of any information could “tarnish all four defendants by innuendo.”

Kamins said he will reconsider the commission’s request for the information at the next court hearing May 30.

The ruling also affects Police Department Board of Rights hearings that were to get under way this week for three of the Foothill Division officers, Sgt. Stacey C. Koon and Officers Laurence M. Powell and Theodore J. Briseno. All have sought speedy hearings after being suspended without pay. The fourth, rookie Officer Timothy E. Wind, was fired.

Kamins said he felt that the tribunals should be postponed until after the criminal trial ends, and that if they are held now, they must take place behind closed doors.

Briseno’s Board of Rights hearing was recessed Monday to May 29 only 15 minutes after it began. His attorney asked that the hearing be open, an apparent conflict with Kamins’ orders. Spokesmen for the city attorney and the Police Department said they need to study the judge’s protective order before proceeding.

In another ruling involving confidential information, Kamins held a Los Angeles Daily News reporter in contempt for attempting to record a secret hearing in his courtroom.

He fined reporter John Polich $500 and instructed that the fine be donated to a charity chosen by the newspaper. Polich admitted intentionally leaving his tape recorder running in the courtroom. The judge said the reporter told a bailiff, “I was just doing my job.”

Kamins told Polich he had brought “disgrace to other newspeople,” adding: “I think your integrity is worth more than your job.”

Daily News Editor Robert Burdick, who came to court to apologize, said Polich’s action was “an aberration” and not condoned by the newspaper.

In another development Monday, a group of Latino community activists announced their support for an ongoing recall attempt against Gates, criticizing the department for alleged brutality against Latinos.

Eulalio Castellanos, a spokesman for the Mexican-American Political Assn., said Latinos have been circulating petitions at churches and in door-to-door campaigns throughout Los Angeles in an effort to force Gates from office. Castellanos said the videotaped beating of King has reinforced longstanding complaints by the Latino community about acts of police brutality.

The recall attempt, which still needs 48,000 signatures to qualify for the fall ballot, is also supported by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the Assn. of Mexican-American Educators and Los Californios.

“We in the Latino community have no choice but to take matters in our own hands,” said Theresa Montano, president-elect of the Assn. of Mexican-American Educators. “If our representatives refuse to fire Daryl Gates, we will recall him.”

Times staff writers Marc Lacey and Sheryl Stolberg also contributed to this story.