Report Tells King’s Fear in Vice Arrest : Police: According to documents, he thought undercover officers were going to kill him when he was taken into custody after an encounter in Hollywood.

Rodney G. King feared that Los Angeles police were going to kill him when he was arrested last week after an encounter with a transvestite prostitute in Hollywood, according to police reports reviewed Wednesday by The Times.

“Those guys have guns,” King told two uniformed police officers after he was taken into custody. “I’m paranoid. I thought it was the big chance for the police to kill me. I thought that’s what they were going to do. I get paranoid. You know how they are.”

King’s statements to police appear in the internal Police Department investigative reports that were forwarded Wednesday to the Los Angeles criminal division of the state attorney general’s office. The attorney general is studying the case to determine whether charges of assault with a deadly weapon should be filed against King for allegedly attempting to run down an undercover vice officer with his Chevy Blazer.

The incident began at 11:30 p.m. on May 28 after King was seen parked in a carport with a person later determined to be a transvestite prostitute.

According to the reports, one of the vice officers believed that King was going to kill him when the 25-year-old Altadena man suddenly gunned his engine and the vehicle came within inches of running over the officer.

“The suspect started his vehicle, backing up in an unsafe manner and causing his rear wheels to break ground,” Officer Luis Chavez wrote in his reports, decribing what happened in a narrow Hollywood alley.

“Next, the suspect proceeded forward eastbound through the alley at a high rate of speed, again breaking ground with the tires. I raised my badge towards the vehicle yelling, ‘Police! Stop!’ The suspect observed me and made a sharp right turning motion, turning the vehicle towards me.

“Fearing that the suspect was attempting to strike me with his vehicle, I jumped onto a gate, which was 3 to 5 inches behind me. The suspect came within 1 and 1 1/2 feet of striking me. I felt the suspect deliberately drove his vehicle towards me, as the vehicle swerved in my direction.”

In another development Wednesday, Steven A. Lerman, King’s attorney, accused the Police Department and other law enforcement agencies of conducting an around-the-clock, intricate surveillance operation on his client. He said police officials, whom he would not name, have placed a homing transmitter on King’s vehicle, taken surveillance photographs and videos of King, and even used a helicopter with a “silent rotor” to spy on King from overhead.

Lerman also said he personally saw undercover officers twice drive by his residence while King was visiting.

“Police in Los Angeles are mad at Rodney King,” Lerman said. “They are very mad at Rodney King and what he stands for. But why don’t they train their anger on those officers who beat and kicked him instead?”

But Police Chief Daryl F. Gates and the Police Department have categorically denied those allegations.

“Its simply not true,” said police spokesman Lt. Fred Nixon. “Our wish would be to never come in contact with Mr. King again.

“We don’t have the time or the resources or the desire or any motivation for following Rodney King around,” Nixon added. “And we certainly can’t think of any reason to try to set him up on any kind of a charge.”

But Lerman insisted that the police are involved in an elaborate effort to ruin King’s reputation and that the Hollywood incident was part of a police “setup” designed to disgrace him.

However, he refused to provide any evidence of the surveillance, and said much of his information was based on a phone call that his office received from a police officer who claimed to be involved in the undercover operation. Lerman refused to name the caller.

Lerman said police agencies are particularly disgusted that the national news media cast King as a victim of police abuse after he was repeatedly beaten and kicked by Los Angeles police officers on March 3 in the San Fernando Valley.

Although Lerman described the Hollywood incident as a “bogus case,” Dave Puglia, a spokesman for the attorney general’s office in Sacramento, said the matter will be thoroughly investigated. “It’s a sensitive case,” he said. “And there’s a unique set of circumstances involved here. They will be handled professionally.”

In the police reports, the vice officers noticed King inside his vehicle with a person later determined to be a transvestite prostitute who goes alternately by the name of Hector and Diana.

Chavez and his partner, Efrain Baeza, said they noticed what appeared to be lewd conduct in King’s auto. They identified themselves as police officers and displayed their badges, Chavez said in his report. But King drove at Chavez, sped away from the alley and the prostitute jumped out of the vehicle, Chavez said.

Seconds later, King pulled his vehicle alongside two uniformed officers who were in a black and white patrol car.

In a second police report, Officer Richard Beach described how King suddenly appeared next to the patrol car. “The driver appeared panicked, rolled down the passenger window and said ‘Quick! Quick! Follow me!’ ”

As King sped off, “Beach told his partner that the driver looked a lot like Rodney King.”

The patrol car followed, and after King weaved in and out of traffic, he eventually slowed down and stopped.

“A male black (King) stuck both hands out the window,” the reports said. “Beach stated he told the driver to shut off the motor and step out. The driver stated, ‘No, man. It’s cool! It’s cool!’ ”

King said that “he couldn’t get out and that he was partially crippled,” the reports added. “The driver then whispered, ‘I’m Rodney King.’ ”

King got out of the vehicle using a cane and walked toward the police car. The officers took his cane, and King said, “Everything is cool!”

The vice officers arrived and King was arrested on a charge of assault with a deadly weapon, but, on orders of Gates, was not booked.

“At one point in time, possibly after he was cuffed, King stated something to the effect, ‘Gee, I’m sorry about this,’ ” the reports said. “Beach indicated that King seemed apologetic and said he was sorry for all the trouble.”

The reports said King told the uniformed officers, “I like professionalism, and you guys have been real polite to me.” It was then that he made his comments about the vice officers and fearing that some police wanted to kill him. He also expressed concerns that he was being set up by the police.

In another report, Beach’s partner, Officer James Simoneschi, said King told police investigators that he also feared that the vice officers were street criminals. “Those guys had guns,” Simoneschi said in quoting King. “I think they are gang members.”

In addition, state parole officials have said King told them that he believed the undercover vice officers were robbers and that he fled in fear.