LAPD Relieves 6 Who Watched King Beating : Police: Officers are taken off duty without pay. Lesser disciplinary actions are brought against other bystanders.

At least six Los Angeles police officers who witnessed but did nothing to stop the March beating of Rodney G. King are being relieved of duty and are in the process of turning in their guns, badges and Los Angeles Police Department serial numbers, The Times learned on Monday.

The six officers have been ordered to appear before a department Board of Rights that could result in their firing.

In addition, four officers are being suspended for periods ranging up to 22 days, and another has been given a five-day suspension for allegedly conducting personal business on a police computer terminal shortly before the King beating.

Police administrators refused to release the names of officers being disciplined until today, when all of the 19 LAPD officers who were bystanders during the Lake View Terrace incident have been notified.

Other department sources said those relieved of duty, meaning they go unpaid, include Tim Blake; 28, a three-year veteran; Paul R. Gebhardt, 48, a 16-year veteran; Joseph F. Napolitano, 46, a six-year veteran; Danny Shry, 36, a three-year veteran; Robert J. Simpach, 46, an 18-year veteran, and Louis M. Turriaga, 26, a member of the department since 1988.

The sources added that four probationary officers hired in 1990 are being suspended without pay, and identified them as Rolando Solano, suspended for 22 days; Christopher Hajduk, 15 days; Ingrid Larson, 10 days, and David A. Love, five days.

Another officer, Corina Smith, who was not at the scene, was suspended for five days, sources said.

Although Smith was not present during the King beating, officials said she sent a series of messages to a patrol car occupied by Officers Laurence M. Powell and Timothy Wind, and that the officers sent her a racially insensitive message interpreted as describing blacks as “Gorillas in the Mist.”

The fates of nine other officers who were bystanders were unknown. Police officials said the department is still investigating the actions of a police helicopter pilot and his observer who spotlighted the scene during the beating.

Simpach, one of those relieved of duty, said he “expected” the discipline, adding, “I’m not happy about it.” He said he responded to the scene on a call for help and that “I saw very little.”

“We can only guess what’s going on here,” Simpach said. “Most of our thinking is that because of the detrimental public outcry, this is one way the department can say they did their part and punished us. There’s a tremendous amount of pressure on them to save the image of the department and repair it.

“We all feel let down by the department,” he added. “Definitely. How can you be held responsible for everything that happened before you got there?”

Napolitano, another of those being relieved of duty, refused to comment, saying he would not discuss the King incident unless the media began reporting the case in an “unbiased and professional manner.”

Blake, also being relieved, declined to comment. Other officers could not be reached Monday.

The decisions on disciplining the bystander officers were reached during an intense and extraordinary meeting at Parker Center last Thursday between Assistant Chief David D. Dotson, Cmdr. Rick Dinse and officials from the department’s Internal Affairs Division.

“We spent five hours on those cases,” Dotson said, “and I mean they were an intensive five hours. We had a group discussion and a review of each individual’s case and a review of the videotape.”

He said the decisions were particularly “tough” to reach and will not please the entire community.

“A lot of people have an interest in seeing that we ought to hang all of these officers at sunrise,” Dotson said. “And that didn’t happen.

“But it was a tough decision-making process. It was tough because of the notoriety of the case and the intense public interest of the case. . . . So we spent a great deal of time going through each individual case and determining what was appropriate.”

Dotson and other top-level administrators said that because they believe the beating was a criminal act, those officers who witnessed the incident were required to stop the assault and, at the very least, report it to their supervisors.

Dotson said none of the spectator officers stepped in to break up the altercation. He said none of those who witnessed the beating reported it--except after an amateur videotape surfaced.

“We clearly believe officers have a responsibility when they see misconduct to step in and stop it,” Dotson said. “And certainly to reported it after the fact. Failure to do that is very serious.”

Although the four officers who participated in the beating have been criminally charged, Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner declined to charge any of the bystander officers, saying there was no legal grounds for their indictment. A federal investigation of the bystander officers continues, but Justice Department sources have said criminal charges would be difficult to sustain.

Capt. James T. McBride of the LAPD’s Foothill Division, where the March 3 beating occurred, said supervisors on Monday began informing officers of the discipline.

“It is very traumatic for some of these officers,” McBride said. “It really is. In the case of one particular officer, he’s been with the department a long, long time, and now this is extremely traumatic.

“I know he and his family are having a lot of problems, and now they’re having financial strains because he doesn’t have a job anymore.”

Under Police Department policies, the officers who are being relieved of duty are being ordered to attend an administrative Board of Rights hearing.

At those hearings, the officer and the department’s Internal Affairs Division argue the case and present evidence, and a panel of three command-level supervisors make a recommendation on the appropriate punishment. The most severe recommendation would be termination.

Police Chief Daryl F. Gates reviews the recommendation. He can either accept or reduce the punishment, but he cannot increase the discipline.

Another problem faced by the officers relieved of duty is the possibility that the department may want to delay the administrative hearings until after the criminal trial of four other officers who were indicted in the King beating. Three of those officers have been relieved of duty and the fourth, a probationary officer, has been fired.

The criminal trial may not begin until late in the fall--at the earliest--meaning that the bystander officers could find their job status on hold until well into next year.

“It’s like you can’t go out and get a new job,” McBride said. “There’s not a lot you can do. You’re in limbo with no pay coming in.”

Simpach, one of those being relieved of duty, has four children.

“The criminal trial could go a long time,” Simpach said. “They could drag this out for a couple of years. And if we can’t get our jobs back during that time, we’ll have nothing. When you aren’t getting paid, it’s hard to get medical insurance and so you can only hope nothing happens to any of the kids.”

Many of the bystander officers, in sworn testimony before the Los Angeles County Grand Jury and in interviews included in the Internal Affairs Division report in the King case, insisted that they did not believe the beating was misconduct.

They said that King was unruly, aggressive and that he repeatedly disobeyed police commands to cooperate after he was stopped for speeding. They also said that the use of batons and kicks on King was allowed under the LAPD’s training procedures, and that officers are encouraged to use such techniques when they believe force is appropriate.

Diane Marchant, an attorney who has represented many of the bystander officers, said the department has been “wishy-washy” in its attempt to lay blame on her clients.

“They just assume that everybody that was anywhere near the incident saw everything that was on the videotape,” she said. “That is not correct.

“Some were directing traffic. Some were in a helicopter. Some were occupied with the passengers in King’s car. Some got there at the beginning. Some got there at the end.”

She also noted that the grand jury, after a lengthy investigation, declined to indict any of the bystander officers.

In other developments Monday:

* State judicial officials selected Orange County Superior Court Judge James L. Smith to determine whether Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Bernard J. Kamins should be disqualified from presiding over the criminal trial of the four officers.

Karen Ringuette, a spokeswoman for the State Judicial Council, said Smith will review arguments submitted by defense lawyers and by Kamins, a process that generally takes two weeks and does not require a hearing. Meanwhile, she said, the council is considering alternative sites for the officers’ trial, which will be held outside of Los Angeles County.

Defense attorneys have argued that Kamins is biased against them, a charge the judge has denied.

* In federal court, a judge issued a protective order that temporarily bars lawyers for Officer Theodore J. Briseno--one of the four indicted--from deposing King as part of a civil rights case King has filed against the officers and the city.

In response to a request from King’s attorney, U.S. District Judge John G. Davies ruled that no depositions be taken until lawyers for all sides can agree on a “discovery plan” in the case.

Times staff writer Sheryl Stolberg contributed to this story.