Judge in King Case Denies He Is Biased : Judiciary: He rebuts a charge that he showed prejudice against four accused officers. Search begins for new trial venue.

In an attempt to stay on the case, Superior Court Judge Bernard Kamins on Tuesday defended himself against charges that he showed bias against four Los Angeles police officers accused of beating motorist Rodney G. King.

Meanwhile, the case moved forward without Kamins, as another judge initiated the search for a place to hold the trial outside of Los Angeles County.

In a 21-page legal brief filed with the 2nd District Court of Appeal, a county lawyer for Kamins acknowledged that a private message that the judge sent to prosecutors was “ill-advised and misconstrued,” but said it did not warrant his disqualification.

“A judge is only human and will make mistakes,” wrote Assistant County Counsel Frederick R. Bennett. “Even though a perfect trial might not be held, Judge Kamins can assure a fair and unbiased one.”

Defense lawyers, who have been pressing for Kamins’ removal, argue that the June 18 message to prosecutors is evidence that the judge is biased. But in his legal brief, Bennett wrote that Kamins “treated all counsel with the utmost respect and impartiality.”

The brief was submitted hours after Superior Court Judge Gary Klausner issued a formal change-of-venue order, in effect asking state judicial officials to begin searching for another county to host the trial.

Klausner, a supervising judge, is temporarily presiding over the case while the 2nd District Court of Appeal considers whether to remove Kamins. In an unusual move, the appeals court has allowed matters in the case to go forward without Kamins while the issue of who will preside over the trial is resolved.

Klausner’s change-of-venue order complies with a ruling last month by the same appeals court, which cited intense political fallout over the King beating in ordering the case moved out of Los Angeles County.

Klausner said he believes it will take about a week for the state Judicial Council to provide him with a list of alternative sites from which to choose. He ordered lawyers for both sides back to court on Aug. 22.

“We know that we’re going, but we don’t know where,” defense attorney John Barnett said afterward. He predicted that jury selection could begin within the month and said the trial might get under way in the fall.

The four policemen--Sgt. Stacy C. Koon and Officers Laurence M. Powell, Timothy E. Wind and Theodore J. Briseno--are charged with assault under color of authority and other related offenses in the March 3 videotaped beating of King, an Altadena motorist. All have pleaded innocent; Koon, Powell and Briseno have been suspended from the department and Wind, a rookie officer who was still on probation, was fired.