Dismissal of King Case to Be Sought : Courts: Attorney says four LAPD officers have been denied a speedy trial. Both sides prepare for proceedings to start in February.

Prosecutors and attorneys for four Los Angeles police officers indicted in the beating of Rodney G. King agreed Wednesday that they will be ready to go to trial in early February, but one of the defense lawyers said he will ask that charges be dismissed because the officers have been denied their right to a speedy trial.

In a hearing before supervising Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Gary Klausner, attorneys for the indicted officers said that although most of them are prepared to go to trial now, they all will be ready to start the proceedings the first week of February. Still unresolved, however, is the selection of a new judge and a location for the trial, which was ordered held outside Los Angeles County because of pretrial publicity.

In addition, John Barnett, who represents Officer Theodore J. Briseno, said he will argue at a hearing Friday that the defendants’ rights to a swift trial were violated because the case was put on hold almost four months. During that time, legal issues surrounding the suitability of Superior Court Judge Bernard J. Kamins to continue hearing the case were heard, ending with the state Supreme Court’s ruling this week that the judge should be kept off the trial.

Barnett, who was instrumental in pushing for Kamins’ removal from the case, told Judge Klausner on Wednesday that he has received new information which must be investigated before the trial can move ahead. He suggested that the new information could be grounds for dismissing the charges against the officers.

“There are very serious constitutional issues involved here,” Barnett said. “Those issues have to do with denial of a due process right to a speedy trial.”

Should it be determined that the officers have been denied that right, he said, then “the remedy is dismissal of all the charges.”

Briseno, along with Sgt. Stacey C. Koon and Officers Laurence M. Powell and Timothy E. Wind, are charged in the March 3 beating of King. All have pleaded not guilty.

Barnett declined to elaborate on how he believed the officers’ rights to a swift trial were violated. But throughout the lengthy delay over Kamins’ status on the case, Barnett often urged Klausner, unsuccessfully, to move the case forward by selecting a replacement judge and naming a new site for the trial.

While Kamins remained on the case, he repeatedly advised both defense attorneys and prosecutors that the King case was not complex and that a speedy trial could be achieved.