King Lawyer Says Second Tape May Aid Civil Suit

The attorney for Rodney G. King said Wednesday that he hopes to use a second videotape of the March 3 beating of his client in his civil lawsuit against the Los Angeles Police Department because it shows that a number of witnesses were “horrified” at how the police treated the black motorist.

The tape, made by the night assistant manager of an apartment building next to where the beating occurred in Lake View Terrace, includes the voices of several apartment residents expressing outrage over the incident. One of them notes that King was beaten by a group of white officers, while others angrily question why the officers beat him after he was on the ground.

Steven A. Lerman, King’s attorney, said the tape could garner sympathy for King in his civil trial, in which he is expected to ask a federal court jury to award millions of dollars in damages.

“These people,” the lawyer said of the witnesses heard on the tape, “were quite expressive and graphic about what they saw. They were horrified.”

Unlike the videotape made by George Holliday, the second tape, recorded by Clifford Bernard, begins at the end of the beating and shows little of what occurred between the time King got out of his car and when he was taken into custody.

The Times first reported on the Bernard videotape in March, saying that it showed King on the ground with his arms tied behind his back and officers milling about.

Bernard could not be reached for comment Wednesday. But he told police Internal Affairs Division investigators that he made the video “to show and emphasize to the youth group at his church that they should stay off of the streets.”

With jury selection set to begin in 10 days in the criminal trial of four officers charged in the beating, two of their defense attorneys said Wednesday that they believe the Bernard tape will not be used in the trial because it does not show the incident.

A spokeswoman in the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office said that prosecutors also see little “evidentiary value” in using the Bernard tape to help convict the four officers.

The issue of the second tape surfaced again on Wednesday when news radio station KFWB reported that some defense attorneys planned to use the tape at the criminal trial.