CHP Officer’s Account of King Beating Attacked : Trial: Defense says that photo of motorist shows no injuries of type described by witness and that such blows would have been fatal.

A California Highway Patrol officer’s testimony that she saw a Los Angeles police officer strike Rodney G. King’s head with a metal baton is “inherently unbelievable” because such blows would have killed him, the police officer’s attorney said Monday.

Defense attorney Michael Stone stopped short of calling CHP Officer Melanie Singer a liar but said her recollections of the night King was beaten have been heavily influenced by the now-famous 81-second videotape of the incident and by her role as a defendant in King’s multimillion-dollar civil suit.

“The fear and apprehension over the pending lawsuit by Rodney King . . . has some tendency to affect the witness’s testimony,” Stone said outside the courtroom. “The jury needs to understand there is that pressure on her.”

Singer was the first officer to encounter motorist King, a 26-year-old black, on March 3, 1991, shortly before a bystander videotaped white Los Angeles police officers beating and kicking him after a traffic stop.

Four police officers--three of them suspended without pay and one fired--are on trial for assault with a deadly weapon and other felonies.

The videotape, shot by a neighbor awakened by noise in the street, sparked a public outcry and political wrangling among Los Angeles city officials, prompting an appeal court to order the trial moved to this eastern Ventura County city.

During her second day on the witness stand, Singer spoke of discrepancies between the report written by Officer Laurence M. Powell and her memory of what happened that night.

She also testified about inaccuracies in the report written by her CHP partner and husband, Tim Singer, who was riding with her when she began chasing King on a San Fernando Valley freeway.

Stone, cross-examining Singer in the morning session, attempted to discredit Singer’s earlier testimony that his client, Powell, struck King in the head seven times with his baton.

Stone showed the jury an enlarged photograph of the left side of King’s face taken three days after the incident, showing small abrasions and bruises on his cheekbone. Singer testified Friday that Powell’s first blow split Kings face from cheek to jaw.

“Singer is unable to explain the apparent hole in her testimony,” Stone said during a break. “There’s not a mark, not a Band-Aid.

“The way Officer Singer testified, Mr. King would not be alive today,” Stone said. “My purpose in bringing the photograph of Rodney King to court is to demonstrate that her testimony is inherently unbelievable.”

Earlier Monday, Stone showed an enhanced copy of the videotape played in slow motion, attempting to catch inconsistencies in her earlier testimony.

However, Singer insisted that her testimony has been based on recollections of the incident, not on repeated viewings of the videotape.

Stone has maintained that Sgt. Stacey C. Koon, the top-ranking officer at the scene, may have saved King’s life by ordering Singer to back off as she approached King to handcuff him with her gun drawn.

Speaking to reporters Monday, Stone said what Koon did was not only proper but prevented Singer from shooting King after he rose to his feet and allegedly charged at officers.

Singer has refused to talk to reporters outside court.

Koon, 41; Powell, 29; Officer Theodore J. Briseno, 39, and rookie Timothy E. Wind are charged with assault with a deadly weapon and excessive force under color of authority. Koon and Powell also are charged with filing false police reports and Koon faces an additional count of being an accessory after the fact.