Chokehold Ban Cited as Reason King Was Beaten : Trial: An LAPD expert testifies that the forbidden technique would have been more effective in subduing the motorist. He tells the court that other use-of-force options are needed.

Use-of-force alternatives such as the chokehold, which Los Angeles police officers are forbidden to use except when lives are threatened, would have been more effective in the arrest of Rodney G. King than police batons, a Police Department expert testified Tuesday.

Sgt. Charles L. Duke Jr., in his second day on the witness stand in the trial of four LAPD officers accused in the King beating, said the city banned the chokehold 10 years ago except in life-threatening situations because a series of black suspects died after it was used on them. And the city has been unwilling to finance other more effective use-of-force alternatives to restrain suspects, he said.

“We need something else,” Duke said, explaining that batons alone are not enough to bring some unruly suspects into compliance with police. “The officers in the street desperately need something else, because things are occurring out in the street and the officers need help.”

All of the 56 baton blows to King were appropriate, Duke said, because the officers had no other use-of-force options at their disposal. He said deadly force was never warranted against the Altadena motorist because he did not threaten the lives of the officers at the scene.

Duke testified on behalf of the three defendants viewed as most culpable in the beating--Sgt. Stacey C. Koon and Officer Laurence M. Powell and former Officer Timothy E. Wind. Koon was the supervising officer at the scene. Powell and Wind used their batons on King while Officer Theodore J. Briseno, the fourth officer charged in the beating, is accused of stomping King one time.

But Deputy Dist. Atty. Terry White, in cross-examining Duke, contended that it is incredulous that the officers would repeatedly strike King because he did not lie perfectly still on the ground.

Of the chokehold, Duke said: “It is very effective. I’ve used it in the past. I’ve handled PCP suspects within 15 or 20 seconds.”

King could have been taken into custody within seconds if officers had not been restricted in its use, Duke said.

Duke testified that he has lobbied the department to purchase nets and leg-grabbers, a device to bring a suspect down by trapping the legs, but city funds have not been available.

In a hearing outside the jury’s presence, Darryl Mounger, attorney for Koon, told Judge Stanley M. Weisberg that the LAPD warned that batons would be more readily used if the chokehold was prohibited.

“This,” he said of the King beating, “was something that was predicted. This was something that everyone knew was going to happen. This was something that was not an aberration.”

In other developments Tuesday, prosecutors, with the help of King’s attorney, showed the jury enlarged photographs of King taken three days after the March 3, 1991, beating.

The photos show injuries to his face, right eye and head, but none on his chest. The prosecution has contended that King was hit in the head, not in the chest as maintained by the defense.

But defense attorneys were outraged when they saw the photos Tuesday morning, especially when prosecutor White announced that King’s attorney, Steven A. Lerman, gave him the photos a week ago.

Lerman, who has been attending the trial, was called to the stand outside the jury’s presence. He testified that the photos were taken in his Beverly Hills office and that they were not enhanced to highlight King’s injuries.

“He wasn’t told to pose,” Lerman said. “In my opinion, he was in a great deal of shock. He was in pain. And he was numb.”

Also on Tuesday, members of the Hispanic Advisory Council to the Los Angeles Police Commission said that racism has become a subtle issue in the trial. In a news conference outside the courthouse here, they noted that no blacks are on the jury and that officers at the scene of the beating have described king as a “monster” and a “bear.”

“I think definitely race is there,” said Gloria Romero, the council’s chairwoman. “And if we are too blind to see it and recognize it, then we are not seeing justice served.”

The four defendants have pleaded not guilty.

When the trial resumes this morning, the defense is expected to call another use-of-force expert and other police officers who were bystanders at the scene.