Prosecutor Puts Pressure on Officer Powell

In a rare display of anger and aggressiveness, the prosecutor in the Rodney G. King beating trial on Wednesday challenged Officer Laurence M. Powell’s contention that he was simply following orders when he delivered a series of blows to King with a metal baton.

The exchange between the prosecutor and the accused was the sharpest yet in a trial that, surprisingly, has been relatively free of rising tempers and theatrics. The exchange also highlighted the disintegrating solidarity among the four Los Angeles police officers accused of assaulting the black motorist last year.

On Powell’s second day of testimony, Deputy Dist. Atty. Terry White repeatedly asked the officer to name those most to blame for King’s beating. Earlier this week, Powell had suggested that Sgt. Stacey C. Koon controlled what happened to King, but White finally forced him on Wednesday to concede that each officer was responsible for his own actions.

During Powell’s morning on the witness stand, the prosecution covered substantial ground, trying to convince the jury that the officer had not only criminally assaulted King but had covered it up in official reports. In one of the day’s more dramatic moments, White handed Powell a police baton and asked him to demonstrate how he had first hit King. The prosecutor played the part of the motorist.

Powell has drawn more attention than any of the other officers accused in the beating. Not only was he the most aggressive, but he has been accused of sending racist computer messages on his patrol car’s computer and of laughing after the attack--allegations Powell has denied.

The rapid-fire courtroom confrontation between White and Powell began when the 29-year-old officer repeated his assertions that Koon, the highest-ranking officer at the scene, had called the shots during the beating. White seemed determined to undermine that position during cross-examination.

“When he tells me to do things,” Powell said of Koon on Wednesday, “and they’re in department policy and I feel they’re reasonable, then by all means you do them or you’re in trouble.”

But White, who has maintained a low-key demeanor throughout the trial, continued to press Powell, scoffing at him and asking whether he was merely “a puppet” of Koon and whether the sergeant had sanctioned the use of excessive force.

Powell, apparently unwilling to agree with the prosecutor’s characterization of the beating as “excessive force,” said the question did not make sense and could not be answered.

White, his voice rising, then pointed at Koon, who was seated nearby. “Even if there was excessive force used out there that night, you wouldn’t say it, would you?” the prosecutor bellowed, hinting at a code of silence among the officers. “You wouldn’t testify here in court in front of this jury that this man was responsible, would you?”

Powell, taken aback by the allegation, straightened in the witness stand. “If there was excessive force used out there that night,” he said, “I would have reported it to another supervisor.”

“That is not the question!” White shouted, again pointing at Koon. “I’m saying if there was excessive force out there that night, is this man responsible?”

“He didn’t hit anybody,” Powell said. “How could he be?”

“Was he controlling it?” asked the prosecutor in what appeared to be an effort to get Powell to implicate both himself and Koon.

“He was controlling it,” Powell conceded.

With that, White pursued his line of inquiry to the next logical step: If Koon controlled the situation, he asked, was he not ultimately responsible for the level of force?

“Everybody out there,” Powell finally acknowledged, “was responsible for their own actions.”

During tough questioning, White also sought to convince the jury that Powell, like Koon, covered up the circumstances and severity of the beating in subsequent reports, unaware that the incident had been captured on videotape by an amateur cameraman.

Most notably, the prosecutor took aim at Powell’s description of King’s injuries as only “contusions and abrasions.” When White noted that King required 21 stitches in his face, Powell said he meant the word “contusions” to mean “cuts and scrapes.”

The prosecutor also took issue with a passage in Powell’s report in which the officer said he alone initially approached King for handcuffing. On the stand, he had testified that several other officers assisted him.

Explaining the discrepancy, Powell said: “We don’t get into exact details in a police report. At least I don’t. I don’t cover every single step I make.”

Powell’s seeming willingness to break ranks by holding Koon responsible follows a similar strategy pursued by Officer Theodore J. Briseno, who is accused of a single kick to King’s head. Briseno’s attorney said in his opening statement that the officer was trying to protect King from the other officers, who were “out of control,” by forcing the suspect to the ground.

Briseno’s attorney said his client also was so repulsed by the beating that he tried to deflect Powell’s baton. But Powell said he interpreted Briseno’s actions as only trying to keep him from being shocked with the wires from an electric stun gun.

Wednesday afternoon, Officer Timothy E. Wind’s attorney, Paul DePasquale, began the presentation of his case. He started by presenting Officer Paul Gebhardt, who said he only saw Wind strike King about four times with his baton and never saw him kick the suspect. Gebhardt also said King never obeyed police commands to lie still on the ground.

“He wasn’t listening to the commands and he was moving about,” Gebhardt said.

All four defendants have pleaded not guilty.

The trial resumes today and attorneys are expected to debate whether a defense witness who is an expert on physical injuries will be allowed to testify about King’s wounds.