TV Coverage of King Case Captures Broad Audience : Media: Courtroom drama televised live by KTTV is being watched with particular interest in South-Central L.A., where the LAPD has long been a target of criticism.

As Los Angeles Police Officer Theodore J. Briseno testified Friday that Rodney G. King was needlessly clubbed by two fellow officers, South-Central Los Angeles viewers clustered around TV sets in senior citizen centers, liquor stores and barbershops to watch and, in most cases, render their own verdict.

“I don’t believe him,” Helen Lee said while on a break from cutting hair at a barbershop near Avalon and Manchester boulevards.

The regulars at the Theresa Lindsay Senior Center were more blunt. “He’s lying like a dog,” one viewer grumbled.

Friday’s reaction to the dramatic testimony--televised live by KTTV Channel 11--came after a week of testimony that has captured the attention of hundreds of thousands of Angelenos.

But unlike many of them, Lee and the senior citizens live in South-Central Los Angeles, where longtime criticisms of the LAPD were ominously affirmed by the March 3, 1991, videotaped beating, and as a result, the telecast has become particularly compelling fare there.

Interest in the trial, which is being telecast from the East Ventura County courthouse in Simi Valley, appeared to peak this week as Briseno and co-defendant Laurence M. Powell took the stand to defend themselves against charges of excessive force.

Officials at KTTV, who decided to forgo regular programming to televise the trial, said their viewership has jumped an estimated 40% in the Arbitron ratings, making the station the most-watched in Los Angeles during the times the trial is on the air.

According to figures released by the station, an estimated 195,000 households are tuned to the Channel 11 coverage, headed by anchorman Chris Harris and reporters Dave Bryan and Jane Wells.

While station officials have no information on where the highest concentration of viewers lives, it was evident Friday that Briseno’s testimony was the topic of conversation on the Southside.

“The trial’s on at about every house I’ve delivered mail to this morning,” said postal carrier Rahn Porter. “These folks aren’t interested in the soaps. They want to watch this trial.”

At the Lindsay Center, a reporter was reprimanded for asking a question while a group of eight elderly men watched Briseno on the witness stand.

“Shhh!” one senior citizen said angrily.

At a small real estate office near 76th Street and Avalon Boulevard, it took office workers several moments to respond to a knock at the front door.

“We were all in the back watching the trial,” one broker sheepishly admitted.

The reaction was similar earlier this week when Powell took the stand in his own defense.

In the electronics department of the May Co. store at the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza, a steady stream of shoppers and the curious were attracted to 26 television sets mounted in three rows on a wall, all tuned to Channel 11 and Powell’s testimony.

TV salesman Jasper Blue said people seemed more involved in watching the trial than they have been with other news events appearing on the TV sets.

“People are very interested in what’s going on,” he said. “They ask (me) why are they asking these questions or that, or why is the trial taking so long.”

As Blue watched Powell’s testimony on the TV screens, a shopper interested in purchasing a VCR stopped to watch.

“I used to think watching daytime soaps was a waste of time, but this is real life,” said the shopper, who declined to give his name. “It’s informative and interesting.”

During a break in last Tuesday’s coverage, Blue confided that having the trial on multiple sets was a ploy to get shoppers to notice the merchandise.

“If you have different things on, people won’t notice,” he said. “But if you have one thing on all 26, the shopper will say, ‘Why are all these sets showing one thing?’ See, they’ll notice the sets.”

But alas, Blue admitted, “The trial doesn’t really help sell TV sets.”

Some people took extraordinary steps to watch the trial.

At a bus stop in front of Jefferson High School, Damon Thomas, 22, ignored several Route 102 buses in order to watch Powell testify on his hand-held TV.

“I usually listen to my tunes and tune out the world,” he confided. “But this is great . . . except when these lawyers starting yapping.”

As if on cue, Thomas shook the set as if he were trying to get the attention of the lawyers questioning the officer.

“Stop asking those dumb questions,” Thomas barked at the image of a defense attorney on his portable TV screen. “Get to the point. Get to the point.”

An elderly woman at the bus stop near 42nd Street and Avalon Boulevard shook her head as Thomas voiced his view about the TV proceedings. “I got out of the house to get away from the trial and I have to see this,” she complained.