Mistrial Bid Denied; Defense Rests in Trial of 4 in King Beating : Court: The lawyer for Officer Briseno objects to proceedings after testimony indicates there was a previous excessive-force complaint against his client.

The rapidly concluding Rodney G. King beating trial reached a landmark Thursday as the four Los Angeles police officers accused of assaulting the Altadena motorist rested their cases--but not before one of their attorneys unsuccessfully sought a mistrial.

Lawyer John Barnett asked for the mistrial after the jury was told that his client, Officer Theodore J. Briseno, was the subject of a prior excessive-force complaint, a disclosure that breached an agreement between the defense attorneys that the officers’ personnel histories would not be discussed.

The issue arose when Briseno’s former partner and longtime friend, Officer Glen King, was testifying about comments Briseno allegedly made after learning that the beating was videotaped.

Talking in the Foothill police station locker room on March 4, 1991, the day after the beating, Officer King said he told Briseno that the videotape showed him kicking Rodney King in the back. He testified that he told Briseno his conduct looked particularly bad in light of his “prior complaint.”

With that, Briseno’s attorney objected to the questioning. Judge Stanley M. Weisberg excused the jury from the courtroom and then questioned Officer King about the locker-room conversation.

“I told Officer Briseno that with this one prior complaint he had, that stepping on this guy’s back looked real bad,” Officer King told the judge. “And he said something like, ‘Oh, God! They’re going to hang me!’ ”

The testimony brought into question Briseno’s contention last week that he tried to stop the beating and that his fellow officers were “out of control”--a fact that apparently did not escape his attorney, Barnett, who asked that the comments between Officer King and Briseno not be relayed to the jury.

“My client will be irreparably prejudiced by going into this prior act,” said Barnett, who argued that, because the jury had been improperly told of Briseno’s prior complaint, a mistrial should be granted.

Disagreeing, the other three defense attorneys said the conversation showed that Briseno first expected to be punished for the King beating, but then changed his story and turned on his fellow officers to save himself.

Prosecutors sat silent during the debate, as they have through much of the intense infighting among the defense attorneys. Deputy Dist. Atty. Terry White, however, asked that the judge either allow the jury to hear the full conversation or none of it.

Weisberg, ruling that the conversation not be admitted in the trial, said it would be too time-consuming for Barnett to then present evidence explaining Briseno’s prior excessive-force complaint.

That complaint resulted in Briseno being found guilty by a police tribunal of hitting a man on the head with a baton, kicking him while he was handcuffed, making improper remarks and then attempting to persuade a rookie officer not to mention the infractions.

Briseno was suspended for 66 days without pay for the June, 1987, incident. “I got a little too aggressive out there,” he told the police tribunal. “But I can assure you that it will not happen again, ever.”

Officer King was the last of a series of defense witnesses who have testified during the last three weeks. Prosecutors on Wednesday began calling the first of about eight rebuttal witnesses, including several LAPD officials who described police radio and computer equipment that was used on the night of the beating.

In another development, the judge refused to quash a prosecution subpoena for Sgt. Fred Nichols, an LAPD use-of-force expert who says he is suffering from hypertension and is unable to testify.

Last year, Nichols told the Los Angeles County Grand Jury and the Christopher Commission that the King beating was excessive. He was subsequently removed from his longtime post as an LAPD training supervisor, a move that he contends was in retaliation for his remarks.