LAPD Expert Cites Chances to Halt Blows : Trial: Officers had five opportunities to cease King beating, a use-of-force supervisor testifies.

Officers at the scene of the Rodney G. King beating had at least five opportunities to arrest King without severely injuring him after a high-speed chase last year, the Los Angeles Police Department’s highest-ranking use-of-force supervisor testified Monday.

As he was led by prosecutors through a videotape of the March 3, 1991, incident, Cmdr. Michael Bostic explained why he thought the officers did not need to beat and kick King repeatedly. The prosecution called him to rebut the testimony of two lower-ranking LAPD officials who had testified that the beating was within departmental policy.

Bostic, testifying for a second day, asked Deputy Dist. Atty. Terry White to stop the tape five times, saying the officers had that many opportunities to safely handcuff King.

The first instance occurred just seconds into the beating, when Officer Theodore J. Briseno pushed away Officer Laurence M. Powell’s baton, said Bostic, chairman of the department’s use-of-force review board. At that moment, King was on the ground but apparently was trying to get up.

“Right at that point, it was the best opportunity to take the suspect into custody simply by handcuffing him,” Bostic said. “It is the best time for putting handcuffs on . . . and ending the incident.”

Moments later, after a series of baton blows by Powell and Officer Timothy E. Wind, King appears face down on the ground. This, Bostic said, provided a second chance for officers to arrest the Altadena motorist. “That’s one of the best situations you can have when you’re in a fight,” Bostic said, noting that King was in a good position to be handcuffed.

Bostic next asked White to stop the tape when King appeared to be rolling on the ground as Powell hit his arms repeatedly and Wind struck his legs. The commander said a group of officers should have pounced on King and arrested him in a “swarm technique, a gang tackle, a team tackle . . . whatever you want to call it.”

Bostic said the fourth opportunity came when Powell and Wind briefly stopped beating King, as if to catch their breath.

They had a fifth opportunity when King was lying face down with his arms under his body, Bostic said. “He’s in a flat position, in as flat a position as you can have . . . a suspect in,” Bostic said of King.

Under cross-examination by the defense, Bostic said he had no direct knowledge of whether any of the 56 baton blows shown on the videotape struck King because his investigation of the beating was limited to viewing the tape and reviewing selected reports.

Bostic said he did not consider statements from the officers charged in the beating relevant because “it appeared to me there was nothing the officers could tell me that would justify that amount of force.”

Powell, Wind and Briseno, along with Sgt. Stacey C. Koon, the ranking officer at the scene of the beating, have pleaded not guilty.

When the trial resumes this morning, LAPD Sgt. Fred Nichols is expected to testify. Nichols is a longtime use-of-force supervisor at the Police Academy who has testified about police misconduct before the Christopher Commission.