Judge Excuses Reluctant Witness From Testifying in King Case : Trial: The training expert had seen confidential statements by three defendants, jurist says. Prosecutors wanted the police sergeant to repeat his damaging grand jury testimony.

After a lengthy hearing away from the jury, the judge in the Rodney G. King beating trial ruled that a Los Angeles Police Department training expert, who said he has been badgered by both sides in the case and is suffering severe stress, will not be called as a witness.

Judge Stanley M. Weisberg rejected a prosecution request for the testimony of Sgt. Fred Nichols, who last year told the Los Angeles County Grand Jury that the March 3, 1991, beating of King by the four accused officers was excessive force.

The judge based his ruling on testimony by Nichols that he had reviewed statements by three of the officers made under the threat of being fired during an internal inquiry.

Nichols said he reviewed statements that Officers Laurence M. Powell, Timothy E. Wind and Sgt. Stacey C. Koon gave to Internal Affairs investigators in preparation for his grand jury testimony. Under the law, the statements cannot be used in the criminal trial because the officers were coerced into giving them.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Alan Yochelson suggested that Nichols never saw the statements, and contended that the officer was only creating “a ruse to avoid testifying in this matter.”

Further complicating the issue was the fact that Nichols, who is on a stress disability leave from the Police Department, has been fighting efforts to get him on the witness stand. He has contended that as a result of his critical grand jury testimony, he has been ostracized in the department and demoted, leading to his hypertension.

He told the judge that his doctor has warned that his stress would be aggravated if he were forced to testify as a witness to rebut contentions from two defense experts who said the King beating appeared to be within department policy.

Last week, Weisberg refused to quash Nichols’ subpoena, setting the stage for Tuesday’s confrontation.

Nichols said that he was not trying to avoid the witness stand because he did not want to hurt the four defendants. Instead, he pointed to his stress problems and said: “I have a task at hand, trying to maintain my sanity.”

He said that he has been “approached” by police officers and others on both sides of the King case about what he should say on the stand.

“I’ve been approached by everybody,” he said. “And that would include the prosecution, which has been relentless and has really given me a hard time. The prosecution has been relentless in harassing me.”

In reaching his decision, Weisberg did not cite Nichols’ claims of stress and harassment as the reasons for not allowing him to testify. His ruling was tightly focused on the fact that Nichols said he had seen the confidential statements of the accused officers.

Among several witnesses who testified before the jury was Los Angeles Police Officer Annette Olivas, a Police Academy instructor who said that, since at least 1988, the department has taught the swarm technique in which a group of officers pounce on a suspect and take him into custody.

Earlier in the trial, Powell and Koon said they were unaware of the swarm technique, and that batons had to be used to arrest King.

Wind, who has been fired from the Police Department, Powell, Koon and Officer Theodore J. Briseno have pleaded not guilty. The trial continues today, as both sides are expected to bring in their final rebuttal witnesses.