Update: The Rodney G. King Beating Trial

A look at key developments Saturday.

Jurors deliberated 3 1/2 hours without reaching any verdicts. Since receiving the case Thursday, the panel of six men and six women has debated the case for 12 hours.

In a brief morning hearing, Judge Stanley M. Weisberg read a question the jury sent Friday asking for a definition of the word beat as it pertained to Count 2 of the five-count indictment filed against the four LAPD officers. Count 2 alleges that Sgt. Stacey C. Koon and Officers Laurence M. Powell, Timothy E. Wind and Theodore J. Briseno abused their authority as police officers when they “beat a human being.” In answering the question, the judge advised the jury that “beat” means “to hit or strike repeatedly.”

At the request of the jurors, the court reporter read 120 pages of transcript testimony from two Pacifica Hospital emergency room nurses. The nurses described King’s injuries and also alleged that Powell taunted King by joking that police “hit a few home runs” when using their batons on him.

It was revealed that the jury forewoman is a 64-year-old program manager of multimillion-dollar military contracts. A college graduate and the mother of four, she told the court during jury selection: “I believe it’s the responsibility of the court to punish, not the police officers.” But, she added, “I believe that a police officer should be entitled to use sufficient force to subdue a criminal or protect his own life.”