RIOT AFTERMATH : Arrested the First Night, on Guard Duty Next Day

On which side of the thin blue line did Vernon Joseph Broussard stand during the riots?

The night the verdicts in the Rodney G. King case came in, he and a friend were arrested in Beverly Hills with a concealed weapon and the makings of Molotov cocktails in their car, police said.

But what a difference a weekend can make. On Monday morning, Broussard, 32, of Culver City arrived for his arraignment on felony charges in Beverly Hills Municipal Court. He was dressed for riot duty in his National Guard uniform.

Defense attorney Warren Ettinger said Broussard’s Guard unit was called up Thursday after he had been released on $10,000 bail. In fact, Broussard, the son of a USC professor, was so diligent about riot duty that he returned to his post for several hours Monday when the arraignment was postponed until late afternoon.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Allan Tyson said everyone was surprised to see a defendant show up in the uniform of a defender. “I guess in this job nothing should surprise us. . . . He was either out protecting and serving us all or out serving himself.”

In the days following his arrest, Ettinger said, Broussard was on the front lines putting in 14- to 16-hour shifts guarding riot-affected areas.

The attorney said Broussard remained in action--and armed--even after the National Guard was apprised of his arrest. Beverly Hills Municipal Judge Elden Fox ordered the guardsman to report his arrest to superiors, but told a prosecutor he had no authority to disarm a federal soldier.

A Beverly Hills police spokesman said Broussard and his companion, Jeffrey Thomas Sandoval, 26, also of Culver City, were stopped by police last Wednesday night, driving slowly on Wilshire Boulevard near a couple of cars where people had congregated.

Lt. Frank Salcido said police reports indicate the two were wearing dark clothing and had the car license tags folded down so the numbers could not be read. “That’s why police stopped them,” Salcido said.

The two admitted having weapons in the car, Salcido said. In addition to a gun, police found two gas cans, one empty and one partially full. Two empty glass bottles and rags--the raw materials for a Molotov cocktail, police said--were recovered as well.

Broussard was charged with possession of a concealed weapon and possession of flammable liquids. A preliminary hearing is set for May 14 in Beverly Hills.

Ettinger said his client, a musician and songwriter who works at a printing company, has no criminal record and is devastated by the arrest.

“I suspect this riot will produce more incongruities and tragedies than we are able to contemplate,” Ettinger said.