AFTER THE RIOTS : 3 Face Array of Charges in Denny Beating : Violence: Defendants could get life terms if convicted. Prosecutors would seek sentencing enhancements that apply to criminal conduct by gang members.

Three men accused of beating truck driver Reginald O. Denny in the early hours of the Los Angeles rioting will face an array of state and federal charges, including attempted murder and interfering with interstate commerce, top local and federal prosecutors announced Wednesday.

A fourth suspect will be charged with robbery, but will not be prosecuted federally, authorities said. All four are scheduled to be arraigned today, and prosecutors said they would ask the court to deny bail.

The men who allegedly beat Denny--Damian Monroe (Football) Williams, 19; Antoine Eugene (Twan) Miller, 20; and Henry Keith (Kiki) Watson, 27--are said to be affiliated with the 8-Trey Gangster Crips, a notorious street gang from South Los Angeles. Prosecutors said they will seek sentencing enhancements that increase prison time in cases where crimes are committed “to promote, further and assist in criminal conduct by gang members.”

If convicted of the charges facing them in state court--which also include aggravated mayhem, torture, robbery and, in Williams’ case, of using a brick as a deadly weapon--each of the men could face life in prison. If the sentencing enhancement is granted, the defendants would not be eligible for parole for at least 15 years. Federal convictions could add even more time to their sentences, as well as fines.

Because the Denny beating has emerged as one of the riot’s most searing symbols, the cases against his attackers are highly charged, and the announcement Wednesday was made by the area’s top prosecutors: U.S. Atty. Lourdes G. Baird and Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner. Both are under intense pressure to win convictions against the men who attacked and beat Denny on April 29, hours after the not guilty verdicts in the Rodney G. King beating case were announced.

Denny, who is white, was dragged from his truck and beaten mercilessly that afternoon. As millions watched on live television, the truck driver was hit with a brick, a tire iron and a fire extinguisher. One man brandished a shotgun at Denny, though the truck driver was not shot.

Despite calls for help, police officers never came to Denny’s rescue. He was saved by four good Samaritans, all of them black.

With such attention focused on the Denny case, there was strong political pressure to locate and convict Denny’s attackers. Gov. Pete Wilson and Mayor Tom Bradley, among others, have demanded that the attackers be arrested and prosecuted.

At the same time, however, prosecutors are anxious to avoid the impression of a double standard--one for the white police officers who beat King and another for the black assailants who attacked Denny.

“There is only a single standard of justice,” said Reiner, who faces reelection in June. “That standard is that where a crime has been committed, it will be investigated and it will be prosecuted. It was prosecuted in the King case, and it is going to be prosecuted in this case right here.”

In the case of the officers who beat King, the federal government started its investigation immediately but suspended it while the state case was being tried. Baird, who said she was impatient with how slowly the federal case has proceeded in recent weeks, said state and federal officials learned from that experience and are working together this time.

In addition, Baird said that in the King case prosecutors did not feel the officers were likely to flee the Los Angeles area. But they are concerned that the Denny suspects might leave the area if they are released from state custody without a federal order to hold them.

Williams, Watson, and Miller were arrested in pre-dawn raids Tuesday by teams from the FBI and Los Angeles Police Department. The fourth suspect, Gary Williams, turned himself in later that morning. All four were identified using videotape supplied by KCOP-TV, Channel 13.

With attention around the world focused on the Denny case, Police Chief Daryl F. Gates took the unusual step of arresting Damian Williams himself, a move that has drawn criticism.

“It’s showboating, it’s grandstanding,” said Danny Bakewell, president of the Brotherhood Crusade. “We abhor what happened to Mr. Denny, but these young men deserve their day in court too.”

In a statement sent to city, state and federal officials Wednesday, Dr. Joseph Lowery, president of the Atlanta-based Southern Christian Leadership Conference, called the pre-dawn raids a “cheap dog and pony show emceed by Daryl Gates.” Lowery called for Gates to step down immediately.

Gates has defended the arrests, saying that he wanted to personally confront the men who beat Denny.

Reiner, whose office has been roundly criticized for failing to win convictions in the case against the officers who beat King, bristled at the suggestion that the Denny case was being pursued first because it attracted the greatest publicity or because it caused the greatest embarrassment to the Los Angeles Police Department.

“This is the clearest expression of violent crime of any of the videotape that has been available,” Reiner said. “The night that this happened, I saw this going down live, saw what amounted to be murder going down on live television, in slow motion. It was horrifying.”

For her part, U.S. Atty. Baird said federal charges will be brought against the three main suspects as soon as the state has finished with them. In a federal complaint unsealed Wednesday, the government alleges that the three men interfered with interstate commerce when they attacked Denny, whose truck was carrying a load of sand and gravel.

The suspects will be charged in federal court as soon as they are released or freed on bond, Baird said. At that time, they could face additional charges, including violating Denny’s civil rights or riot-related offenses.

As federal and local investigators probe the violence that erupted last week, they also are investigating the suggestion that gangs were behind much of the rioting.

At the press conference, Baird said her office was considering using a federal racketeering law to prosecute some of the gangs. That law, known as RICO, is most commonly used in prosecutions of La Cosa Nostra or other organized crime figures.

“There’s no question that we are looking at the potential of utilizing the RICO statute against the gangs if indeed the evidence does rise to that,” Baird said.

Special Agent Charlie J. Parsons, who heads the FBI’s Los Angeles office, added that he views the RICO law as a powerful tool for breaking up gangs, and said his agents are looking at evidence of possible organized activities during the rioting.

“If we find that a specific gang engaged in a lot of activities, then RICO would certainly be an option,” Parsons said. “I think that’s very doable.”