AFTER THE RIOTS : Lawyer Hints at Provocation in Denny Case : Beating: Officials dismiss claim that the truck driver may have taunted the crowd before he was attacked. Victim is released from the hospital.

A lawyer for one of the four men arrested in the April 29 attack on truck driver Reginald O. Denny on Thursday said Denny may have provoked the incident that left him critically injured.

“An individual comes into the community, maybe starts yelling racial slurs, maybe making obscene gestures,” said Dennis Palmieri, a lawyer for Damian Monroe (Football) Williams, 19, arrested with two other men in pre-dawn raids Tuesday. “Provocation will be a substantial and pertinent issue in this case.”

Local and federal investigators dismissed Palmieri’s comments as an attempt to build sympathy for his client. They said they have uncovered no evidence to suggest that the attack was provoked.

“Nobody in this department has heard that,” said Bill Frio, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Police Department. “Sounds like a good defense.”

The claim that Denny somehow incited the men who beat and robbed him represents a controversial new development in the emotionally charged case. The beating has emerged as a potent symbol of the Los Angeles riots, and national attention has focused on the effort to punish those who attacked the truck driver.

Although once in critical condition, Denny staged an unexpectedly swift recovery and was released from the hospital Thursday in good condition.

Denny, 36, was driving a load of sand and gravel through South Los Angeles a few hours after not guilty verdicts were announced in the trial of four white police officers who beat black motorist Rodney G. King. When Denny, who is white, stopped his truck at Florence and Normandie avenues, he was dragged from the cab by black assailants and beaten with a tire iron, a brick and a fire extinguisher. One man fired a shotgun, but Denny was not hit.

Millions watched on live television as the beating went on uninterrupted by police, who had retreated from the area and did not return to help Denny.

The truck driver was saved by four good Samaritans, all of them black, who helped guide his truck to Daniel Freeman Memorial Hospital. Denny has declined to comment about the case, only saying in brief written statements that he bears no ill will toward his attackers and has a foggy memory of the attack. He could not be reached for comment Thursday, but said previously: “I don’t believe in any slur against any person or any type of person.”

In addition to Williams, Henry Keith Watson and Antoine Eugene Miller were arrested during the sweeps by FBI agents and Los Angeles police officers. A fourth suspect, Gary Williams, surrendered to police later. He is not accused of beating Denny, but will be charged with second-degree robbery for allegedly stealing Denny’s wallet once the truck driver was unconscious.

In an interview Thursday, Palmieri refused to say whether he would produce witnesses prepared to testify that Denny provoked his attackers, but some friends and neighbors of the suspects said they heard Denny yell a racial epithet.

Gary Harris--a friend and next-door neighbor of Damian Williams--said Denny stopped his truck in the intersection and yelled “F--- Rodney King!”

Unconfirmed rumors about Denny’s actions have circulated in the Florence and Normandie area for days. One account in the Sentinel, a black-owned weekly newspaper based in South Los Angeles, quotes an eyewitness named Gary Carpo as saying he watched Denny taunt a crowd of peaceful demonstrators and yell, “Rodney King got what he deserved!”

Reached by The Times, Carpo said he did not witness Denny’s actions and was only repeating a story told to him by another man whose name he did not remember.

FBI agents have been at the forefront of the Denny beating investigation, and a spokeswoman for the bureau said no evidence has been received to suggest that Denny provoked the confrontation.

“There just has not been anything like that,” she said. “Nothing at all.”

Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office, said prosecutors are not aware of any evidence indicating that Denny taunted the crowd. She added that dozens of cars were pelted with rocks and an untold number of people were assaulted at Florence and Normandie before Denny was attacked.

“Does that mean they all were taunting?” she said.

Moreover, legal experts said Thursday that even if Denny did yell or make an obscene gesture, it would be unlikely to absolve his attackers for setting upon him and beating him into unconsciousness.

“Even with provocation, you’re not allowed to use excessive force,” said Laurie Levenson, a professor of criminal law at Loyola University. “And even then, words or gestures usually are not enough to be considered provocation. . . . You can’t just beat someone up and then say he started it. Our system of justice is a little more sophisticated than that.”

Palmieri responded that although words or a gesture might not be sufficient provocation under normal circumstances, Los Angeles in the hours after the King verdicts was “literally in turmoil.”

The four men arrested in the beating were scheduled to be arraigned Thursday on charges ranging from robbery to attempted murder and torture, but their hearing was postponed until next week to give them time to consult with their attorneys. If convicted, the three main suspects could be sentenced to life in prison, and the fourth, Gary Williams, could face up to seven years.

In addition, a federal complaint charges the three principal defendants with interfering in interstate commerce, and U.S. Atty. Lourdes G. Baird has said that they could be charged with violating Denny’s civil rights and other riot-related charges.

After deciding to postpone the arraignments, Municipal Judge William B. Chidsey Jr. ruled that the four suspects will be held without bail, at least until next week.

That ruling angered some friends and family members of the suspects, who packed the courtroom and complained that the suspects are being denied a fair trial. In particular, many were incensed that Police Chief Daryl F. Gates arrested one of the suspects and branded them “vicious criminals.”

“When you say that our boys are thugs, gangsters, robbers, that frightens people,” said Joyce Watson, the mother of suspect Henry Keith Watson. “My boy’s not a gangbanger.”

During a break in the morning proceedings, Joyce Watson and her husband, Henry, said they felt sorry for Denny, but complained that the case against their son--whom they described as a hard-working Christian who holds down two jobs, is married and has a daughter--has “slurred our family’s name.”

“Daryl Gates has ruined our family,” said Joyce Watson, who is a county social worker. “He’s ruined us.”

But Joyce Watson admitted that she does not know whether her son was involved in the attack on Denny. Neither of the Watsons witnessed the attack, and she said she could not bear to watch the tapes.

As for the claim that her son was among those who beat Denny, she said she found it impossible to believe. But she added: “A mother’s always the last to know.”