AFTER THE RIOTS : Defense in Denny Beating Parallels King Case

By raising the question of whether truck driver Reginald O. Denny may have provoked the April 29 attack that left him critically wounded, lawyers for one of the suspects have embarked on an uncertain legal strategy with potentially profound consequences for the community, according to activists and legal experts.

“The provocation in this case is not a legal defense,” said noted criminal defense lawyer Barry Tarlow. But “the best defense in the world . . . is that the son of a bitch deserved to die.”

The contention that Denny inflamed the crowd by taunting or gesturing at demonstrators is disputed by local and federal investigators and fueled mostly by rumor. But it has struck a chord in some neighborhoods, particularly in those close to the intersection where the beating took place. Many of these residents now say that justice will only be served if Denny’s attackers are treated the same as the four police officers who were accused of beating Rodney G. King. Three were acquitted and one faces a retrial on a single count.

Some people are drawing other parallels between the King case and the Denny beating. Both were captured on videotape, and both involve four defendants. And now, by focusing on Denny’s alleged provocation, lawyers in that case are mirroring another key aspect of the King trial by shifting attention from what the camera saw to what it missed.

There is concern among some community leaders that by calling attention to the parallels in the two cases, lawyers and activists have raised expectations that the justice system may not fulfill.

“Nobody believes the system will do justice for these black people,” said Danny Bakewell, president of the Brotherhood Crusade. “These men will not get the same treatment as the officers who beat Rodney King.”

At a news conference Friday to announce creation of a defense fund for the Denny beating suspects, leaders of the Nation of Islam compared them and others allegedly involved in rioting to the heroes of the American Revolution.

“When white people did the same thing in early America, it was called the Boston Tea Party,” said Khallid Abdul Muhammad, national assistant to the Rev. Louis Farrakhan. “All of you are invited to the Los Angeles Tea Party.”

Flanked by members of the Nation of Islam and cheered by a group of several dozen, Muhammad added that his organization has done a “thorough investigation” of the Denny beating and concluded that Denny provoked it.

“We have found conclusive proof that Mr. Denny came through the community jeering and taunting,” Muhammad said. He would not disclose where the Nation of Islam got its information.

Lawyers for Damian Monroe (Football) Williams, one of four men arrested in connection with the Denny beating, have only discussed the question of provocation in sketchy terms. They said Denny may have yelled racial slurs and made obscene gestures to demonstrators at the intersection of Florence and Normandie avenues just hours after a Simi Valley jury returned not guilty verdicts in the King beating trial.

Local and federal investigators say there is absolutely no evidence to suggest that Denny provoked the attack, and Denny, in a brief statement from his hospital bed last week, said: “I don’t believe in any slur against any person or any type of person.”

Friends of the truck driver, who was released Thursday and is out of town recuperating, describe him as gentle and apolitical.

“He’s not one inch prejudiced,” said Jerry Cole, Denny’s friend and next-door neighbor. “Probably, he’s the kindest man with the biggest heart you’ll see. . . . I’ve never heard him make a slur against any person, white, black or yellow.”

Still, some residents have come forward to say that they heard Denny yell at the crowd, and the story is widely accepted in the neighborhood where two of the suspects in the Denny beating live.

“When he drove his truck up here, it had kind of calmed down a bit,” said Gary Harris, who is Williams’ next-door neighbor and who says he witnessed the events that evening. “But he rolled down his window and yelled ‘F--- Rodney King!’ That’s what made them mad.”

Other residents offered similar accounts, though they varied in details. Some residents say the crowd at Florence and Normandie was peaceful until Denny arrived. In fact, police say they had received reports of many cars and motorists being attacked by then. Other witnesses, like Harris, concede that it “was crazy,” but they say that things had begun to calm down.

Some say that Denny yelled “F--- Rodney King!” others say that he yelled “Rodney King got what he deserved.” Some say he yelled both.

One man, who asked to be identified only as Alfred, said Denny was honking his truck horn and yelling “The n----- got what he deserved.” Denny was chased for several blocks by people on foot and in cars, said Alfred, who added that he was driving next to Denny at the time, heading west on Florence Avenue.

When Denny stopped the truck at Florence and Normandie, Alfred said, the crowd attacked.

“It was terrible,” Alfred said. “If I had had a gun, I would have shot those fellows for what they did to Denny.”

Alfred also added that Williams was definitely among the attackers.

Regardless of whether evidence of provocation can be found, lawyers and community residents agree that it would not justify the attack, during which the truck driver was dragged from his cab, beaten with a tire iron, a fire extinguisher and a brick.

Peter Aranella, a professor at the UCLA Law School, called the allegations that Denny provoked the crowd “garbage,” and said “provocation is not a defense in this case.”

But he and other lawyers say that making the argument, even without substantiation, can help “nullify” a jury, by getting jurors to focus on dislikable qualities in the victim. The same tactic was effectively employed during the trial of the four white Los Angeles police officers who beat King: Lawyers in that case noted that King had been drinking and driving more than 100 m.p.h. when police stopped him.

In addition, Aranella said, the allegation could affect the case in another way--by weakening the prosecution’s case on the charge of attempted murder.

Williams--along with Henry Keith (Kiki) Watson and Antoine Eugene (Twan) Miller--have been charged with attempted murder, aggravated mayhem, torture and second-degree robbery. They face life sentences if convicted on those charges.

Though mayhem, torture and robbery do not require prosecutors to show premeditation, attempted murder does. And if the defense could show that the suspects were provoked into attacking Denny, that could make it harder to prove that charge, according to Aranella and other lawyers.

A fourth suspect, Gary Williams, has been charged with second-degree robbery.

All four suspects are being held without bail, and some community leaders are grumbling that the men are being treated unfairly.

“You’ve got everything charged but treason against these four people,” said Kenneth Thomas, a lawyer who is the editor of the Sentinel, a black-owned weekly based in South Los Angeles. “Yet you compare those pictures of that driver being beaten to the pictures of the officers beating a person with a club time and again, and the parallels are obvious. People will watch the outcome very, very carefully.”

The Sentinel first reported the allegation that Denny provoked his own attack. In a story that ran last week, the paper quoted an “eyewitness” named Gary Carpo saying that he had seen Denny make an obscene gesture at a peaceful crowd of demonstrators. Denny then yelled at the crowd and was pulled from the cab, the Sentinel reported, citing Carpo as its source.

In an interview with The Times, Carpo denied having said that, instead claiming that he had heard that account from another person who had witnessed the attack. Carpo said he could not remember who had told him about Denny’s alleged actions.