COUNTYWIDE : Lawyers Deny Magazine’s Report That King Lives in County

Attorneys for Rodney G. King on Monday denied a magazine report that he lives in carefully guarded seclusion in Ventura County, where a jury recently found four Los Angeles police officers not guilty on all but one charge in the beating of King in 1991.

“That’s news to me,” said Steven Lerman, who is representing King in a civil lawsuit against the city of Los Angeles. “A long time ago, Mr. King did some construction work in that area, but he has never lived in Ventura County.”

Vanity Fair’s July issue reports that King is a county resident.

But Lerman employee Turhan Folse said King, a former Pasadena resident, lives in the San Fernando Valley. He has lived in Los Angeles County since his arrest after a high-speed chase in March, 1991, Folse said.

In the Vanity Fair article, King’s aunt, Angela King, is quoted as saying that King is jittery and lonesome and hardly ever leaves his Ventura home.

“Where does he go in Ventura? Nowhere. Every time I call, he’s at home,” Angela King is quoted as saying. Reached at her home Monday, Angela King said she was too busy to answer any questions about her nephew.

Folse agreed that King rarely ventures out of his home.

“He hardly ever leaves” because of security concerns, Folse said.

“We have tried to have him protected 24 hours a day so he won’t be harmed,” Folse said. “There are nuts out there. . . . He’s become a worldwide celebrity.”

Folse said King lives in the Los Angeles area because he needs to visit doctors in Beverly Hills and Los Angeles regularly.

“He’s not quite well enough to travel to Ventura County,” Folse said.

“I see no reason he would go there. He wouldn’t even come up for the trial.”

In late April, a Ventura County jury found four Los Angeles police officers not guilty in the beating of King. One officer is scheduled to be retried on the single assault charge on which the jury failed to reach a verdict.