2 Suspects Told Police They Beat Denny : Riots: Statements attributed to Williams and Watson also cast serious doubt on charges that trucker’s taunting provoked attack.

Damian Monroe (Football) Williams has told police that he hit truck driver Reginald O. Denny with a rock but did not beat other motorists during the outbreak of rioting on April 29, according to a summary of a tape-recorded interview conducted by investigators.

Williams, 19, told police that he had participated in the attack and had spoken with his mother about it later, according to the statement. Officials said the statement was made after Williams waived his right to meet with a lawyer.

Another defendant in the case, Henry Keith Watson, 27, also admitted that he was part of the attack on the truck driver, but said he tried to prevent Denny from being beaten even more badly than he was, people close to the investigation said. In the statement attributed to him, Watson portrayed himself as a normally quiet man who was overcome by emotion in the wake of the not guilty verdicts in the trial of four white police officers charged with beating Rodney G. King.

In addition to admitting a limited role in the attack, Watson’s statement casts serious doubt on the allegation that Denny provoked the beatings that left him critically injured. That suggestion has been raised by residents of the community where Denny was beaten and has been amplified by Williams’ lawyers.

“That trucker didn’t do anything to me,” Watson is quoted as saying. “He was just white in the wrong place.”

Copies of the statements attributed to both men are in the hands of defense lawyers as well as police and prosecutors, and portions of the documents were provided to The Times. If they are allowed into evidence, those statements could dramatically bolster the cases against Williams and Watson, two of the five young men charged in the attack on Denny and other motorists who were beaten and robbed near Florence and Normandie avenues during the opening hours of the Los Angeles riots.

Those attacks were broadcast live on television. The Denny beating quickly emerged as a searing focal point of the rage that erupted in Los Angeles in the wake of the King verdicts.

A third suspect in the Denny beating, Antoine Eugene (Twan) Miller, has signed a statement admitting that he tried to steal Denny’s truck but denying that he hit the driver or any other motorist. Miller’s lawyer, J. Patrick Maginnis, said the admission by his client reinforces his contention that Miller did not beat Denny.

Lawyers for Watson and Williams were reluctant to discuss the implications of the statements attributed to their clients.

“I just walked in the office from court and I find out that this alleged statement is out there,” said Dennis Palmieri, Williams’ lead attorney. “I’m a little perplexed, somewhat shocked.”

Palmieri declined to comment further.

“I have a statement that allegedly is Mr. Watson’s,” said Karen Ackerson, one of the lawyers representing Watson. “He has not signed it or any other statement.”

Watson’s other lawyer, Earl Broady, declined comment.

Denny, who has been recovering at the homes of relatives for a month, was admitted to an undisclosed hospital Monday after a blood clot discovered in his left leg several weeks ago suddenly traveled to his lungs, said Dr. Paul H. Toffel, the chief of head and neck surgery at Daniel Freeman Memorial Hospital in Inglewood.

“It’s a potentially dangerous complication” that has a 20% chance of being fatal, said Toffel, who is part of team of doctors caring for Denny. “He’s back in the intensive care unit and back on blood-thinning agents,” Toffel said. “This is serious. It’s something we have to watch carefully and cannot take lightly.”

Toffel said that if Denny’s condition does not worsen, he will be hospitalized for another five days. His vital signs are stable and he is alert but feeling depressed, the physician said. Blood clots are a common complication for victims of severe trauma. Denny’s clots occupy about 10% to 20% of his lung capacity and are particularly dangerous because they could block the exchange of oxygen into his blood system, Toffel said.

“This is another land mine that he has stepped on, and it will be a while before things get back on track,” Toffel said. “The tightrope is that he is also recovering from brain and facial surgery. This is tough, but that’s the reality.”

Denny, whose jaw is still wired shut after reconstructive facial surgery, has viewed only part of the televised video. Just last week he was well enough to begin to cook for himself and went out to dinner with relatives for the first time since the beating, friends said.

He and his family are hurt and frustrated by allegations that the trucker antagonized his assailants, friends added.

“It’s ludicrous,” said his former brother-in-law and close friend, who asked that his name not be used. “It hurts him and all of us to hear this and makes us angry and frustrated all at once. He’s the most passive person. They have hurt him enough already. Why do they have to keep going after him?”