LOS ANGELES : Powell Appeals Ruling Placing Retrial in County

Los Angeles Police Officer Laurence M. Powell on Friday filed an appeal of a Superior Court judge’s order that he be retried in Los Angeles County for the beating of motorist Rodney G. King. Powell contends he cannot get a fair trial here.

His attorney, Michael Stone, said Superior Court Judge Stanley M. Weisberg did not have the legal authority to set aside a state Court of Appeal ruling ordering a change of venue for the first trial. The appeals court last year decided that the political climate in Los Angeles County was too hostile to Powell.

Weisberg presided at the first trial, which was held in Simi Valley. Powell’s co-defendants were acquitted of all charges, but jurors could not agree on whether Powell was guilty of the crime of assaulting King under color of authority.

Weisberg recently sided with prosecutors in ruling that the Oct. 19 retrial could take place in Los Angeles because the political climate had changed. He said potential jurors statewide would have the “same state of mind.”

But Stone contends that the “environment of the Los Angeles community is more hostile to Powell now (after the riots that followed the first trial) than it ever was in 1991.”