Rodney King Arrested as Drunk Driving Suspect : Crime: Victim of videotaped beating by L.A. police was stopped in parking lot in Orange for driving erratically, CHP says.

Rodney G. King, the motorist whose police brutality case sparked nationwide civil unrest, was arrested early Thursday in a diner’s parking lot on suspicion of drunk driving, the California Highway Patrol reported.

Officers said they had followed another traffic violator into a Denny’s restaurant lot about 1:40 a.m. when they noticed a Chevrolet Blazer back out of a parking space in an “erratic manner” before skidding to a stop and hitting a concrete block, said Officer Angel Johnson, a CHP spokeswoman.

The CHP officers stopped the Blazer, recognized the driver as King and smelled alcohol on his breath, she said. He apparently was leaving the restaurant at Chapman Avenue and State College Boulevard after meeting his wife and friends there, according to officers.

King failed field sobriety tests and was placed in Orange County Jail, where he was released on his own recognizance about 6:50 a.m., Johnson said. While detained, he refused to take breath, blood or urine tests at the jail. Up until then, “he was very cooperative and quiet,” Johnson said.

Officers then took away his driver’s license, as required by new state drunk-driving laws.

“If he refused to take the tests, and as I understand it that he has a clean driving record, then for a first-time offense his license will be suspended for one year,” said Quin Liven,a spokesman for the Department of Motor Vehicles.

Escorted by his lawyer, King, dressed in a light green T-shirt and black bicycle tights, limped past waiting reporters and television crews after his release but did not answer questions.

King’s limp is a result of injuries sustained in his videotaped beating by Los Angeles police officers on March 3, 1991, said Steve A. Lerman, King’s attorney.

In an impromptu sidewalk press conference outside the jail, Lerman said King is suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome, which might be manifesting itself through excessive drinking.

Employees at the Denny’s restaurant where King was arrested saw the police pull into the parking lot but had no idea what had transpired.

“They all saw the arrest,” said Michael Jones, a restaurant employee who had heard about the arrest from the night crew. “They saw the flashing lights and the police cars in the parking lot, but no one knew it was Rodney King until we saw it on the news.”

None of the workers realized that it was King who was in the diner with his wife and friends, Jones said.

Lerman would not say why King met his companions in Orange or where he is living. He was last known to be staying with relatives in North Hollywood, but he has since moved from there.

Johnson said King, 27, gave officers the Altadena address listed on his driver’s license.

The Orange County district attorney’s office is studying the arrest report to decide if King will be charged on a misdemeanor count of driving under the influence of alcohol, Deputy Dist. Atty. Bruce Patterson said. King is scheduled to be arraigned Aug. 13 in Municipal Court in Santa Ana.

As for his license, King can ask for a DMV hearing within 10 days of receiving a notice of suspension, and DMV officials would then have 45 days to make a decision. If the decision goes against him, King could file for a court review within 30 days, Liven said.

Thursday’s arrest was King’s fourth since he was beaten by police in 1991, which drew international criticism and led King to file a lawsuit against the city of Los Angeles. The Los Angeles City Council is discussing a proposed settlement to pay King between $5 million and $8 million.

On June 26, two days after the council began debating the settlement, King was detained at his apartment after his wife reported that he had injured her during an altercation and that she feared for her life. Police released him on the same day, saying there was insufficient evidence to charge him.

On May 28, 1991, police arrested King in Hollywood, saying he had tried to use his car to run down an undercover vice officer after picking up a transvestite prostitute. Bypassing normal procedure, authorities released him on his own recognizance. Later, authorities said King apparently believed the undercover officer was a potential robber and did not file charges against King.

Three weeks earlier, on May 11, Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies stopped King in Santa Fe Springs because his car had illegally tinted windows. Officers found that his vehicle registration had expired and he was not carrying his driver’s license, but he was not cited.

Paula Johnson, who was waiting for her son outside Orange County Jail when King was released, said she thinks King is being harassed by law enforcement agencies.

“It seems every time you turn around he’s being arrested for something,” said Johnson, 40, of Lake Elsinore. Johnson sought King’s autograph but settled for his lawyer’s when rebuffed.

Times staff writer Bob Elston contributed to this report.