Denny Suspect Coerced to Talk, Lawyer Says

An attorney for Damian Monroe (Football) Williams charged Monday that his client was coerced into making a statement to police that implicated him in the April 29 attack on truck driver Reginald O. Denny at the outset of the Los Angeles riots.

“Incriminating statements were obtained from the defendant during a constitutionally invalid interrogation where the defendant was coerced into making statements involuntarily,” Dennis Palmieri wrote in a motion filed with the court.

Williams, who was arraigned Monday on charges that he beat and robbed an eighth victim during the rioting that erupted at Florence and Normandie avenues, spoke with police only after he was promised leniency, Palmieri said. Police reneged on the promise, he added, and charged Williams, 19, in the attacks on Denny and others.

If Palmieri can show in court that the statement was illegally obtained, one of the most potent pieces of evidence against Williams would be excluded.

The tape-recorded interview with police includes statements by Williams that implicate him in the attack. In particular, Williams tells the interviewing officer that he hit Denny with a rock, and that he threw rocks at other victims.

“I was throwing rocks like Darryl Strawberry,” Williams says at one point on the tape.

Williams’s mother, Georgiana Williams, said her son had been promised he could go home shortly after his arrest if he agreed to cooperate.

“He said they told him that if he cooperated . . . he could go home,” she said. “If he didn’t, they said he’d get 18 to life. You tell a kid that, it’s like promising him a new car if he gets all A’s.”

Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office, said motions to suppress statements are common, and added that prosecutors will not comment on Palmieri’s effort outside of court.

Williams is one of six men charged in the attack on Denny, which left the truck driver critically injured. Williams also has been charged with attacking other victims, and prosecutors added two counts Monday.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Lawrence C. Morrison, the lead prosecutor in the case, said Jorge Arturo Gonzalez had been watching the rioting on television and came to Florence and Normandie to try to save people from being hurt.

Gonzalez, who was described as a 24-year-old graduate student, tried to help motorist Takao Hirata, Morrison said. “As he tried to help Mr. Hirata, Mr. Gonzalez was attacked by Damian Williams,” Morrison said. “He was knocked unconscious and robbed.”

Prosecutors asked Municipal Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler to raise the bail in Williams’ case from $580,000 to $595,000, but Fidler denied the request.