Lawyers in Denny Case Berate Police as a ‘Gang’ : Courts: But applying the term to their clients is political, defense says. It also could mean longer terms if they are convicted.

Attorneys for the three men charged in the April 29 attack on Reginald O. Denny sparred with prosecutors Monday over the use of the term gang members to characterize their clients, and referred to Los Angeles Police as “the gang that couldn’t think straight.”

While cross-examining Police Detective Arthur Daedelow, attorney James Gillen accused police of trying to divert attention from the inability of law enforcement to control the violence at Florence and Normandie avenues by blaming the outbreak on gangs.

“Isn’t it a fact that gangs were brought into this as a political issue to have people not concentrate on the fact that the LAPD was not doing its job when this took place?” asked Gillen, who represents Antoine Eugene Miller, one of the defendants.

“No,” responded Daedelow, who headed the Police Department’s investigation into crimes at the intersection.

Later, Gillen said that “the only gang activity that was taking place was the gang that couldn’t think straight. That gang was the LAPD.”

Gillen’s questioning of Daedelow prompted several objections from Deputy Dist. Atty. Lawrence C. Morrison, who said during a recess that the case against the three men “was not a political prosecution. The fundamental issue is not gang involvement, but whether or not they are to be tried on charges of assault and robbery in a case where Reginald Denny was the most seriously injured.”

The sparring came on the seventh day of a preliminary hearing to decide if there is enough evidence to try Miller, Damian Monroe (Football) Williams and Henry Keith (Kiki) Watson on charges including attempted murder, torture and mayhem.

Judge Larry P. Fidler is expected to rule today whether to bind the defendants over for trial in Los Angeles Superior Court.

The issue of whether Williams, Miller and Watson are gang members could have broader implications if the three are convicted. The time they would have to serve before being eligible for parole would be doubled to 15 years if they were convicted of torture, mayhem and attempted murder as part of gang activity.

Sentences are as much as three years longer if an assault or robbery is carried out to further the interest of a gang.

Dennis Palmieri, one of Williams’ lawyers, questioned Daedelow’s ability to identify any of the defendants from a videotape shot during the riot at the intersection.

Daedelow, who said he had viewed more than a hundred of hours of videotape, said he was able to spot Williams from “his clothes, the manner in which he was throwing, and also Mr. Williams viewed it (the footage) and pointed himself out.”

On Friday, prosecutors played a tape-recorded statement Williams made to police in which he said he was guilty of hitting the truck driver with a brick and that he never heard Denny yell racial slurs.

“I did do wrong,” Williams said in the interview recorded after his arrest on May 12. “I’m guilty for throwing that rock.”

Williams, 19, is being held on $580,000 bail on the charges stemming from the alleged beatings and robberies of eight people, including Denny.

Miller, 20, also is being held on $580,000 bail. He is accused of robbing motorists. Watson, 29, who is serving a two-year sentence in prison for violating his parole on an earlier grand theft conviction, also is accused of attacking Denny.