3 Must Stand Trial in Beating of Denny : Crime: A judge, after an eight-day hearing, orders the suspects to be tried in attacks on 13 motorists, including the trucker.

Three men charged in the April 29 attacks on motorists at Florence and Normandie avenues were ordered Tuesday to stand trial on nearly all of the 39 counts against them, and the judge angrily described one of those assaults as the most brutal attack he has ever seen.

Concluding a grueling, eight-day preliminary hearing, Municipal Judge Larry P. Fidler ordered Damian Monroe (Football) Williams, Henry Keith (Kiki) Watson and Antoine Eugene Miller to stand trial in attacks on 13 victims, including truck driver Reginald O. Denny.

Denny pulled his truck into the Florence and Normandie intersection at about 6:45 p.m. on April 29, hours after a jury in Simi Valley had returned not guilty verdicts in the trial of four Los Angeles police officers charged with beating Rodney G. King. With television news crews broadcasting live, Denny was dragged from his sand-and-gravel truck and pummeled nearly to death.

Fidler said that in his more than 20 years as a lawyer and judge, “the one act . . . more than any other that is seared in my memory is Mr. Williams braining Mr. Denny.” Fidler added: “He basically bashed his head in.”

Until Tuesday, Fidler never raised his voice during more than a week of sometimes contentious arguments. But in his remarks near the close of Tuesday’s session, Fidler angrily rebutted any suggestion that the defendants were being treated harshly because they are black and their alleged victims were white, Asian or Latino.

“There are people who will see what they want to see,” Fidler said. But “we had people brained, beaten, savagely attacked and robbed.”

Fidler’s order means that the three defendants will go to trial on an array of charges, the most serious of which are connected with the attack on Denny. All three men were ordered to stand trial on charges of attempted murder, aggravated mayhem, torture and robbery in the Denny beating.

They also will be tried on a variety of lesser charges for alleged attacks on other victims. All told, they face a total of 35 overlapping counts. Williams is charged with 17 felonies, Miller with 20 and Watson with eight.

Fidler ordered them to appear for arraignment in Superior Court on Aug. 25.

If convicted, they could spend the rest of their lives in prison. Fidler also ruled that there was reasonable suspicion that the three men acted to further or assist the activities of a street gang, and if convicted of that enhancement they would spend a minimum of 15 years in prison.

The three defendants were seated shoulder to shoulder and remained expressionless as Fidler ordered them to stand trial.

But as Fidler read his rulings count by count, some members of the audience reacted more angrily. When Fidler denied a motion to reduce bail, one woman sitting in the front row shook her head in amazement. Fidler, who had previously warned members of the audience against any outbursts or demonstrations, ordered her out of the courtroom.

Afterward, some supporters of the suspects said they were stunned.

“I don’t understand this,” said Williams’ mother, Georgiana Williams. “I don’t understand how this could happen.”

J. Patrick Maginnis, one of the lawyers representing Miller, said he was “extremely disappointed” in the judge’s rulings, adding that he did not believe there was enough evidence to warrant holding his client for trial on any but a few of the lesser charges.

Of all three defendants, prosecutors had offered the least direct evidence of crimes committed by Miller. Miller has admitted climbing onto Denny’s truck and opening the door, but says he did not hit anyone in that attack or any other.

Prosecutors alleged, however, that he aided and abetted the attack on Denny, that he threw rocks at other motorists and that he committed robberies.

“I’m extremely pleased,” prosecutor Frank Sundstedt said as he left the courtroom. “I’m also extremely tired.”

Fidler also rejected motions by lawyers for the three defendants to reduce bail, which ranges from $500,000 to $580,000. None of the three have posted that bail.

“Given the nature of the case, the bails are more than reasonable,” Fidler said. “I don’t set the bail here based on the color of their skin.”