King Won’t Be Charged in Drunk Driving Case : Jurisprudence: Orange County prosecutors say there is not enough evidence for a conviction.

The Orange County district attorney on Wednesday declined to file drunk driving charges against Rodney G. King, the motorist whose videotaped beating by Los Angeles police officers triggered a nationwide furor.

Prosecutors said they did not have enough evidence to convict King, who was arrested by the California Highway Patrol on July 16 outside a Denny’s restaurant in Orange. The CHP reported that King was driving erratically in the parking lot and had alcohol on his breath after he was stopped.

“The officers did have probable cause to believe that Mr. King was driving under the influence,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Marc Kelly. “However, the standard of probable cause to arrest is substantially less than the prosecution’s burden of proving a criminal case to a jury.”

King’s defense attorney, Robison Harley, said there were some serious hurdles faced by the prosecution, including witnesses who contradicted the CHP version of what happened and the fact that King’s injuries from the earlier beating might explain his slurred speech and lack of coordination during field sobriety tests.

“To be perfectly honest, the D.A.’s decision does not surprise me,” Harley said. “We detailed his drinking activity that day. Two or three beers would not put a man of his size, some 225 pounds, under the influence.”

King still faces a one-year revocation of his driver’s license for allegedly refusing to submit to blood-alcohol tests at Orange County Jail, where he was booked.

King, 27, was taken into custody shortly after he and his wife, Crystal, went to the restaurant. Two officers noticed a 1986 Chevrolet Blazer backing out of a parking space in an “erratic manner” before skidding to a stop and hitting a concrete block.

Steven A. Lerman, who is representing King in a lawsuit against the Los Angeles Police Department, denounced the arrest as harassment.

“There is no credible evidence that the police harassed King,” Kelly said. “Mr. King even said he was treated properly and so did his wife during the course of the investigation.”

This makes the fourth time King has been involved with police since the infamous beating at the hands of four Los Angeles officers on March 3, 1991.

In May of that year, Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies pulled King over after deciding that his vehicle had illegally tinted windows. Although his vehicle registration had expired and he was not carrying his driver’s license, King was not cited.

Three weeks later, police arrested King in Hollywood, saying he had tried to run down an undercover vice officer after picking up a transvestite prostitute. No charges were filed.

On June 26, 1992, King was arrested in Studio City after his wife said he had injured her during an argument. She declined to file charges.