King Fires Lawyer, Retains Santa Ana Man

Rodney G. King has hired a well-known Orange County defense attorney in his police brutality suit against the city of Los Angeles, dropping the Beverly Hills lawyer who has represented him since his beating last year by LAPD officers, officials said Monday.

Milton C. Grimes, a Santa Ana Heights lawyer who has represented several high-profile murder defendants in Orange County, said he hopes to reopen settlement negotiations with the city over King’s federal lawsuit that alleges civil rights violations. He replaces Steven A. Lerman of Beverly Hills as King’s civil attorney.

Last month, King let pass a deadline for accepting a $1.75-million settlement from the city. Lerman had blasted the offer as insufficient and vowed to take the case to trial next year. He had sought a settlement of nearly $5.9 million for King.

Grimes said it is too early to discuss how much it would take to settle the case, or to say why King was trading lawyers so suddenly at this juncture.

“It’s just that the young man decided to change attorneys,” he said. “I absolutely won’t get into criticizing Lerman. I guess (King) just finally decided to retain me--what his dissatisfaction was or is with Lerman, I’m not prepared to get into.”

Sources close to the case said that Grimes had been in contact with King’s wife’s aunt about intervening in the lawsuit, and that King had been under family pressure for some time to hire Grimes in Lerman’s place.

Grimes would only say that King and family members have kept in touch with him after Lerman was hired to sue the city.

He said King came to his Orange County office Friday and agreed to hire him on a contingency basis, and that Grimes notified Lerman of the change Monday. Grimes said he never solicited King as a client, adding: “I am not poaching on this case.”

Grimes said that he will be assisted in the case by two other Orange County lawyers, Martin C. Handweiler and Bryant K. Calloway. Grimes would not discuss the financial terms of his representation of King.

Lerman said he talked to King on Sunday, but that King did not mention Grimes. Lerman said he learned that he was off the case when Grimes called him Monday.

Lerman would discuss the situation only in general terms.

“Given the state of Mr. King’s ability to perceive events and understand the actions of those around him taken in his defense,” Lerman said, “this move may be a manifestation of his medical condition. But I don’t believe he harbors any ill will toward me.”

Lerman also noted that from the instant the videotaped beating hit the airwaves, King was besieged by lawyers seeking to handle his lawsuit. “Almost every attorney in town has made a run at Mr. King as a client,” he said.

Lerman said he expects to be fully compensated for the time and effort he has put into the case. He estimated he has spent about $125,000 in “out-of-pocket costs,” and that he is due another $1 million for “thousands and thousands of hours” spent by himself and his staff.

“I have a substantial investment here,” he said. “My efforts have been monumental.”

Lerman also said he will miss working closely with King.

“I’ve had Rodney King in my home, sitting and having dinner with my family,” Lerman said. “I tried to be there for him on many, many occasions, more even than I think an ordinary lawyer would have.”

“I can’t say yet whether race was an issue in this case from a legal standpoint, but as a citizen and as a black man, race was certainly a question here,” Grimes said. “I am from the South and I have seen police brutality toward black men especially. . . . It’s something that white society says doesn’t happen, but here you have it for once captured on videotape.”

The federal lawsuit remains on hold in U.S. District Court, pending the criminal trial of four Los Angeles police officers charged with violating King’s civil rights in the beating.

Grimes said he was not yet prepared to discuss possible legal strategy in the case. But he did attack as “totally bogus” King’s arrest in July in Orange on suspicion of driving under the influence. The Orange County district attorney’s office later declined to press charges against King, citing insufficient evidence.

When asked whether he was considering litigation against the California Highway Patrol over the arrest, Grimes said: “I will look at everything involving him and see if anyone has unduly prosecuted him or charged him with anything.”