PAGES : Officer Koon Starts Book Tour

Stacey Koon, one of the Los Angeles Police Department officers acquitted in the Rodney King beating case, is launching a national publicity tour for his new book.

“Presumed Guilty: The Tragedy of the Rodney King Affair” is scheduled to be released Monday by Regnery Gateway, a Washington publisher that tends to choose books with a conservative view. (A number of publishers turned the book down because of its “political slant,” says the publisher’s managing editor, Megan Butler.)

Of the book tour, “I’ve got some butterflies because this is something I’ve never done,” Koon says. “You’re talking about addressing hundreds of thousands of people on news programs. I have a hard time keeping from squinting because the lights are so bright. You have the fear of maybe having your zipper down with bazillions of people watching.”

Koon, whose $19.95 book reasserts his innocence in the King beating and criticizes press coverage of the case, will begin a week of local appearances Monday with a news conference at the L.A. Press Club.

On Tuesday he is scheduled to be interviewed from Los Angeles on CNN’s “Larry King Live.” Wednesday he is slated for radio interviews with KABC’s Michael Jackson at 9 a.m. and KFI’s Barbara Whiteside from 6-8 p.m.

He will spend Oct. 25-29 in Washington, New York and Dallas.

A February trial date has been set for Koon and the three others facing federal charges in the King incident.