King’s New Attorney Known for Testing Limits of the Law : Profile: Though sometimes criticized for theatrics, he has a solid record. He stresses his experience in racial issues.

Four years ago, defense attorney Milton C. Grimes scored a remarkable victory in the so-called “baby blues” trial, when a judge overturned a jury’s conviction of an Anaheim woman who ran over her colicky newborn son with the family Volvo.

The Sheryl Lynn Massip case marked the first time in Southern California that a woman employed postpartum psychosis--a maternal disorder--as a murder defense. In the case, which was closely watched by medical and legal experts nationwide, Grimes argued that Massip must have been temporarily insane at the time of the baby’s death because “no mother in her right mind would have done what she did.”

Risky gambits in the courtroom have never intimidated Grimes, who thrives on pushing the limits of the law for his clients, colleagues say. But such high-profile Orange County cases now pale in comparison to Grimes’ most recent endeavor--representing Rodney G. King in his multimillion-dollar police brutality suit against the city of Los Angeles.

Wearing a black, double-breasted suit and ostrich-skin boots, Grimes stood on the steps of the U.S. District Court in downtown Los Angeles last week to announce that he had officially filed documents installing himself as King’s attorney in the federal civil rights lawsuit.

Grimes said the specifics behind King’s decision to switch attorneys so late in the case were confidential, but added that his background and professional experience in police brutality, civil rights and wrongful death trials may have been a factor in the switch.

“I grew up in the South, in Virginia, where I saw blacks scarred physically and emotionally by police . . . and I recall vividly my grandfather warning me that when we went into town I wasn’t to look up at any white woman,” said Grimes, an African-American. “I remember police putting shotguns in my face when I was just a teen-ager.

“I have experiences in life that make me sensitive to issues in this case,” he said.

King contacted Grimes by telephone about two weeks ago, Grimes said, because he felt “it was time for a switch” from Beverly Hills attorney Steven A. Lerman, who had represented the black motorist since his March 3, 1991, beating at the hands of four white Los Angeles police officers.

Thomas Malcolm, president of the Orange County Bar Assn., calls Grimes one of the 25 best trial attorneys in Orange County. Grimes most often handles criminal cases but his colleagues--and even his critics--say his courtroom experience will make him a formidable advocate in the civil case filed by King.

“He enjoys one of the finest reputations and is certainly one of the most experienced criminal trial attorneys in the county,” Malcolm said.

Most judges and colleagues describe Grimes as a brilliant legal mind who is meticulous in his case preparation and easily endears himself to jurors.

But Grimes, 47, also has his critics. One local Superior Court judge, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that Grimes’ legal talent can be diminished by his flair for courtroom theatrics. Grimes rarely misses a chance to inject allegations of racism into even the simplest cases, the judge said.

Grimes said he has never had a judge admonish him for being too theatrical, but quickly responded to claims that he is too sensitive to race issues.

“Let my critics live the life of a black man and then talk about being sensitive to race,” he said.

Grimes pleaded guilty in 1990 to a misdemeanor count of failing to file state income tax returns between 1980 and 1982. He was suspended from the practice of law for 60 days, fined $4,000 and ordered to pay $1,269 in delinquent taxes and perform 100 hours of community service. He recently completed a two-year probation in connection with that case.

As a youngster, Grimes picked crops in North Carolina, where his grandfather was a sharecropper. He later led black student demonstrations at the Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco. Grimes said he ventured into law because he wanted to assist blacks unjustly accused of crimes.

He now finds himself representing one of the most racially charged cases the country has ever seen.

King was beaten by four Los Angeles Police Department officers after a traffic stop. In April, 1992, a Simi Valley jury rendered not guilty verdicts, sparking three days of deadly rioting in Los Angeles County and protests across the nation.

The officers have denied that the beating was racially motivated, but many minorities say the King case, with the dramatic videotaped beating at its core, illustrates how police treat people of color.

“I am proud to be a part of this case,” Grimes said. “For once we caught the monster. (Many whites) said the monster was a Loch Ness monster, that it wasn’t there, that it didn’t exist. But we caught it.”

Grimes said he has tried federal cases before, but the King beating will mark his first federal case in Los Angeles. Grimes said his office also handled a federal case involving the 1990 police beating of several young men at a Red Onion restaurant in Santa Ana and a 1983 police shooting case in Sacramento. His law office has four police brutality cases pending in Orange County, he said.

Grimes began practicing law in California in 1974. In the early days of his career, Grimes often defended minority clients free or for low fees, colleagues recalled.

Since then, Grimes has parlayed his talents into a thriving practice, often specializing in cases in which a defendant’s mental health is an issue. He gained nationwide recognition after the Massip case, appearing on local and national radio and television talk shows.

The outcome of that case surprised even Grimes, who admitted at the time that the judge had no legal precedent for throwing out the second-degree murder conviction.

But Orange County Superior Court Judge Robert R. Fitzgerald, who is known for harsh sentences, said at the time that he was compelled to follow his conscience when he acquitted Massip of killing her 6-week-old son, reversing the verdict of a jury that had found her guilty of second-degree murder.

Earlier this year, Grimes persuaded an Orange County Superior Court judge to order a new trial for Richard DeHoyos, a drifter sentenced to die in the gas chamber for kidnaping, raping and killing a 9-year-old Santa Ana girl.

Jurors convicted DeHoyos of murder, but it was later learned that several jurors had read newspaper articles about Grimes and his experience using mental health issues as a defense. Grimes had argued to jurors that DeHoyos suffered from brain damage and other mental illnesses.

Earlier this year, the city of Los Angeles offered King $1.75 million to settle the federal suit filed after his beating. King did not accept the offer, raising the possibility of a trial.

Grimes said he would prefer to settle the case, but only if the offer will adequately compensate King for his injuries. Grimes said he has not decided what an acceptable settlement would be. “At this point, I don’t think there is enough money in the vault in Ft. Knox to compensate for the brutality Mr. King went through,” he said.

Times staff writer Alicia Di Rado contributed to this story from Los Angeles.