LOS ANGELES : Man Gets 2-Year Term for Beating During Riots

A man who police said pulled a motorist from his car at the start of the Los Angeles riots and beat him was jailed for two years Monday after pleading no contest to assault charges.

Prosecutors said Lewis Foster, 40, attacked Manuel Vaca after his car had been forced to stop at Florence and Normandie avenues in South-Central Los Angeles.

Foster also pleaded no contest to charges of assaulting Vaca’s wife, Maria, and his brother, Alfonso. Foster was charged in the other two assaults although he never touched Vaca’s wife or brother because his attack on Vaca provoked an angry mob into beating the pair, Deputy Dist. Atty. Larry Morrison said.

Foster could have received four years in jail, but was sentenced to half that by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Gibson Lee under a plea-bargain arrangement. The attack on the car’s occupants took place at the same intersection where truck driver Reginald O. Denny was dragged from his vehicle and beaten.