Bail Reduced for 1 Defendant in Denny Case

Special gang-related allegations against three men charged with beating truck driver Reginald O. Denny were dropped Friday, and the judge sharply reduced bail for one of the defendants.

Superior Court Judge John W. Ouderkirk rejected a defense motion to lower Damian Monroe Williams’ $580,000 bail, but agreed to slash it for a co-defendant, Antoine Eugene Miller. Miller’s $580,000 bail was cut to $250,000. His attorney said it still may be impossible to post bond.

“I’m looking at what he actually did,” Ouderkirk said. “According to what I have seen so far, Mr. Miller stands in a very different situation” than Williams.

The hearing came after prosecutors disclosed that Los Angeles police Officer Michael McMahan, who testified against the defendants during their preliminary hearing, is under administrative investigation. As a result, prosecutors dropped so-called gang “enhancements”--allegations that the crimes against Denny and other victims were committed to further street gang activity.

The gang enhancements would have ensured that the defendants served at least 15 years if found guilty. Without the enhancement, they could be eligible for parole in seven years, though all would face a maximum sentence of life in prison.

In addition to its sentencing implications, defense lawyers said that dropping the enhancements undercuts the prosecution’s case by eliminating the contention that the three defendants assisted one another during the attacks partly out of loyalty to the Eight-Tray Gangster Crips, a South-Central Los Angeles gang.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Lawrence Morrison disagreed, saying that the case against Williams, Miller and Henry Keith Watson does not hinge on gang involvement. Prosecutors need only show that the defendants aided and abetted each other during attacks on Denny and others, he said.

Although the nature of the investigation of McMahan has not been disclosed, prosecutors brought the issue to Ouderkirk’s attention Monday, when they notified him that they would be requesting that McMahan’s testimony be stricken from the preliminary hearing record.

In arguments that failed to sway Ouderkirk, lawyers for Williams and Miller maintained that the dismissal of the gang enhancement charges were grounds for substantial bail reductions.

“We heard it over and over again: gang membership, gang membership, gang membership,” said Miller’s lawyer, J. Patrick Maginnis. “That’s how we got this hysterical bail.”

Now, Maginnis added, “they’ve thrown in the towel on the gang allegations.”

In agreeing to lower the bail for Miller, Ouderkirk made no reference to the dismissal of the gang enhancement charges. Instead, he said that his viewing of the videotapes of the April 29 assaults at Florence and Normandie avenues indicated that Miller’s involvement was less direct than that of Williams.

Miller is not accused of striking Denny, but like the other defendants is charged with attempted murder, aggravated mayhem, torture and robbery in the attack. As part of their aiding and abetting argument, prosecutors say that because Miller opened the door to Denny’s truck, he set in motion the beating that nearly cost Denny his life.

While lowering Miller’s bail, Ouderkirk declined to do the same for Williams, whose actions he said appeared on the videotape to be far more serious than Miller’s.

“You argued that he merely threw a rock at Mr. Denny,” Ouderkirk told Edi M.O. Faal, Williams’ attorney. “It was hurled at a very close distance. . . . It was thrown at a man who was being severely beaten, beaten half to death, perhaps.”

Ouderkirk also appeared to reject the argument made by Williams’ lawyers that the attack on Denny was an act of passion by a man swept up in the violence of the riots.

“Part of my thinking is that a person who might have done a hasty act . . . would go home,” Ouderkirk said. Instead, Williams stayed in the intersection, attacking more motorists and causing “great injury to a lot of people,” he added.

Maginnis said after the hearing that he was pleased that Ouderkirk reduced Miller’s bail, but said that it will be difficult for Miller to post the $250,000 bond.

In addition, Maginnis and Faal said they will be introducing motions to dismiss many of the counts against their clients, particularly in light of the dismissal of McMahan’s testimony.

James Gillen, another of Miller’s lawyers, said that testimony had tainted potential jurors by creating an impression that his client is a gang member.

“You can’t unring the bell,” he said. “The bell’s been rung.”