3 Detroit Police Officers to Stand Trial in Fatal Beating : Law enforcement: Charges are dropped against black former sergeant. Incident has been likened to Rodney King case in Los Angeles.

A Michigan judge on Wednesday ordered three former Detroit police officers to stand trial on criminal charges in connection with the beating death last month of a black man, but he dismissed a charge of involuntary manslaughter against a former sergeant who was the only black defendant in the case.

The ruling by U.S. District Chief Judge Alex J. Allen Jr. climaxed a seven-day hearing that was closely followed in Detroit and attracted national attention because of similarities between the case and the 1991 beating of black motorist Rodney G. King in Los Angeles.

That incident eventually led to the worst urban riots in the nation’s history when the white officers charged with the beating were acquitted April 29 on 10 of 11 charges.

Two of the Detroit police officers, Larry Nevers, 52, and Walter Budzyn, 47, known on the streets of Detroit’s west side as “Starsky and Hutch” after the characters in an old television police series, were ordered to stand trial on charges of second-degree murder in connection with the fatal beating of Malice Green on Nov. 5.

Officer Robert Lessnau, 32, was ordered to stand trial on a charge of assault with intent to commit great bodily harm.

The lone criminal charge against the fourth defendant, Sgt. Freddie Douglas, 44, the highest-ranking officer at the scene of the incident, was dismissed. A misdemeanor charge of neglect of duty is pending against Douglas.

Douglas Baker, Wayne County’s assistant prosecutor, said he plans to appeal the dismissal of the involuntary manslaughter charge against Douglas.

Dismissal of the charge was based on the fact that Douglas arrived on the scene after the beating had started, although Green was still alive.

According to testimony, Green suffered 12 blows to the top and sides of his head from heavy metal flashlights, including at least four after Douglas arrived. A medical expert testified that no single blow killed Green, but that four such blows to the head could be fatal.

“We say that the standard should be that, if a sufficient number of blows to cause death were delivered in his presence, he should be liable for that even if a sufficient number of blows to cause death occurred before he got there,” Baker said in outlining the basis for the appeal.

Earlier this month, Douglas publicly charged that his inclusion among the defendants was a racially motivated attempt to diminish parallels between Green’s death and the King beating.

Mindful of those parallels, Detroit officials moved swiftly against the officers. They were suspended without pay immediately after the incident and, as the hearing before Allen continued, all four were fired. Detroit newspapers reported Wednesday that the city had agreed to pay about $5 million to Green’s family to settle a $61-million wrongful-death suit.

Green, 35, who was unemployed, was stopped in his car outside a suspected crack house by Nevers and Budzyn. According to court testimony, the officers began to beat him with their flashlights after he reached into the car’s glove compartment and pulled out a clenched fist that the officers thought contained an unidentified object, possibly cocaine.

The three officers are scheduled to be arraigned on Jan. 21.