Denny Assault Case Postponed 2 Weeks : Courts: Judge will hear defense arguments that a further delay is needed. Lawyers claim they have been denied face-to-face visits with clients.

The trial of three men in the assault on trucker Reginald O. Denny was delayed for two weeks, and the judge hearing the case agreed Friday to consider defense arguments that the trial should be pushed back further.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge John W. Ouderkirk set the trial--originally scheduled to begin March 15--back to March 30, but he agreed to hear defense motions Thursday to delay the trial until at least April 15.

Defense attorneys requested the extra time, arguing that they have not been permitted face-to-face visits with their clients, who are being held at the Peter J. Pitchess Honor Ranch in Saugus, although a judge ordered such visits last year.

Attorneys said they were separated from their clients by Plexiglas and could only talk to them by telephone. Ouderkirk ordered that the defense be allowed direct access to their clients without Plexiglas separations or telephones.

“We had been promised contact visits,” said Earl C. Broady Jr., attorney for Henry Keith Watson, outside court. “Without them we are not able to properly develop our defense.”

Attorney James R. Gillen, who represents defendant Antoine Miller, said the trial should not begin until the federal trial of four Los Angeles Police Department officers accused of beating Rodney G. King concludes. The judge in that case estimates that it will end within eight weeks.

“I’d like to continue this trial (in the Denny beating) until June or July,” Gillen said outside court. “The timing is still bad because of possible adverse publicity from the King case.”

Miller, 20; Damian Williams, 19; and Watson, 27, face charges of attempted murder, aggravated mayhem and robbery in the Denny beating. They also face charges for alleged attacks on other victims at Florence and Normandie avenues April 29 as Los Angeles erupted in riots after the four officers accused of beating King were acquitted on all charges except one.

In a hearing marked by sharp exchanges between Ouderkirk and defense attorneys Gillen and his co-counsel, J. Patrick Maginnis, the judge denied several defense motions ranging from a request to lower Williams’ $580,000 bail to the composition of the jury pool.

After Ouderkirk ordered the two-week delay during the morning session of Friday’s hearing, defense attorneys continued in the afternoon to press for additional time to prepare.

Gillen and Maginnis complained that they would not have enough time by March 15 to review prosecution videotape variously estimated to last between 20 and 40 hours.

Ouderkirk told the attorneys they would have to “get busy.”

The judge had earlier admonished Gillen for “making a speech to the television camera” when the attorney requested that a question asking prospective jurors whether they had ever been arrested be removed from a questionnaire.

Gillen called that comment a “snide remark,” saying the judge appeared to have a “pejorative attitude” toward the defense.

“If I want a camera I can leave the court and call a reporter,” he said.

Ouderkirk denied that his comment about playing to the camera was snide and reminded defense attorneys that some requests they made Friday could have been made months ago.

When Ouderkirk told defense attorneys that they would have to work harder than they have to meet the trial schedule, Edi M. O. Faal said he has been working around the clock on the case.

“I haven’t had a secure facility to discuss the case with Mr. Williams,” Faal said. “I write him a note in the courtroom. He writes me one back. Or I speak to him in the holding cell.”

Ouderkirk said no one had told him before Friday that the defense had not been able to hold confidential conversations with the defendants.