King Struck on Head by Baton, Expert Says

Rodney G. King suffered his most serious injuries from baton blows to the head and face, not from repeated falls to the pavement, a medical expert testified Thursday in the federal trial of four Los Angeles police officers charged with violating King’s civil rights.

That testimony from Dr. Harry L. Smith contradicts the position staked out by lawyers for the police officers and represents a key element of the prosecution case against them. The defendants acknowledge that King suffered a broken cheekbone and eye socket and other damage to his face and head, but they contend that the wounds were the result of several face-first falls during the beating.

Smith, a vice president of Bio-dynamics Research Corp. in San Antonio, Tex., bluntly rejected that argument.

“Are the injuries to Mr. King’s head and face consistent with a fall to the ground?” Assistant U.S. Atty. Steven D. Clymer asked.

“No, they are not,” Smith responded.

If King had suffered the facial injuries in a fall, he would have had facial abrasions as well as damage to his nose, eyebrows and other areas, said Smith, the prosecution’s key medical expert. The absence of those injuries, combined with the characteristics of injuries that King did suffer, led Smith to conclude that three or four direct shots from a baton were responsible for numerous head fractures suffered by King.

Another doctor, Charles Aronberg, testified this week that he too believes baton blows were responsible for those injuries. Neither Aronberg nor Smith was called as a witness during last year’s state trial of the officers.

Smith’s testimony could weigh heavily against the police officers, particularly Laurence M. Powell, whom Smith identified as the person most likely to have delivered the baton blows to King’s head. If the blows were intentional, they would violate Los Angeles police policy, and repeated blows to the head could suggest that they were intentional.

Powell, Timothy E. Wind and Theodore J. Briseno are accused of striking, kicking and stomping King on March 3, 1991, and are charged with violating his constitutional right to be safe from the intentional use of unreasonable force. Stacey C. Koon, the senior officer at the scene that night, is charged with allowing officers under his supervision to administer an unlawful beating.

Michael P. Stone, Powell’s attorney, conceded that Smith was an effective witness for the prosecution, and acknowledged that the four-hour cross-examination of the doctor by defense lawyers had not caught him in any contradictions.

“Only on Perry Mason does the expert get pinned by the opposing lawyer,” Stone said.

But he added that Smith’s testimony does not prove that any of Powell’s baton strikes were intended to hit King in the head. And only intentional blows to the head are violations of the law, Stone said.

“We cannot focus on whether there were head blows or there weren’t head blows,” Stone said. “The issue is whether there were unlawful blows.”

Stone said that Smith’s testimony on one point may favor the defense. The force that Smith said was behind the blows was far less than a police officer could deliver with a baton, Stone said, adding that a defense expert witness will amplify that point during the presentation of the officers’ case.

Smith illustrated his testimony Thursday with a pair of plastic skulls that he used to demonstrate several “patterns of injury,” or groups of fractures and wounds that appeared to be related. Three of the injury patterns were caused by baton blows, Smith said, adding that a fourth appeared to be.

All of those blows appeared to have hit King directly in the head, Smith said, rather than glancing off his shoulders, as the defendants have suggested might have happened.

Under painstaking questioning from Clymer, Smith spent about three hours describing his conclusions, which he reached after consulting an array of King’s medical records. Smith said he also reviewed a study prepared by the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, where a group of doctors concluded that King was struck five times in the head with a baton.

Smith, a native of Holland, occasionally sparred with defense lawyers, correcting them on their language and in the process drawing giggles from a few jurors and members of the audience.

Smith took the stand Wednesday on the heels of King’s two closely watched days of testimony. Even though the crush of reporters and curious onlookers had subsided by Thursday morning, King’s testimony--particularly his highly charged accusation that the officers who beat him also taunted him with racial epithets--continued to reverberate through the proceedings.

Before jurors entered the courtroom, Harland W. Braun, the lawyer for Briseno, accused prosecutors of misconduct, saying that they deliberately allowed King to testify that he heard officers call him a “nigger,” only to have King recant that statement when pressed.

“That’s deceitful,” said Braun, gesturing at Barry F. Kowalski, a Justice Department lawyer in the case. “I see it as a terrible thing that (Kowalski) has done.”

Braun asked U.S. District Judge John G. Davies to strike all references to the word “nigger” from the record and to inform the jury that Kowalski had committed serious misconduct. Clymer vigorously objected, calling Braun’s comments “not only in error, but somewhat despicable.”

Davies declined to take the steps that Braun requested.

“I see no misconduct,” the judge said. “Absolutely none.”

In the course of arguing the racial issue, Braun also offhandedly disclosed a surprising point about what he said were behind-the-scenes security precautions being undertaken by the U.S. Marshals Service, which has the job of safeguarding the trial and its participants.

“There’s a helicopter waiting on top of this building to lift us off after a verdict,” Braun said.

“That’s amazing,” Davies said, arching an eyebrow in surprise.

Braun--who in 1987 successfully defended one of five people charged with manslaughter in a helicopter crash on the set of the Twilight Zone--said he had been informed of the security provision by the Marshals Service, but he added that he had no interest in boarding the craft.

“I’ve hated helicopters ever since the Twilight Zone case,” Braun said.

A spokesman for the Marshals Service declined to confirm or deny Braun’s comments.