King Was Not ‘Shown Off,’ Witness Says

A key witness counted on to bolster a prosecution allegation that police officers “showed off” a battered Rodney G. King to colleagues at the Foothill Division station testified instead Friday that he wanted to view King, sitting in a police car, because he thought him a dangerous suspect.

In testimony that did not measure up to prosecution promises during opening statements, Los Angeles Police Officer Daniel Gonzalez said defendant Laurence M. Powell never invited him to look at the handcuffed King, as if to display a trophy. In fact, Gonzalez said, he asked to examine King because he wanted to memorize the face of “anybody who tries to hurt another officer” so that “if I ever ran into him, I (could) beware.”

Prosecutors called Gonzalez as one of a series of witnesses to show that Powell and another defendant, Officer Timothy E. Wind, delayed for two hours in transferring King from Pacifica Hospital in Sun Valley--where he had been taken immediately after he was beaten March 3, 1991--to County-USC Medical Center for further treatment. In between, they drove to the Foothill station in Pacoima, a stop not recorded on their police logs.

It was there, Assistant U.S. Atty. Steven D. Clymer told the jury in opening statements two weeks ago, that Powell “sent police officers out to look at Rodney King while Rodney King was in the back seat, waiting for medical attention.”

The episode, which did not surface during last year’s state trial in Simi Valley, was widely viewed as stunning new evidence discovered by federal prosecutors for the current trial in federal court.

While the prosecutors seemed to fall short of establishing that the officers had dropped by the station for the purpose of showing off King, Gonzalez did say that Powell stood around with police colleagues telling a “war story” about the evening’s confrontation. In addition, a second police witness said the officers should not have stopped there, no matter what the reason.

Sgt. Michael Schadel, a records supervisor, testified that Los Angeles Police Department policy forbids any delay in a physician-ordered transfer to a hospital.

“The sole purpose of this procedure,” he said, “is to ensure that arrestees are transferred and admitted to a hospital without delay. . . . This is one of the few times when the department manual is quite specific.”

But Schadel’s testimony was overshadowed by that of Gonzalez, 25, who was a rookie when the King beating occurred.

The unexpected turn in his testimony left defense attorneys gleeful, with one declaring after court that the prosecution case was “falling apart right in front of them.”

Judge John G. Davies denied a defense motion for dismissal of the charges based on “bad faith” by prosecutors in the earlier descriptions of the testimony. But the judge agreed that “perhaps a witness hasn’t lived up to the expectations of the government.”

Coming at the end of a powerhouse week for the prosecution--featuring the emotional appearance by King and medical testimony alleging there were baton blows to his head--it represented a rebound for the defense, courtroom observers agreed. With only four more prosecution witnesses scheduled, government attorneys are expected to conclude their case Monday.

Among Friday’s witnesses were hospital employees, summoned by the prosecution to challenge the defense portrayal of King as a belligerent suspect half-crazed from PCP and to spotlight inaccuracies in the defendants’ reports on the encounter, including their failure to mention the stop at the police station.

To cover up the stop, the government alleges, Powell and Wind falsified a report to indicate that they did not leave Pacifica Hospital until 4:45 a.m.

In reality, they left with King at 3:31, an emergency room employee testified, presumably to go to County-USC Medical Center. But King was not booked into the jail ward there until 5:35 a.m., more than two hours later, according to another witness, a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy.

An FBI agent who traced the route testified that it takes only half an hour to drive between the two medical facilities, suggesting that the stop at Foothill--barely a mile from Pacifica Hospital--lasted about 90 minutes.

Defense attorneys, however, said the prosecution timetable ignored time-consuming chores, such as placing King in restraints and checking the officers’ guns at County-USC.

Michael P. Stone, who represents Powell, asserted through his questioning of witnesses that the police station stop was needed to check criminal records on King and to call officials in Sacramento to obtain a “parole hold” on him for apparently violating terms of his parole from an earlier robbery conviction. Such an order meant King could be held without bail and would not be released from custody after his stay at the jail ward at County-USC.

Stone said in his opening statement that because King had received medical treatment at Pacifica and was allowed to leave in a police car--not an ambulance--the officers did not believe he needed immediate additional care. King was only being taken to County-USC “to be observed for a while” to see if he had another PCP “episode,” he added in court Friday.

Prosecutors clearly hoped to use Gonzalez to suggest a less altruistic motive for the detour to Foothill, one that fit into their general theory that police callously administered “street justice” because King did not readily submit to arrest after a high-speed chase through the San Fernando Valley.

Gonzalez testified that he was preparing a robbery report in the police station about 3:30 a.m. when he saw Powell there “maybe leaning against a desk” and “telling a war story” about the encounter with King to a group of seven or eight officers.

Prosecutors apparently were optimistic about the testimony because of a statement Gonzalez made to police Internal Affairs officers in 1991 that Powell seemed “happy.” Before the jury, however, Gonzalez said that Powell “wasn’t bragging, he wasn’t real happy about it or really sad about it. . . . He was just telling what happened.”

Admitting he was nervous on the witness stand, Gonzalez repeatedly rubbed his temples while trying to recall the events of two years ago. He said he was concentrating on his own paperwork and did not hear most of what Powell’s story that evening. But as he was about to head back on patrol shortly after 4 a.m., Gonzalez said, “I asked Officer Powell if it would be OK if I looked at the suspect.”

“He said I could.”

Under cross-examination from Stone, Gonzalez, who now is stationed in Westwood, said he had “kind of personal reasons” for wanting to see King. He then explained that he had previously worked as a security guard and “spent nine days in the hospital” after he was run over by a fleeing shoplifting suspect, only to have the man set free when he could not identify him at a police lineup.

Because of that incident, and cases in which police friends had been beaten in the line of duty, he wanted to get a close look at any suspect “who tries to hurt another officer,” he said.

When Gonzalez mentioned one of his Police Academy classmates, Tina Kerbrat, who was slain in the line of duty, prosecutor Clymer objected. With the jury absent, he complained that Gonzalez--who wore a black wristband in memory of Kerbrat--apparently was trying to help his fellow officers with “inflamatory,” emotionally charged statements about how police risk their lives.

“This witness is a police officer,” Clymer said. “He’s an intelligent man. He knows exactly what’s happening here.”

Davies later barred further testimony about the murdered officer.

Gonzalez said he went to the Foothill station parking lot, opened the rear door of the police car and briefly shined his flashlight at King, whose hands were handcuffed behind him.

“He complained about the pain in his eye,” Gonzalez told the jury. “There was some slight swelling but itdidn’t look real bad.”

Soon after, Wind, who was seated beside King and filling out a police report, “made it very clear that I was making Mr. King upset and I should just get the heck out of there.”

Prosecutors may later cite the fact that Wind was alone in the back seat with King as evidence the officers did not really believe he was dangerous. The government similarly used the sheriff’s deputy from the County-USC jail ward, Frank Torres, to show that King “appeared calm and cooperative” when he arrived at that hospital.

Torres said that when one of the officers bringing in King “indicated he was dusted”--under the influence of angel dust, a street name for PCP--King interjected a denial, saying, “I’m not dusted.”

While prosecutors highlighted the Foothill stop as a violation of policy that delayed needed care for King, under cross-examination by Stone, Torres said it was not unusual for police to “pre-book” a suspect at their own station before coming to the hospital jail facility. He noted that there often is a wait at the hospital and there is only a manual typewriter at the 13th-floor hospital facility. The police station, he said, has computers that enable officers to check criminal records.

Charged in addition to Powell and Wind are Sgt. Stacey C. Koon and Officer Theodore J. Briseno. The four defendants face up to 10 years in prison and $250,000 fines if convicted.