Final Prosecution Witnesses Criticize Report on King : Trial: Injuries were understated and account did not reflect what is on video, two LAPD officers testify.

Final prosecution witnesses in the Rodney G. King civil rights trial said Monday that the defendants filed misleading police reports and understated the seriousness of King’s injuries.

One witness, Sgt. John Amott, was handed a copy of a police report about the incident written by Officer Laurence M. Powell. Assistant U.S. Atty. Steven D. Clymer then asked: “Did this report accurately describe what you saw in the videotape?”

After several objections from defense lawyers, Amott eventually responded: “I didn’t think that what I saw on the tape reflected what was in the report.”

Nowhere in the report, Amott said, did Powell indicate that King was kicked, stomped and struck with batons while he was on the ground. Amott also noted that Powell and his partner, Timothy E. Wind, did not order a blood or urine test for King even though they had alleged that he was under the influence of PCP during the incident.

Amott was followed to the stand by the prosecution’s 35th and final witness, though more could be called later to rebut defense testimony. That witness, Lt. Patrick Conmay, said the Sgt. Stacey C. Koon downplayed King’s injuries, specifically mentioning just a split lip.

Conmay acknowledged during cross-examination, however, that a notation on one of the reports indicated that the officers did disclose that King suffered major injuries that required hospitalization.

After Conmay completed his testimony, Barry F. Kowalski, a Justice Department lawyer who is the other lead prosecutor in the case, stood and announced: “Your Honor, at this time, the United States rests.”

The conclusion of the prosecution’s case prompted a flurry of defense motions asking that U.S. District Judge John G. Davies acquit the officers. Such motions are made routinely but are rarely granted, and legal experts agreed that there was almost no chance that three of the four defendants would win acquittal from the judge.

There remained some question about Officer Theodore J. Briseno, however.

“There has been a simple failure of proof in this case,” said Harland W. Braun, Briseno’s lawyer. Braun noted that the prosecution’s expert on the use of police force testified that when Briseno stomped King’s upper body, he apparently was trying to to “control” King.

Kowalski responded that it was reasonable to conclude from the videotape of the King beating that Briseno’s stomp was “intended with malice.”

Davies denied Braun’s motion, and Braun later accused him of substituting political judgment for sound legal reasoning. “I’ll make the government pay for this,” Braun added. “I’ll do everything I can to get everyone acquitted.”

Briseno also won support from an unexpected quarter Monday. Rap musician Eazy E. joined Braun in calling for Briseno to be acquitted. Eazy E. is with the group NWA, best known for a song attacking police.

“They should have let Briseno go,” the rapper said. “He’s the cop who tried to stop this.”

As the day concluded, Paul R. DePasquale, the lawyer for Wind, offered the first glimpse into the defense case with his opening statement. DePasquale said Wind’s actions were a “textbook example” of how to use a baton to subdue a difficult suspect.

“Every time Tim Wind used that baton,” DePasquale said, “he used it in response to apparent attempts by Rodney King to get up. He didn’t use it in anger. He didn’t use it in rage or out of sadism. . . . He used it as a managed tool.”