Lawyers Say Deputy Assaulted Shackled Denny Defendant : Trial: Alleged mistreatment occurred as Damian Williams was taken from courtroom to lockup. An investigation has been launched.

Attorneys for Damian Monroe Williams, one of three men charged in the assault on trucker Reginald O. Denny, said Tuesday that a sheriff’s deputy assaulted their client Friday as he was being taken from a courtroom to the lockup in the Criminal Courts Building.

Williams’ attorney, Edi M. O. Faal, said Williams, whose legs and one hand were shackled, was “assaulted and battered” after court on Friday by a deputy who was not in charge of the prisoner. As a result, Faal said, Williams suffered physical and emotional injuries and is “concerned about being exposed to other deputies who have no authority over him.”

Superior Court Judge John W. Ouderkirk, who is presiding over the trial, said he had spoken to the sheriff’s lieutenant in charge of deputies assigned to criminal courts, and an investigation of the incident has been launched.

“My understanding is no member of my staff was involved in this,” said Ouderkirk, referring to deputies assigned as bailiffs to his courtroom.

In a statement issued Monday, the Sheriff’s Department said Williams, 20, and the deputy, whose name was not released, were involved in a minor altercation in an elevator. The deputy ordered Williams three times to face the elevator wall and each time he refused, the statement said.

Faal challenged that account, saying Williams was being escorted to the lockup by two deputies assigned to Ouderkirk’s courtroom when a third deputy got on the elevator. He ordered Williams, who was reading court papers, to face the wall, but Williams did not realize the deputy was speaking to him, the attorney said.

The deputy then attempted to turn Williams, and the two men struggled, Faal said. A deputy assigned to Ouderkirk told Williams to “back off,” and he did, Faal said. The third deputy then rushed at Williams and pinned him to the wall with his forearm, Faal said.

“This deputy attacked Damian while he was in chains,” Williams’ mother, Georgiana Williams, said outside court. She said her son had told her that his neck was swollen and that he had difficulty swallowing.

The assault allegation came at the close of a court hearing during which a lawyer for another defendant argued that Mayor Tom Bradley’s televised comments after the not-guilty verdicts in the first Rodney G. King beating trial “encouraged civil unrest to occur.”

Attorney James R. Gillen, who represents defendant Antoine Miller, argued that he should be allowed to call Bradley as a witness because the mayor’s comments after the verdicts “encouraged” civil unrest.

He made his comment in challenging a prosecution motion asking that defense attorneys offer proof of the relevance of testimony they want from Bradley, former Police Chief Daryl F. Gates and several other witnesses.

After the verdicts were returned, Bradley said in a televised statement: “Today this jury told the world that what we all saw with our own eyes was not a crime. Today that jury asked us to accept the senseless and brutal beating of a helpless man.”

Outside court, Gillen said the mayor’s words did not start the riot, but his comments created a general state of mind “and the people went from there. I believe (the mayor’s remarks) were not the cause, but a factor. I’m not blaming Tom Bradley for the riot. I want to be really explicit about that.”

Ouderkirk did not issue a final ruling on whether Bradley or Gates could be called as witnesses, but he said the defense would have to prove that their testimony would be relevant to the defendant’s guilt or innocence before they could testify.

Williams, Miller, 20, and Henry Keith Watson, 28, are charged with multiple felonies, including attempted murder, in the attack on Denny at the intersection of Florence and Normandie avenues during the early hours of Los Angeles’ riot last April 29. Their trial is scheduled to begin April 12.