Denny Pretrial Action Brings Another Delay : Court: Judge postpones hearing on defense motion alleging discriminatory prosecution. Attorney contrasts beating charges to those in King case.

A defense attorney wanted former Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner arrested. A prosecutor warned against opening a Pandora’s box and creating a circus. And a lawyer for Sgt. Stacey C. Koon said he would advise his client to take the 5th Amendment.

So went the proceedings Thursday in a pretrial hearing for three men charged in the assault on trucker Reginald O. Denny. When all of the skirmishing was over, Superior Court Judge John W. Ouderkirk postponed for three weeks the hearing on a defense motion alleging discriminatory prosecution.

Attorney Edi M. O. Faal, who represents defendant Damian Monroe Williams, had subpoenaed Reiner to ask him why the Denny defendants face more serious charges than those filed against the police officers who beat motorist Rodney G. King.

Noting that Reiner was not in the courtroom, Faal asked that the judge issue a bench warrant for his arrest. Prosecutors pointed out that Reiner was in the building and called him on the telephone. Ouderkirk denied Faal’s request and scheduled testimony from Reiner on May 28 when the hearing is scheduled to resume.

Prosecutors earlier had taken issue with Faal over the relevance of testimony from other witnesses he has subpoenaed--former Dist. Atty. John K. Van de Kamp; former Los Angeles Police Detective Bill Pavelic; Deputy Dist. Atty. Terry White, who prosecuted the state case against the officers who beat King, and attorney Stephen Yagman, who has sued several law enforcement agencies for excessive force.

Faal also had subpoenaed Koon, one of four officers facing federal charges of violating King’s civil rights. But Los Angeles Police Protective League General Counsel Enrique A. Hernandez, who represented Koon at the hearing, said in court Thursday that he would advise the sergeant to exercise his 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination if called to testify before the federal case ends.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Lawrence C. Morrison, one of two prosecutors on the case, accused defense attorneys of opening a Pandora’s box by creating a “parade of disgruntled police officers and civil rights attorneys” without first establishing the relevance of their testimony.

For his part, Faal said the prosecution does not want a public hearing on discriminatory prosecution because “they do not want some of the things that will be said disseminated” by the media.

Defense attorneys maintain that the defendants in the Denny beating are being charged more severely than the officers who beat King because the Denny defendants are black and the officers are white.

Attorney J. Patrick Maginnis, who represents defendant Antoine Miller, said Morrison and a Los Angeles police detective said Miller committed no violent acts against Denny. Yet Miller is charged with attempted murder.

Miller and Williams, both 20, and Henry Keith Watson, 28, face multiple felony charges arising from their alleged involvement in the attack on Denny as violence erupted last April 29 after the officers were acquitted on all but one charge in the King beating.

On Wednesday, Ouderkirk postponed their trial until mid-July. Miller, who originally balked at waiving his right to a speedy trial, agreed to the delay Thursday.