Ailing King Juror Rejoins Deliberations

Deliberations resumed Thursday when a juror in the Rodney G. King civil rights trial rejoined the rest of the panel, ending a recess called Wednesday because of the juror’s sudden illness.

No details were disclosed about which juror had suffered the ailment, but the malady appeared to have been minor and cost the jury only one afternoon’s work. The juror’s return headed off a potentially troublesome debate over whether to let the jury continue with 11 members or to add one of the alternates--a move that could have delayed deliberations considerably.

As the 12 jurors pressed forward with their task, U.S. District Judge John G. Davies accused a local television reporter of violating a court order and for a time threatened to shut down the pressroom where dozens of journalists covering the trial have been holed up for more than two months.

The King jury resumed its work early Thursday, reporting at the courthouse before 8:30 a.m. and--apparently for the first time--working through lunch. The panel so far has deliberated for about 32 hours--the same amount of time that state court jurors deliberated before returning not guilty verdicts against the same defendants in last year’s trial in Simi Valley.

Thursday’s unbroken deliberations led some attorneys to speculate that the panel might be making progress. But the jury sent out no communications, so the attorneys were left with little insight into the panel’s inner workings.

“They may just be making up for the lost time yesterday,” said Ira Salzman, the lawyer for Los Angeles Police Sgt. Stacey C. Koon. “There’s no way to know for sure.”

Koon is one of four defendants charged with violating King’s civil rights on March 3, 1991. LAPD Officers Laurence M. Powell and Theodore J. Briseno and former Officer Timothy E. Wind are accused of kicking and stomping King and striking him with batons, depriving him of his right to be safe from the intentional use of unreasonable force.

Koon, the senior officer at the scene of the incident, did not strike King, but he is accused of allowing officers under his supervision to administer an unreasonable beating.

The jury is scheduled to reconvene at 8:30 a.m. today. Last year’s verdicts in state court touched off days of deadly rioting in Los Angeles and the city has--sometimes nervously--followed the progress of the federal case. Jurors received the federal case last Saturday, and since then have deliberated in seclusion at the Edward R. Roybal Federal Building in downtown Los Angeles.

As a result of the pressroom flap, marshals temporarily stripped press credentials from Bob Jimenez, a reporter from KCBS-TV. Marshals said Davies believed that Jimenez had violated his Feb. 8 order prohibiting reporters from broadcasting the proceedings.

An audio feed connects reporters in the sixth-floor pressroom with the proceedings in Davies’ court. Jimenez was one of dozens of reporters covering a Wednesday afternoon hearing, and Davies reportedly was told that his voice had leaked into a KCBS broadcast.

Federal rules prohibit the recording or broadcast of criminal court hearings, and Davies had ordered reporters covering the King trial not to violate those rules.

Jimenez was angered by the accusation that he had violated the court order, saying that if the judge’s voice had been transmitted over the air, it had been by accident. Jimenez demanded to speak to Davies, and marshals escorted the reporter to the judge’s chambers.

After meeting with Davies, Jimenez reappeared in the pressroom and announced that he had been stripped of the pass that gave him access to the trial.

“I have been asked by the marshals to relinquish my credentials,” Jimenez said. “I’m no longer going to jeopardize the rest of the press.”

But discussions continued between Davies and lawyers for KCBS-TV, and the judge relented Thursday afternoon. Bill Licatovich, a spokesman for the U.S. Marshals Service, said Davies was convinced that there had not been a deliberate effort to violate his order.

Davies ordered marshals to restore Jimenez’s press credentials and the judge withdrew his threat to disassemble the pressroom. Jimenez reappeared after lunch to cheers from his colleagues.

“It’s a hell of a way to make a living,” Jimenez said.

Meanwhile, in Koreatown, the commander of the California National Guard, Maj. Gen. Tandy K. Bozeman, met with members of the Korean-American Emergency Preparation Committee to assure the community that his troops are “fully trained” and “absolutely ready” to protect people and property in the event of trouble after the verdicts are announced.

Bozeman stressed that his personnel will be acting as a back-up force and not as a substitute for other law enforcement.

Steve Cho, secretary general of the committee, urged the news media to portray Korean-Americans as “a peace- and freedom-loving people” concerned about a repetition of last year’s violence.

Referring to widespread reports of Koreans arming themselves, Cho said they are only making preparations “to defend our lives.”

” . . . I would appreciate it if television networks and other news media would get the message out,” Cho said. “Koreans are not going to start shooting.”

Times staff writers K. Connie Kang and Eric Malnic contributed to this story.

Update: The King Trial

A look at key developments Thursday: * Jurors deliberated for eight hours and worked through lunch, prompting some attorneys to speculate that the panel might be closing in on verdicts. Jurors, who have now met for a total of about 32 hours, did not send out any notes, however, so no public clues emerged about how their deliberations are progressing. * U.S. District Judge John G. Davies accused a television newsman of violating a ban on broadcasting the proceedings. But after the reporter and his lawyers explained that he had not intended to violate Davies’ order, Davies relented, ordering marshals to restore the journalist’s press credentials and backing off a threat to close the courthouse pressroom. * HISTORY IN THE MAKING: College classes focus on 1992 riots, ongoing King case. B1