Verdicts Expected in King Case Today --Police on Alert : Trial: Jurors, after deliberating seven days, could make announcement this morning. It is unclear if decisions have been reached on each of the four defendants.

After seven days of deliberating in near silence, jurors in the Rodney G. King civil rights trial appear to have reached verdicts and are expected to announce them this morning, according to law enforcement officials.

“They certainly are giving us plenty of notice to get prepared,” said Los Angeles Police Commission President Stanley K. Sheinbaum, whose agency was among those alerted late Friday about the impending announcement. “Doing it early in the morning will help.”

It was unclear whether jurors had reached verdicts in the cases of each of the four defendants. If the jurors were deadlocked over any of the defendants, U.S. District Judge John G. Davies could order them to deliberate further.

The federal trial of Stacey C. Koon, Laurence M. Powell, Timothy E. Wind and Theodore J. Briseno has unfolded in a city unnerved by the prospect of a recurrence of last year’s civil unrest, and the prospect of verdicts jolted law enforcement agencies into high gear. Days of rioting erupted when a state court jury found the same defendants not guilty last year. Law enforcement agencies across Southern California have vowed to respond swiftly to any signs of trouble at the conclusion of the federal trial.

Just as the jury wrapped up for the day Friday, the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department went on tactical alert. A Sheriff’s Department spokesman said Friday “at the direction of the sheriff, the department is mobilizing as of (6 a.m.) tomorrow morning.” The spokesman said he could neither confirm nor deny that verdicts would be announced.

At Police Department headquarters, a spokesman also declined to discuss the reason for the increased police readiness. “We’re confirming that there is a citywide tactical alert, but we’re not making any comment about it,” said Sgt. Bill Frio.

Lawyers for the officers also declined to comment about whether they had been informed of possible verdicts. U.S. Atty. Terree A. Bowers said the government would have no comment either.

As the jury deliberated in seclusion Friday, Davies met with representatives of the media to lay out plans for announcing the much-awaited verdicts. The meeting occurred in the early afternoon, and Davies said he had no inkling of how far along the jury deliberations were.

But he told reporters that he would allow the voice of his clerk reading the verdicts to be broadcast live, a dramatic break from federal practice in criminal proceedings.

“This is my slight gesture,” Davies told a pool of reporters. “I know you have a tough job.”

Davies added that “it seems petty” to deny the press and public the right to hear the verdicts announced live. A brief frenzy erupted earlier this week when Judge Davies summoned lawyers to his courtroom to announce a juror’s illness. He said that hubbub caused him to think about how the announcement of verdicts could best be handled.

Jurors in the case have been sequestered for seven weeks. It has been days since they have given any hint of how their deliberations are progressing. Already the deliberations have exceeded the time that a state jury took last year to return not guilty verdicts against the same four defendants.

While residents braced for the verdicts, the defendants and their lawyers were locked in a grueling waiting game as well. Friday, they paced the halls of the courthouse hour after hour.

“We arrive here every morning optimistic that today might be the day,” said Michael P. Stone, the lawyer for Powell. “Then, as the day wears on, you get to a point where you think: It can’t happen today.”

Stone and Powell were forced to make a morning appearance in state court, where one charge against Powell remains unresolved from last year’s state trial. Although that charge will not be dismissed until the federal jury returns verdicts, Superior Court Judge Stanley Weisberg did release Powell’s $30,000 bond, which had been secured by his father’s house.

“At least we got the house back,” Stone said later.

With the deliberations dragging on, lawyers used some of the extra time to solidify their plans for getting themselves and their clients to safety once the verdicts are announced.

Although they declined to comment on the plans in detail, lawyers for several of the officers said they had met with federal officials and had developed various scenarios for leaving the building if the defendants are acquitted and there appears to be a threat of violence.

One defense lawyer, Harland W. Braun, said months ago that a plan existed to fly the defendants off the top of the courthouse in a helicopter, but representatives of the U.S. Marshals Service will not confirm or deny that account.

Tensions are extremely high over the case, and several of the attorneys already have received death threats--some of which have been shared with the judge. This week, Ira Salzman, the lawyer who represents Sgt. Stacey C. Koon, called in an armed guard to escort his assistant from his legal office after receiving threats there.

Salzman said the threats were disconcerting, but he credited federal officials with handling the security issues competently.

In the San Fernando Valley, 200 business owners and residents met with police at Reseda High School and were told that authorities were ready for whatever might happen after the verdicts are read. Capt. Val Paniccia of the West Valley Division said: “We know from last year what can happen, but that cannot happen again. This time we have a plan to stop it.”

Outside the auditorium, Sgt. Walt Kainz said police know that many in the audience had heard rumors that armed bands have targeted the Valley.

“Business owners know the rumors that gangs will target this area and that they have the ability to pull off terrorist-type attacks in the Valley,” Kainz said. “We know about the rumors too. We are ready.”

Kainz did not say whether police gave the rumors any credibility.

Across the street from the high school meeting, Juan Casillas, 29, stood with his 8-month-old daughter, Maria, in his arms on a quiet street corner.

“This may be the last quiet night here for a long time,” Casillas said. “I wanted to come outside and enjoy it. I think tomorrow night at this time we will all be scared, locked inside our homes.”

The same sense of nervous anticipation gripped the Korean-American owner of an acupuncture clinic in Reseda. H. S. Lee-Newman, 43, said she had moved “expensive items out of the store.”

That included medicines and her acupuncture license. While she was talking, an unidentified man came in and delivered a box of 25 shotgun shells. Lee-Newman said her brother would be guarding the store.

At a supermarket on Ventura Boulevard in Encino, a store employee who asked not to be identified said it appeared that customers were stocking up. “I see a lot of staples going out--water, milk, diapers, that kind of stuff,” he said. As a demonstration, he pointed to a cooler where there were only two quart bottles of Evian water left by 9 p.m.

The San Fernando Valley Korean Watch Team held a meeting for a handful of concerned residents Friday night in a storefront office at Van Nuys Boulevard and Sherman Way. The organization, set up by 60 volunteers, passed out flyers containing safety rules for handling guns.

But Huam Chong, 41, of Van Nuys, who owns a liquor store near Los Angeles City College, said his organization is taking a low-key approach to the possibility of trouble.

“The approach this year is, we plan to rely on the National Guard, the Fire Department, the Police Department and the Marines,” said Chong.

“But we have to support those people too.”

The organization has established a hot line. Chong said there were nine calls Friday from anxious merchants and elderly people worried about the aftermath of the verdict. “We tell them, calm down, there’s nothing going on in L.A.,” said Chong. He said he would be at his post in the storefront office all night. A bullet-proof vest hung on the wall.

“We’re like watchdogs, temporary watchdogs for as long as this lasts,” he said.

As the attorneys and their clients marked time inside the courthouse on Friday, a slew of demonstrators, civic leaders and public officials made their way to the bank of television cameras set up outside the building. Electronic media representatives from around the world are encamped in the Roybal building plaza, biding their time while the jury deliberates.

That scene was disrupted Friday afternoon when a group of white supremacists traded harsh words with some members of the crowd.

Officials said the face-off began when the four men left the federal building, where they had tried unsuccessfully to get a permit to demonstrate. Carrying a banner with letters “KKK,” they drew a crowd of reporters to the outdoor rotunda. At the urging of federal officials, reporters quickly moved the impromptu news conference to the sidewalk on Aliso Street.

Within moments, the commotion attracted a small gathering of onlookers, some of whom shouted taunts. Fearing violence, the Federal Protective Service that patrols the courthouse grounds asked the LAPD to intervene.

Before any blows could be thrown, police officers in riot gear quickly escorted the four men away.

Times staff writers John Johnson, Rich Tosches, Alan Abrahamson, Eric Malnic, Patrick J. McDonnell, Victor Merina and Amy Wallace contributed to this report.

MEDIA CRITIQUE: TV took the facts and milked them for emotional impact. A21

MAYOR’S STATEMENT: A21

RELATED STORIES: B1, B9