4 Officers Face Separate, and Uncertain, Fates

With tears in his eyes, Officer Theodore J. Briseno turned in the courtroom and hugged his brother, not knowing whether to smile or cry. “You can’t worry about the others,” his older brother told him. “What happens, happens.”

Briseno and a co-defendant, former Officer Timothy E. Wind, had just been acquitted at dawn Saturday on federal charges of violating Rodney G. King’s civil rights. But what was victory for some was tragedy for others.

Sgt. Stacey C. Koon sat stoically as ever, his eyes fixed straight ahead, his chin thrust into the air; Officer Laurence M. Powell turned pale as they were found guilty.

As the second trial in the four officers’ arrest and beating of King two years ago ended with the judge’s gavel, all four defendants--once a team unified against the critics who clamored for their heads--rushed from the crush of lawyers and reporters.

The officers headed for the judge’s chambers, then quickly down his private elevator to the basement of the Edward R. Roybal Federal Building, according to their defense attorneys and a private investigator.

They climbed into two vans and were whisked through a side exit onto Aliso Street. So fast did they vanish into the city that they even escaped the eyes of hundreds of journalists outside.

Inside one van, all was tension and chaos.

Powell’s girlfriend, Terri, was weeping. “I can’t believe this!” she sobbed. “How could they do this?” Koon was wondering aloud about how he would explain the conviction to his five children.

After the verdicts, Briseno, whose testimony against the other three officers in the first trial was used against them this time, spoke about his feelings of guilt. And Wind, as usual, was silent, dealing inwardly with the emotions that have rocked all of them since they first came upon King on a dark Lake View Terrace street in March, 1991.

And even now, two years and two trials later, it still is not over.

Koon and Powell face prison terms, with a sentencing hearing scheduled for Aug. 4 before U.S. District Judge John G. Davies. Briseno and Wind must decide their immediate futures--can they reclaim their jobs at the Los Angeles Police Department or work anywhere again as police officers?

Attorney Michael P. Stone, a former police officer who became close friends with his client, Powell, said one thing was clear for all four defendants: “They’re no good as cops anymore.”

Internal police administrative hearings are pending for Koon, Powell and Briseno. And even if none of the four returns to police work, all are left wondering if any employer would want them.

Asked about his son’s plans, Edward Wind, an air-conditioner mechanic in Kansas, said: “He probably doesn’t know himself at this point. I mean, he doesn’t have a job. Besides, who’s going to hire him?”

As a probationary employee, Wind, 32, was fired after the King beating. His father said he talked to his son’s wife in California on Saturday morning after the verdicts, and they cried together on the phone.

Wind’s father said his son has been able to snag only a few part-time jobs and should “get back to the Midwest.”

Decrying the whole King episode as a political and media sideshow, Edward Wind added: “The whole thing should’ve never happened to the point it did.”

One source inside the Los Angeles Police Protective League said Wind’s relief at being acquitted was tempered by his concern for Koon and Powell--who could be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison and $250,000 each in fines.

But for Briseno, 40, the concern cut deeper. His videotaped testimony from the first trial was used in federal court to help convict his friends.

“Ted is going through a guilt trip right now,” the police union official said.

Briseno’s attorney, Harland W. Braun, said the officer was “devastated by the verdict”--despite his acquittal. “He was crying during the court proceedings because although he was critical of the actions out there that night and tried to stop them, he felt deeply that they were not criminal,” Braun said.

Jerry Gazetta, a private detective for the defense who drove one of the vans out of the courthouse basement, recalled the stunned look on Briseno’s face. “Ted looked at me and said, ‘I don’t know if I should be happy or sad,’ ” Gazetta said.

Briseno has an administrative Board of Rights hearing pending to save his job. He faces one count of unnecessarily kicking King and hopes to be vindicated. “Then,” Braun said, “he’s going to try to get on with his life.”

The attorney said he was not sure if Briseno would ever return to law enforcement in Los Angeles or elsewhere because he might be too reluctant to use force to protect himself on the streets.

Powell and Koon--both of whom have expressed little desire to return to the Los Angeles Police Department--also are awaiting Board of Rights hearings. But city law and LAPD policy do not allow convicted felons to work as police officers.

Sgt. Bill Frio, an LAPD spokesman, said the board hearings could be convened and Koon and Powell--even as prison inmates--could be called back to Parker Center and simply asked if they were convicted of felonies in the King case. “And that,” Frio said, “would be that.”

Stone said the 30-year-old Powell has been forced to move back home with his parents, who have attempted to raise money for his defense.

“Larry is shellshocked,” Stone said. “He’s stunned. The family is devastated. What can you say? We were stunned.”

Powell’s father, Edwin, was already talking about an appeal. Stone said he believed that he may have a chance at a new trial. He contended that Briseno’s damaging videotaped testimony from the first trial should not have been introduced because Briseno may have formed his opinions on the beating after reading coerced statements that Powell and Koon gave to LAPD Internal Affairs investigators.

Ira Salzman, Koon’s attorney, said it was premature to discuss appeal strategy, but added that he would prepare a motion for a third trial. He said Koon, 42, has tried to remain strong throughout the ordeal despite its emotional and financial hardships.

“He hasn’t had a salary in two years,” Salzman said. “‘He’s made virtually nothing.”

Koon returned home after the verdicts and taped a paid interview with a television tabloid show. Powell had considered doing a paid interview but decided against it after he was convicted. Wind also turned down the offer, Gazetta said, and Briseno thought he could win a higher price somewhere else.

In his recently published book, “Presumed Guilty: The Tragedy of the Rodney King Affair,” Koon explained that he could not return to police work because he would only draw desk assignments and because his supervisors would not support him.

Instead, Koon wrote, he hopes to return to school to earn a doctorate in criminal justice and eventually land a position as a university professor.

“Whatever happens,” he wrote, “I know that I cannot return to police work as a street cop. This realization has been perhaps the most crushing blow of all.”