It’s Time for Healing to Start, Civic Leaders Say : Officials: Most local politicians praise the decisions and express hopes about a new beginning for the region.

Across Orange County, most civic leaders applauded Saturday’s verdicts in the Rodney G. King federal civil rights trial, saying the decisions capped a tumultuous period for Los Angeles and the region, and that now the healing can begin.

“This chapter comes to a close today and a new chapter can commence,” said Orange County Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez, a former police officer. “Los Angeles can proceed to rebuild in a spirit rich with culture and diversity. . . . Now, we can move on to the future of the region.”

Although Orange County was spared the mass destruction and raging violence that consumed Los Angeles last spring, Board of Supervisors Chairman Harriett M. Wieder said the riots highlighted the need for society at large to resolve ethnic and cultural conflict.

“If the state jury had done what this jury did,” Wieder said of last year’s state trial of the four Los Angeles police officers, “would there have been a riot? I don’t think so.

“Last year’s violence was the result of long frustration. It showed that we have not come a long way in working with other races and cultures. It showed that we have a long way to go.”

Yet the fact that the jury of 12 men and women returned guilty verdicts against two of the four police officers accused of violating King’s civil rights on March 3, 1991, proves that “the system works,” Wieder said. “Our country is in good hands.”

Huntington Beach Mayor Grace Winchell said she was “really very happy” with Saturday’s verdicts.

“They (the jurors) didn’t lump everyone together,” said Winchell, who was walking on the beach early Saturday morning when she heard the decisions announced over radios that surfers had brought with them. “They seemed to look at each officer and the behaviors and responsibilities of each one.”

Santa Ana Mayor Daniel H. Young said he was not surprised by guilty verdicts against Los Angeles Police Department Sgt. Stacey Koon and Officer Laurence Powell and acquittals for Officer Theodore Briseno and former rookie Officer Timothy Wind. He also suggested the lengthy deliberations--40 hours over seven days--indicated that the jurors were little influenced by external events or the potential for renewed violence.

“It was somewhat predictable it would be a split verdict like this, just because the jury was out for so long,” Young observed. “It seems to be clear that the jury was deliberating on the true facts of the case instead of being influenced by public opinion.”

Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove) disagreed and predicted that the findings against Koon and Powell ultimately would be overturned on appeal.

“A case may be made that the jury was intimidated by (the) potential (for) rioting,” said Dornan, who recently announced that he is considering a run for the presidency in 1996.

Dornan emphasized that he was not suggesting the officers did nothing wrong.

“I believe they were guilty of many things,” he said, adding that many of the officers already have been punished severely for their involvement in the King beating incident. “Their lives are wrecked while Rodney King (was) being touted at Dodger Stadium the other day. . . . There’s one thing about Rodney King that is offensive: He’s not a motorist. He was a drunk, reckless driver.

“But he didn’t deserve that beating,” Dornan said.

Orange County Supervisor Thomas F. Riley said he hoped the trial and its focus on the dangers of excessive force could provide “textbook instruction” for local law enforcement. But he also worried that officers may hesitate in dangerous situations.

“Hopefully, this won’t inhibit (police officers) as they do their jobs,” Riley said. “After all, it is a business where people have to make split-second decisions. I think we have to make sure they all have proper instruction.”

To Orange County Public Defender Ronald Y. Butler, however, the jurors’ rejection of the defense argument that the officers were acting within departmental policy sends a pointed message to law enforcement.

“I think all police officers have learned that even though they might be within department policy, their own moral fiber ought to tell them that . . . policy is not the correct or right thing to do,” said Butler.

Orange County Supervisor Roger R. Stanton said Saturday’s verdicts should not be second-guessed.

“A court of law is the place to deal with these problems, not the streets,” Stanton said.

The County Board of Supervisors had remained in close contact with Orange County Sheriff Brad Gates in the days leading up to the verdicts to ensure adequate preparations were made to quell any local disturbances and to dispatch equipment and forces to Los Angeles if requested.

But several hours after the jurors’ decisions were announced, there seemed little need for concern anywhere in Orange County.

Over the long haul, however, Huntington Beach Mayor Winchell said all communities--in Orange County as well as in Los Angeles--must work toward eliminating inequality, injustice and poverty.

“Without good living and educational conditions, and the opportunity to be successful in business, people lack hope,” Winchell said. “They begin to believe that others are creating impossible situations for them, and we breed hatred.”

Times staff writers Catherine Gewertz and Gebe Martinez contributed to this report.