Koon Criticizes Briseno as ‘Traitor’ Out to Save Himself

Los Angeles Police Sgt. Stacey C. Koon, convicted with Officer Laurence M. Powell in the Rodney G. King civil rights trial, said Monday that acquitted co-defendant Theodore J. Briseno is a “coward,” a “rat” and a “traitor.”

Koon said that Briseno, who broke ranks with his colleagues during an earlier state trial and testified that other policemen were “out of control” when they beat King, is “out for his own interests.”

“He’ll do whatever he has to do to save his own skin,” Koon said during an interview on KTTV--TV’s “A Current Affair” show. “Damned be everybody else.”

Asked what sentence he expects to receive in August, Koon said “there’s probably a very good chance of going to jail, a 100% chance.”

“That’s not a pleasant thought,” he said. “But I’m a survivor. I’ll survive this.”

Nevertheless, Koon said he thought the system had worked.

“It worked here. So I’m not here to bad-mouth the system. I’m not here to bad-mouth the jurors,” Koon said.

But Koon, the supervisor at the scene of the March 3, 1991, beating, insisted that he acted in accordance with Police Department use-of-force policy.

“I did as I was trained. I did as I was taught. I did as the LAPD wants to do,” he said.