Fox’s ‘In Living Color’ Plans Lampoon of Koon : Television: Police officer’s attorney protests parody as ‘sad public treatment of my client.’

One week after being found guilty of violating Rodney G. King’s civil rights, Los Angeles police officer Stacey C. Koon will be lampooned on Fox’s “In Living Color” Sunday night.

The sketch, in which James Carrey portrays Koon in charge of training police academy cadets, was taped before the verdicts in the federal trial were delivered last Saturday. But Koon’s attorney, Ira Salzman, said he thinks the subject is inappropriate in any case.

“This goes part and parcel with the sad public treatment of my client and this case,” Salzman said in an interview. “It certainly reflects the continuing imbalance of attention to this story.”

Salzman has not seen the sketch, which is due to be broadcast at 8 p.m. Sunday on KTTV-TV Channel 11 and XETV-TV Channel 6.

“I certainly believe it is less than honorable for people to poke fun at an individual who is very honorable and upright and who has taken responsibility and hasn’t made any joke out of anything,” Salzman said. “I’d be equally curious to see if they’ll ever consider poking fun at an individual who admits lying, drinks 2 1/2 quarts of Olde English 800 and takes police on a chase. I’d be curious to see if they do a sketch about Mr. King lying to his parole officer.”

Doing such a sketch about Rodney King, he noted, would not be “politically correct. It is politically correct to castigate Mr. Koon.”

Fox spokeswoman Betsy Hoffman responded that “social commentary and political commentary have always been a part of the show and we see the sketch as a parody.”

This is not the first time Koon or King have been portrayed on the series. In its season premiere last fall, “In Living Color” did a sketch in which actors portraying King and Reginald Denny, the trucker beaten at the outset of last year’s civil unrest, cautioned viewers not to get out of their cars.

The Fox series also did a sketch lampooning Koon just before the start of jury selection in his federal trial.