Cable Stations to Show Denny Beating Trial : Television: Panel discussions and replays are also scheduled. None of the VHF stations plan live, gavel-to-gavel coverage.

Court TV will carry the trial of two of the men accused of beating truck driver Reginald O. Denny at the outbreak of the spring, 1992, civil unrest. Cable systems serving portions of the San Fernando and San Gabriel valleys and the Westside also are making arrangements to show the case.

Opening statements are scheduled for 10 a.m. today before Superior Court Judge John Ouderkirk in the Criminal Courts Building.

Century Southwest Cable plans gavel-to-gavel coverage via Channel 43. The system serves about 165,000 households in portions of the Westside, San Fernando Valley and Eagle Rock.

“(We are carrying this trial) because of the overall community concerns of the fairness of the criminal justice system,” said Bill Rosendahl, a Century Southwest senior vice president. “We think our (viewers) need to know how the process works and hopefully through that they will learn and be more aware of how democracy and its criminal justice system works.”

Century Southwest also plans to replay the court sessions during evenings and weekends, and to offer weekly panel discussions, with criminal defense attorneys, former prosecutors and judges analyzing the case.

Crown Cable, which serves about 105,000 households in several San Gabriel Valley cities from La Canada Flintridge and Pasadena on the west to West Covina and Walnut on the east, plans live coverage, along with Court TV’s nationally telecast commentary preceding and following the court sessions.

Court TV is carried by cable systems serving Canyon Country, Tujunga, Palm Desert, Palm Springs, Rancho Cucamonga, South Pasadena and portions of San Diego County.

The 2-year-old network is currently in discussions with several other area cable companies about airing the case.

A complication the network faces is that it is also showing another high-profile case from the Southland--the murder trial of Erik and Lyle Menendez, charged with the 1989 killings of their parents. Court TV’s plan is to cover both trials, with live coverage based on each day’s developments. Highlights from both trials will be shown on “Prime Time Justice,” the network’s two-hour evening newscast, which airs at 5 and 8 p.m.

Unlike last year’s state trial of the four Los Angeles police officers accused in the beating of Rodney G. King, which was televised live by KTTV-TV Channel 11, none of the area’s seven VHF stations plan live, gavel-to-gavel coverage of this case.

“With the exception of Reginald Denny, this is a case of a lot of anonymous people,” said Steve Johnson, executive producer for Court TV. “But we learned in the preliminary hearing about (defendants) Damian Williams and (Henry Keith) Watson and about the victims who, one after another, will take the stand. It kind of illustrates in a microcosm those horrible three days of rioting, what was going on in the minds of about a dozen people at those intersections.

“We covered the preliminary hearing last year and what we saw was something very different from the press accounts,” Johnson said. “It is a complicated case. What did they intend to do versus what it appears they are doing (makes) for a very good, fascinating case.”