Robbed Driver Tells of Riot Melee : Trial: Attacked motorist does not name defendant but describes the clothing. Defense points to discrepancy with earlier statements.

A man prosecutors contend is Damian Monroe Williams smashed her windshield and directed others to “get her” at the intersection where trucker Reginald O. Denny was beaten, the first witness in the beating trial testified Monday.

But a defense attorney pointed out that the witness, Alicia Maldonado Doby, described a different man when she first reported the incident to police.

Maldonado never named Williams, 20, as the man she said told rioters: “Get her. She’s not a sister.” Instead, she described a light-skinned black man who wore a white T-shirt, dark shorts and a blue bandanna around his neck as the person who smashed her windshield and encouraged others to attack her.

However, in later testimony, she read aloud her original police report saying that the man who smashed her windshield wore a white “muscle” or sleeveless T-shirt and khaki pants. Men fitting both descriptions were seen on videotape played in court Monday that showed Maldonado’s car as it moved through the intersection of Florence and Normandie avenues in the early hours of rioting last year.

Clothing is a key element in the prosecution’s identification of Williams and his co-defendant, Henry Keith Watson, 28, who are being tried for attempted murder and other felonies they allegedly committed against Denny, five other motorists and two firefighters as the victims passed through the intersection during the rioting. Williams, prosecutors say, can be identified on videotape in a white T-shirt, dark shorts and wearing a blue bandanna first on his neck, and later on his head. Watson can be followed on the tape by a distinctive T-shirt he is wearing, prosecutors say.

The man Maldonado described Monday is the same one prosecutors identified from photos used in their opening argument as Williams.

Several times during her testimony, Maldonado complained about the quality of the prosecution videotape.

As defense attorney Wilma Shanks questioned her about damage to her car, Maldonado said: “This is a terrible video for the DA and (the defense),” she said. “This is lousy. It doesn’t show anything.” She said damage to her car was not visible on the tape.

Edi M.O. Faal, Williams’ other attorney, said outside court that Maldonado’s testimony raised a question about the credibility of the prosecution videotape because she was at the intersection and saw things that are not depicted on the tape.

Maldonado, a feisty and confrontational native of New York, testified that black men at the intersection were directing traffic “according to the color of your skin.” Dark-skinned motorists were allowed to pass, she said, while others--including at least one light-skinned black woman--were stopped.

Nearly all of the windows on her hatchback Toyota were smashed by objects thrown at the car, and she discovered that her purse had been taken when she stopped her car more than a mile west of the intersection, she said.

“I was trying to get the hell out of there as fast as I could,” Maldonado said. “I was pissed.”

Asked by Deputy Dist. Atty. Janet Moore if that meant she had been very angry, Maldonado answered: “Hell yes.”

She had to be cautioned several times by Superior Court Judge John W. Ouderkirk to limit her answers to the questions asked, rather than elaborate.

“I know you don’t do this every day,” Ouderkirk said.

“I’m sorry,” Maldonado said. “I mean this is a trip. Put yourself in my place. I don’t have the schooling you people do.”

She accused Shanks of trying to confuse and humiliate her on cross-examination, but warned the defense attorney that she would “have a hard time” doing it.

As Maldonado identified her car from still photographs, she said: “There is also another problem I have here.”

Moore did not pursue Maldonado’s problem, but Shanks did so during cross-examination.

“Ironically, my husband is African-American,” Maldonado said. “I never expected (the attack) from blacks. That’s my problem.”

Former Associated Press photographer Craig Fujii followed Maldonado on the stand, testifying that he suffered a concussion after being assaulted and robbed at the intersection. He could not recall any other details, even how he was able to leave.

Videotapes of the assault on Fujii showed close-up shots of a man prosecutors have identified as Williams.

After Monday’s testimony, Faal angrily told Ouderkirk that he was offended by a prosecution suggestion that the defense had provided a prosecution videotape to a television channel, saying there was not an iota of evidence to support the charge.

Prosecutors complained about what it described as continuing efforts to try this case in the media, pointing to an interview Williams had last week with The Times and KCOP-TV Channel 13.

Former Police Chief Daryl F. Gates, former Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner and Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti have been making public allegations about Williams for the past 16 months, Faal said, while Williams has been silent.

“Mr. Williams has a 1st Amendment right to speak out,” Faal said.