Denny Testifies, Hugs Mothers of Defendants

Reginald O. Denny, the white trucker whose televised beating became a defining symbol of the Los Angeles riots, on Wednesday warmly embraced the mothers of two men charged with trying to kill him.

As Denny left the witness stand in Superior Court during a recess in the trial of the men, Georgiana Williams stood in the spectator section and waved to Denny. “May I shake your hand,” Denny responded and leaned across a row of spectators and embraced Williams.

He then embraced Joyce Watson, who was sitting in the first row of spectators, and shook her husband Henry’s hand.

“I told him I loved him,” said Williams, whose son, Damian Monroe Williams, 20, is charged with attempting to murder Denny. “I respect this man. I admire him. This man has no malice in his heart.”

Joyce Watson, whose son, Henry Keith Watson, 28, also is charged with attempted murder in the assault on Denny, said her prayers were answered in court.

“I have prayed for us all to come together, and it happened today,” she said. “When he hugged me, it was so warm. I said: ‘God bless you.’ I feel so much better. I have prayed for that man.”

The spontaneous embraces were a sharp contrast to the bloody, videotaped images of Denny played a few minutes earlier in Judge John W. Ouderkirk’s courtroom. The jury sat transfixed in front of their television monitors, and one juror repeatedly shook his head as the footage showed the assault on Denny at Florence and Normandie avenues as rioting broke out April 29, 1992.

The defendants, Williams and Watson, also are charged with assaulting or robbing five other motorists and two firefighters as they passed through the intersection.

Denny, tanned and stylishly dressed in a green sports coat and off-white slacks, testified in court for the first time Wednesday. He said he could not identify anyone who participated in the attack and had no recollection of anything that happened to him after a heavy object shattered the passenger window of his truck.

Videotape footage showed Denny being pulled from his truck, kicked and beaten, and hit with a claw hammer, an oxygen tank and what prosecutors describe as a brick. A close-up shot after the attack showed him lying alone in the intersection, blood covering his face.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Janet Moore, one of two prosecutors on the case, asked him if the photo showed the condition he was in at the intersection.

“I couldn’t tell you,” Denny said. “Probably. I don’t remember.”

From the witness stand, Denny 37, described how he drove his tractor pulling two trailers filled with gravel west on Florence to Normandie when he saw a scene that was “very shocking--scary actually. A lot of things were happening that were very much out of place.”

He said cars were going the wrong way, tires were screeching and the scene was taking place against “clutter sounds” of things being broken.

“It was totally wild,” Denny said. “I couldn’t quite figure out what was going on. It was like a moment of shock--mainly disbelief. It was total madness. So many things were going through my mind.”

Denny said he did not speak to people outside his truck, and no one outside said anything to him.

A white truck was being looted in the intersection, and he said he was trying to find a way around it. That truck belonged to Larry Tarvin, who had been assaulted before Denny drove his 80,000-pound rig into the intersection.

Denny said he was concerned about the white truck “because truck drivers are responsible for whatever they are hauling. If the guy was in the liquor store, he was going to come out and find his truck empty.”

That would cost a truck driver his job, Denny said.

Lots of people were in the street, and he said his first concern was that he not hit any pedestrians as he moved at a crawl around Tarvin’s truck. He said he then stopped to avoid hitting people in the street, adding that “with 80,000 pounds, they would have been just spots in the road.”

Then, he was startled by the “incredible sound” of the passenger window in his cab shattering, he testified. He said he was not struck by anything when he heard that sound and looked to the right to see what had happened.

That point is crucial to the prosecution’s case because Damian Williams’ defense attorneys contend that a piece of concrete thrown through that window injured the right side of Denny’s head.

He said he was “really startled, like gasping my last breath” when he heard the window smash. But he testified that he has no recollection of events after looking to his right.

Denny testified that he could not recall being pulled from the truck, kicked and beaten and hit with a hammer or a brick. Six days later, he woke up in Daniel Freeman Hospital where he spent 33 days recovering from a broken jaw, shattered eye socket and a fractured skull, among other injuries.

“Surgeons said 97 bones in my face were broken,” he said. “My upper jaw was pushed up behind my nose. A plastic piece holds my left eye in place. Without that piece, my left eye would fall down behind my cheek.”

Even with all of his injuries, Denny said he thought he “knew more than his doctors” and sneaked out of the hospital one night to see drag races.

When Moore asked him if that had been a foolish thing to do, he answered: “It was a really cool thing to do. I really love drag racing. I saw all of my friends.”

Denny returned to the hospital after that trip and was later treated for blood clots in his leg and lungs, he said.

After the afternoon recess, Moore asked Denny to stand in front of the jury box so jurors could get a closer look at his head injuries. Denny placed the hand of a female juror on a depression on the right side of his head to the surprise of attorneys.

Defense attorneys had few questions for him on cross-examination. The trucker told attorney Earl C. Broady Jr., who represents Watson, that he had suffered no injuries to his neck. Watson is accused of placing his foot on Denny’s neck.

Earlier in the day, Attorney Edi M. O. Faal, who represents Williams, asked for a mistrial, contending that prosecutors had been hiding witnesses. Faal said he had informed Ouderkirk that he wanted to interview prosecution witnesses, and that the judge had decided that the defense has “a legitimate interest in speaking to those witnesses.”

But Ouderkirk said he was concerned about witness safety and would not give defense attorneys addresses of prosecution witnesses. Instead, the judge said defense attorneys could give prosecutors letters to be sent to witnesses requesting interviews. The letters are to contain return envelopes addressed to Ouderkirk.

Donald Jones, a Los Angeles firefighter who rescued another beating victim from the intersection, testified that he was not told that Faal wanted to talk to him. Faal argued that prosecutors had said earlier that no prosecution witnesses wanted to talk to defense attorneys.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Moore said every letter to witnesses given to her office was sent out. “We are not responsible for what happens at the U.S. Postal Service,” she said. She denied that prosecutors had been involved in any misconduct and accused Faal of making the claim without evidence.

Ouderkirk denied the mistrial motion without prejudice, meaning the defense can raise it again.

“We should have been given every opportunity to interview witnesses they were hiding out,” Faal said. “They prevented us from interviewing them and determining what their testimony would be. We are not getting a fair trial due to fact that a material witness was withheld from us.”

Times staff writer Ashley Dunn contributed to this story.