Williams Hit Denny, LAPD Officer Testifies : Trial: Policeman says he recognizes the defendant from many previous encounters. He identifies him on videotape and tells of seeing him at the scene.

A Los Angeles police officer testified Tuesday that he recognized Damian Monroe Williams in televised news footage as the man who hit trucker Reginald O. Denny in the head with a brick and did a little dance immediately afterward.

Officer Timothy McRath said he knew Williams from at least 10 earlier contacts and that he could recognize him on sight. Before the attack on Denny, McRath said, Williams had shouted obscenities at him as McRath sat in the passenger seat of a patrol car at Florence and Normandie avenues.

Williams was part of a large crowd shouting obscenities at police near the intersection in the wake of verdicts acquitting four police officers of most charges in the Rodney King beating, said McRath, 32, who was assigned to a juvenile detective unit.

The officer, who is African-American, said he recognized Williams, who shouted at him: “If you was any kind of nigger, you would be out here with us.”

McRath said he will never forget that remark. “It kind of hit me,” he said. “It was something I had never heard in a situation like that.”

McRath said he worked 36 hours without a break and did not see news footage of the attack on Denny until May 1, two days after the beating. Another officer then showed him a newspaper photo of the assault, and he said: “Yeah, that’s Football,” referring to Williams’ nickname.

McRath’s testimony came Tuesday as part of a prosecution focus on identity. The officer and two other witnesses also identified Williams’ co-defendant, Henry Keith Watson, as an assailant. And a helicopter news reporter restated his certainty that Williams and Watson are the men he saw attacking people at the intersection.

Williams, 20, and Watson, 29, are charged with attempting to kill Denny and with assaulting or robbing seven other people.

A crowd gathered at Florence and Normandie on April 29, 1992, McRath said, and a juvenile approached the open window of the patrol car carrying two large stones. The officer said he had to draw his weapon to stop the boy, who dropped the stones and ran north to 71st Street, where pursuing officers caught him.

The crowd from Florence and Normandie moved to the arrest scene, where police had to form a line to protect the officers arresting the boy, McRath said. He said he recognized Williams and Watson at the arrestscene, and he picked them out on videotape.

Officers were ordered out of the area by superiors, McRath said.

Prosecutors have consistently pointed out a man on videotape they say is Williams, wearing a white T-shirt, three-quarter-length shorts, black and white sneakers and a blue bandanna. Watson, prosecutors say, is shown repeatedly on videotape wearing a white T-shirt with “Hooker’s Bar and Grill” on the back and a black cap with a tag hanging from it.

McRath and three other witnesses Tuesday identified Williams and Watson on videotape as wearing such clothing.

On cross-examination from Williams’ attorney, Edi M.O. Faal, McRath conceded that he knew Williams and knew where he lived and could identify him as Denny’s attacker, but did not go to his home to arrest him.

Faal asked McRath why he did not contact a law enforcement task force to identify Williams between May 1, when he recognized Williams as Denny’s attacker, and May 11, the day before Williams was arrested.

The officer said there was no reason, but later testified that he had told a fellow officer and a detective that Williams had attacked Denny. McRath said he assumed the task force was working with information from those officers.

McRath also identified Williams on videotape as having a stain on the back of his shirt, near the upper left side. Faal showed additional footage, and McRath said he did not see that stain on the man he identified as Williams. At another point, he acknowledged that the stain on the shirt appeared to be lower.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Janes Moore said outside court there is a reasonable inference that Williams went home--less than a five-minute walk away--and changed shirts.

Helicopter news reporter Robert A. Tur, who began testifying on Friday, again on Tuesday identified Williams and Watson as Denny’s assailants.

“I am biased when it comes to people beating other people up,” Tur said. “Those people I saw do it are guilty, and they should be punished for it. And if they’re not punished for it, then it will be my wife or my kids or myself who will get it next time.”

Pointing to Williams and Watson, he said: “This guy did it. That guy did it. I saw them do it.”

Two other witnesses, Michael Alexander and Chester Clary, worked with Watson at an armored car service. They both identified Watson on the videotape.

“I was a little bewildered,” said Clary. “I told police I was shocked. I didn’t want to believe it was (Watson).”

Don Jackson, a spokesman for Williams’ family, released a letter that Williams’ mother, Georgiana, sent to U.S. Atty. Gen. Janet Reno, asking that the Justice Department send a monitor to the trial to determine if Superior Court Judge John W. Ouderkirk is conducting the trial impartially.

Prosecutors said they had not seen the letter and declined to comment.