School Administrator Identifies Defendant on Videotape of Riot : Trial: Damian Williams’ distinctive posture is clearly recognizable, his onetime assistant principal testifies. He says he often disciplined the youth in high school.

A high school administrator who disciplined Damian Monroe Williams testified in the Reginald O. Denny beating trial Thursday, saying the former student is the man seen attacking motorists on a riot videotape.

Edwin Douglas, an assistant vice principal from Vicksburg, Miss., said he had to discipline Williams frequently when the youth attended high school there in 1988 and 1989.

Douglas, who said he has studied the science of kinesiology, which analyzes body movements, said prosecution investigators came to him with the videotape in July.

“I sat down, and it wasn’t just a few seconds before I recognized Damian on the tape,” Douglas testified.

Defense lawyers contend that it is impossible to identify Williams on the videotape as the man who attacked Denny. But Douglas said Williams’ clothing and distinctive posture made him clearly identifiable.

“Damian has a kind of slouchy shoulder movement,” Douglas said. “His shoulders were dropped forward.”

On cross-examination, Williams’ lawyer, Edi M. O. Faal, attacked the identification as untrustworthy, noting that Williams was “a schoolboy” when Douglas last saw him. Douglas said Williams’ features are the same, although matured, and jurors were shown Williams’ high school yearbook picture for comparison.

Faal said Douglas never taught Williams, seeing him only when Williams was brought to the principal’s office for disciplinary problems.

“Do you feel comfortable sitting there identifying him?” asked Faal.

“I feel positive . . . yes,” Douglas said.

Douglas, who also was football coach at the high school, said he tried to direct Williams into athletics because the youth had expressed an interest in football. But Douglas said Williams never became involved.

In another development, a juror who fell ill was replaced by an alternate, changing the racial makeup of the panel.

An Anglo woman who complained of chest pains was hospitalized, and Superior Court Judge John W. Ouderkirk permitted her replacement by a young African-American woman, leaving the jury with four African-Americans, four Latinos, three Anglos and one Asian-American.

Lawyers for Williams have said the racial makeup of the jury is important to getting a fair trial. The defendants are black and Denny is white.

Williams, 20, and co-defendant Henry Keith Watson, 28, are charged with attempted murder and other felonies. They could face life in prison if convicted.