King, City Far Apart on Damage Claim; Trial Likely : Litigation: Officials don’t want another volatile court face-off. But they balk at paying $9.5 million to settle case.

The chance of an out-of-court settlement in Rodney G. King’s civil suit against the city of Los Angeles appears remote and the matter is likely to go to trial next March in the third major court action involving King’s highly publicized 1991 beating by police, city officials said Wednesday.

Officials are clearly concerned about the prospect of another trial in the volatile case--which has already prompted a devastating riot and ensuing trials of people accused of beating trucker Reginald O. Denny and others during the unrest. Still, city leaders contend that the municipal treasury cannot afford the $9.5 million that King’s attorney, Milton Grimes, is seeking.

After meeting behind closed doors with City Atty. James K. Hahn, City Council members said King’s attorney and the city remain far apart in their negotiations and there is no consensus on the council for increasing the city’s earlier $1.25-million offer.

With no settlement in sight, a trial before U.S. District Judge John G. Davies is set to begin March 22.

“We want to make Rodney King whole for what happened in Lake View Terrace but we are not going to voluntarily pay millions of dollars in a case that is not worth millions of dollars,” said Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, chairman of the council’s Budget and Finance Committee.

“If we can’t settle this case in the figures we’ve offered then we won’t settle it. We’ll let a jury decide.”

Privately, council members speculate that King’s recent brushes with the law may weaken his case before a jury. In addition, the civil case will be heard by the same judge who, in sentencing two officers convicted of violating King’s civil rights, faulted King for provoking the incident by driving drunk and resisting arrest.

King has been detained or arrested by police four times since the beating by LAPD officers. He was charged only in the most recent incident, in which he allegedly was drunk when he crashed his vehicle into a curb last month.

Yaroslavsky and council President John Ferraro said in a letter to Hahn that the city ought to consider withdrawing its offer to King “in light of recent events surrounding Mr. King and this case,” including his “four separate ‘brushes with the law.’ ”

Previously, the council voted to offer King $250,000 immediately and a $1-million annuity that would guarantee King $75,000 a year for life. Attorneys’ fees would be decided by Davies.

Several dissenting members of the council--including Mark Ridley-Thomas, Nate Holden, Rita Walters and Mike Hernandez--contend that the city’s offer is too low and that the city ought to raise it to avoid another trial.

“I think the offer is unfair to Rodney King and it’s a risk sending this to a jury,” Holden said.

Acquittals in the 1992 state court trial of the four officers accused of beating King set off the worst civil unrest in modern U.S. history.

Two of the four officers, Sgt. Stacey C. Koon and Officer Laurence M. Powell, were convicted in April of violating King’s federal civil rights and sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison. Police were put on tactical alert when those verdicts were handed down.

Grimes said the city needs to consider the potential cost of another such alert if the civil case goes to trial.

“I think the city should get pragmatic and settle this case,” Grimes said. “Mark my words, they will pay.”

But Yaroslavsky accused Grimes of using scare tactics so he could get a record settlement.

“The city will not allow itself to be held hostage,” Yaroslavsky said. “We can live through a long trial. We can live through the tensions. I don’t think it’s a trial we can’t survive.”

King and the city are only two parties in a set of interlocking lawsuits and counterclaims. The litigants include King’s two passengers the night of the beating, 19 LAPD officers, seven California Highway Patrol officers, two helicopter pilots, three city officials and a number of agencies.

Both of King’s passengers said in separate lawsuits that they, too, were struck by police during the incident. One, Freddie Helms, has since died in an unrelated car accident, but his family has continued with the lawsuit.

Although King’s lawsuit involves many of the same facts as the two previous trials, it is expected to probe more deeply into the policies and practices of the Los Angeles Police Department, which could produce some new and unusual alliances.

Lawyers for the officers argued during the federal trial that their clients should not be found guilty in part because they were following their training when they beat King. That defense failed to convince jurors in that case, but the same evidence could help King in the civil trial.

Grimes is expected to argue that the city is liable for King’s injuries in part because the LAPD training was flawed. City officials expect to have to pay King something for his injuries but are relying on a jury to limit its award.

“We are not contending our officers did no wrong,” Yaroslavsky said. “The real question is, how much should Rodney Glen King be compensated by the taxpayers of the city of Los Angeles?”