‘Let’s Get on With Life,’ Denny Says After Jury Verdicts : Reaction: The trucker expresses agreement with the decisions and forgiveness for his attackers. But other victims are angry. ‘They tried to kill me,’ one says.

Eighteen months after being beaten unconscious at Florence and Normandie avenues, Reginald O. Denny said Monday he is “in total agreement” with verdicts in the trial of two of his attackers, adding: “Let’s get on with life.”

In an interview with the TV newsmagazine “Inside Edition,” the truck driver said he believes that Henry Keith Watson, who was convicted of a misdemeanor assault on Denny but acquitted of more serious charges, should be released from jail immediately.

“He’s been through quite enough, so let the man go,” said Denny, who barely survived the attack, which captured on videotape and broadcast live on April 29, 1992. Asked whether he wanted prison time for Damian Monroe Williams, who was found guilty of simple mayhem for his role in the Denny beating, Denny said, “We’ll just have to wait and see.”

“I’ve been given a chance, and so I’m gonna extend that courtesy toward some guys who obviously were a little bit confused,” said Denny, whose skull was broken into about 100 fragments during the attack. “(I) hope that they see the light now and don’t follow in those footsteps again if ever the opportunity arises, which I hope it does not.”

Prosecutors had charged Williams, 20, and Watson, 29, with participating in attacks on nine people at the South-Central Los Angeles intersection where civil unrest flared early in the riots. Of the 15 charges against the two men, the jury returned six convictions and seven acquittals. It is deadlocked on two other counts--including attempted murder against Williams--and deliberations will continue today.

Denny, who is by far the best known victim of the violence at Florence and Normandie, appeared Monday to be the most forgiving as well. Although Denny, 37, expressed his hope that Watson could get “back on track,” another survivor, Fidel Lopez, told reporters that he believes Watson and Williams got off easy.

Lopez, 48, who testified about being pulled from his vehicle, beaten and sprayed with black paint, could not positively identify Williams as his attacker. But on Monday, he said that videotape of the incident should have been evidence enough to convict Williams of felony assault. Williams was found guilty of a misdemeanor assault upon Lopez but acquitted on the more serious charge.

“When people do something wrong, they are supposed to pay,” said Lopez, who received 250 stitches and is still deaf in one ear. “They tried to kill me. I didn’t do nothing to them. I only tried to live.”

Lopez, who was unable to work for eight months after the assault, said he and his family have suffered economic difficulties and mental anguish. Before the attack, they lived in a three-bedroom home that Lopez owned one block from Florence and Normandie. Afterward, Lopez’s youngest child was so fearful that he felt the family had to relocate to another neighborhood.

“She cried every night, thinking the people would come and beat me again,” he said as he sat in the living room of a rented one-bedroom house he now shares with his wife and three daughters in a South Bay suburb. “It was a terrible nightmare.”

Lopez did not follow the trial closely, he said, and he did not spend a lot of time thinking about what would be the appropriate punishment for Watson and Williams.

“I don’t care what happens to them now. Maybe they go free? Who cares? I don’t care,” he said. “I want to forget about what they do to me. Just live and work and protect myself and my family,” he said. “I can’t change the time back. . . . I’m lucky I still live.”

Like Lopez, Missy Hirata said she hopes the verdicts will help victims put the trouble behind them. The wife of Takao Hirata, who was hospitalized for three days after he was pulled from his car and pummeled, said she and her husband accept the jury’s decision to convict Williams of misdemeanor assault.

“The jury, I think, has decided,” she said, speaking to a reporter through the window of the couple’s apartment. “We just want to go on with our lives.”

The Victims

Reginald O. Denny is the best-known victim of violence at Florence and Normandie avenues in the 1992 riots. But, as prosecutors emphasized during the trial of Henry Keith Watson and Damian Monroe Williams, there actually were dozens of victims. Only a few of the attacks have resulted in charges. Here is a look at some of the victims who testified during the trial.

REGINALD O. DENNY

* Background: Denny was hauling a double load of gravel in his truck through the intersection of Florence and Normandie when a heavy object was thrown through the window of the passenger side. After the truck came to a stop, Denny was pulled out, kicked, beaten and hit in the head with a claw hammer, a plastic oxygenator and what prosecutors described as a brick.

* Testimony: All he can remember of the incident is slowing down as he approached the intersection and seeing chaos around him. “It was totally wild,” he testified. “I couldn’t figure out what was going on. It was like a moment of shock--mainly disbelief. It was total madness.”

FIDEL LOPEZ

* Background: Lopez, a construction worker originally from Guatemala, was on his way home when he was dragged from his truck and beaten in the street. The crowd of attackers at Florence and Normandie robbed him of about $2,800 that a contractor had given him to buy supplies. As Lopez lay on the pavement, Williams spray-painted his face and genitals with black paint, prosecutors asserted.

* Testimony: Lopez could not identify his attacker. “I so fearing,” he testified in broken English. “A lot of people come to kill me. I so fearing. Imagine, people coming to kill you.”

ALICIA MALDONADO

* Background: Maldonado was driving to a job interview when she was forced to slow down at Florence and Normandie.

* Testimony: She testified that a man pointed at her and said: “Get her, she’s not a sister.” The windows on her car were smashed and her purse was stolen. She managed to escape without injury. Maldonado was unable to identify her attackers and said that she had “a problem with being in court. . . . My personal problem here is that, ironically, my husband is African-American,” she said.

TAKAO HIRATA

* Background: Hirata, owner of a print shop, was stopped at Florence and Normandie by a crowd of rioters as he drove home from work.

* Testimony: Like most of the victims who testified during the trial, he could not identify his attackers. “Someone on the passenger side asked me for my money,” he said in court. “I started to reach in my pocket to give him my money. That’s the last thing I remember.” Prosecutors maintained that Williams pelted Hirata’s car with rocks and punched him after he was dragged from the vehicle. Hirata was saved by a good Samaritan who pulled him from the area.