No Threats Were Made, Denny Juror Contends : Trial: Contradicting televised claims by an alternate panelist, Juror 251 acknowledges that tempers flared. But she says no one’s ‘personal safety’ was jeopardized.

No one on the Reginald O. Denny beating trial jury threatened to “blow away” anyone else on the panel as an alternate claimed in a television interview, a juror said Wednesday.

“I guess tensions, tempers got to a point where deliberations came to a halt,” acknowledged the juror, a 23-year-old Latina identified only as Juror 251, during a telephone interview. “Jurors were making personal remarks about each other. Tempers were flaring. Everybody understood it was high tension that made people jump on each other.”

Contentiousness among jurors spiraled during the first week of deliberations before any members of the original panel were replaced, said Juror 251, a college senior.

“But no one said, ‘I’ll blow you away,’ ” she said. “No one threatened anyone’s personal safety.”

The juror telephoned The Times Wednesday. Her identity was confirmed by her knowledge of details only she could know.

In an interview broadcast Wednesday on the television show “Inside Edition,” the alternate--who heard all trial testimony but did not participate in jury deliberations--said she believed threats were made during deliberations.

“My understanding is that one of the jurors . . . told people if deliberations weren’t done and a conclusion come to, basically the way she wanted . . . that she basically would blow them away,” said the alternate, identified only as Juror 188.

The jury’s forewoman, who appeared on camera on the show, denied that such a threat was ever made.

“I don’t know where she got that,” the forewoman, Juror 431, said. “I would hate to call her a liar, but . . . one juror never said to another: ‘You better go with the way the majority is going or else.’ ”

On Wednesday, Juror 251 said she was upset by the alternate’s remarks.

“I don’t like her assuming we weren’t reasonable people, that we deliberated in fear,” Juror 251 said. “No one knows what it’s like until you’ve been sequestered.”

The jury’s verdicts to acquit Damian Monroe Williams and Henry Keith Watson of the most serious charges stemming from the attack on Denny and others at Florence and Normandie avenues in 1992 have triggered a storm of criticism.

Williams, 20, who faced a possible life term had he been convicted of attempted murder or aggravated mayhem, was convicted of simple mayhem and four misdemeanor counts of assault--crimes that total a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.

A hearing is set for Tuesday on his lawyers’ request that Williams’ $580,000 bail be reduced to $35,000 so that he can be released until he is sentenced Dec. 7.

Watson, 29, who was also charged with attempting to murder Denny, was found not guilty on that charge, but he was convicted of a misdemeanor assault charge for placing his foot on the trucker’s neck. Last week, he was released from jail, where he had already served more than 17 months--more time than the maximum six-month sentence for simple assault.

Juror 251 said the panel had no problem agreeing that Williams and Watson were the men shown on the prosecution videotape. But on the attempted murder charge, she said, she had a “reasonable doubt” that either defendant had a specific intent to kill Denny.

She said she gave “great weight” to testimony from Gabriel Quintana, a service station attendant who said Williams threatened to “hurt and kill people” on April 29, 1992, after not-guilty verdicts were announced in the Simi Valley trial of four police officers accused of beating Rodney G. King.

“But Quintana said Williams made this comment at about 2:30 in the afternoon,” she said. “That was before the verdicts came out. I’m not saying (Quintana) lied, but reasonable doubt occurred for me.”