CHP Officer Testifies He Saw Baton Blow Dislocate King’s Jaw : Lawsuit: Two doctors say jaw and brain damage from 1991 beating persist. Victim’s lawyers seek to show that injuries are permanent.

At least five baton blows struck Rodney G. King in the head, knocking his jaw out of line, a California Highway Patrol officer testified Friday in King’s federal civil rights lawsuit.

Two doctors also said Friday that King’s jaw and brain damage persist.

The testimony came as King’s lawyers sought to show that injuries inflicted by police officers permanently disabled King, who seeks up to $9.5 million in damages.

CHP Officer Timothy Singer, whose pursuit of King on March 3, 1991 preceded the beating, said he watched Los Angeles Police Department officers strike with batons so fiercely that he could see King’s jaw thrown out of place.

“All the blows I saw struck Mr. King in the head,” said Singer. “The second blow struck him in the face, and the entire jaw moved to the left, appearing to displace.”

When King was shot with an electronic stun gun, Singer recalled, “I could see his face was convulsing violently. His cheeks were moving in and out.”

Assistant City Atty. Don Vincent’s cross-examination prompted angry objections from King’s lawyers. Vincent tried to show jurors that King was violent, did not obey instructions and acted bizarrely.

The disputed circumstances of the beating, debated in two previous trials, are not at issue, King’s lawyers argued.

But Vincent said that jurors, without exploring the incident, would get the impression that “these officers just whacked this person out of the blue. . . . That’s a distorted view.”

U.S. District Judge John Davies allowed limited testimony by Singer about how King responded slowly to commands, danced around and waved at a helicopter before he was struck.

The city has admitted liability in the beating, and jurors have been asked to set a damage figure. In a second phase, they are to try to allocate blame to individual defendants for punitive damages.

The city has offered a $1.25-million settlement, plus attorney’s fees.

In other testimony, Dr. Howard Ravins, an oral surgeon, described King’s jaw displacement, cracked teeth and pain, which has kept him awake at night.

Dr. Dilworth Thomas Rogers, a neurosurgeon who examined King last Dec. 30, said King was still suffering daily headaches, dizziness and jaw and chewing problems.

Rogers said he ordered numerous tests on King and discovered that “a portion of his brain was not functioning normally.” King suffered personality changes and had trouble speaking, thinking and walking, he said.

King, who is black, was beaten by white officers after a traffic stop. Four police officers were acquitted on nearly all assault charges in a state trial, and the April, 1992 verdicts sparked three days of rioting that left 55 dead.

Two of the officers, Stacey C. Koon and Laurence M. Powell, were convicted last year in federal court of violating King’s civil rights and are serving 30-month prison sentences.