LOS ANGELES : King Case Expert Described as Too Depressed to Testify

A police training expert whose testimony helped convict two officers of violating Rodney G. King’s civil rights said he feels alienated from fellow officers and is too depressed to testify in King’s lawsuit, a police psychologist said Wednesday.

Debra Glaser, who heads psychiatric services for the Los Angeles Police Department, testified outside the jury’s presence that Sgt. Mark Conta suffers from “situational depression.”

“He said he didn’t feel part of the Police Department anymore,” Glaser said. “He used to feel a real camaraderie with the officers. Now he said that kinship is gone.”

U.S. District Judge John G. Davies ordered that Conta be examined by an independent psychiatrist. The trial is in a second phase to determine if King should be awarded punitive damages from 15 current and former police officers. King already has been awarded $3.8 million in damages from the city in the March 3, 1991, beating.