LOS ANGELES : King Juror Reprimanded for Use of Dictionary

A juror who brought a dictionary to the jury room Wednesday to look up the word reprehensible got a lecture from the judge in the Rodney G. King civil trial.

“The law is not to be found in Webster’s dictionary,” U.S. District Judge John G. Davies said. “It’s to be found in the (court’s) instructions.”

Davies said the slip-up was harmless, and attorneys for both sides agreed. The judge confiscated the dictionary and told the jurors that they should turn to him for definitions during deliberations.

The word reprehensible appears in several places in Davies’ written instructions on the law.

The interlude came as the panel began its first full day of deliberations in the punitive phase of the trial. It went home late in the afternoon without reaching a verdict and was scheduled to resume deliberations today. The same jury awarded King more than $3.8 million in compensatory damages from the city April 19. King is asking that six police officers, including two serving time in federal prison for their roles in his March 3, 1991, beating, pay punitive damages.