Cleared in Trials, Briseno Seeks to Return to LAPD

Officer Theodore J. Briseno, one of six officers who escaped punitive damages in Rodney G. King’s lawsuit this week, alleged Friday that the Los Angeles Police Department is wasting taxpayers money--and possibly breaking the law--by refusing to reinstate him after being exonerated by three juries of using excessive force in the King beating.

Briseno, 41, has been on unpaid leave since eight days after the March 3, 1991, beating. He said he did not understand the department’s refusal to reinstate him, despite the outcome of King’s recent lawsuit and acquittals in two trials.

“Everything I did I felt was the right thing to have done,” he said.

Briseno blamed the continued grudges of LAPD’s middle management, in particular ranking officers in the Internal Affairs Department, for keeping him out of uniform.

“For whatever reason, either I embarrassed the department because I spoke the truth and it hurt some people,” Briseno said. “It hurt and they didn’t like that.”

Briseno joined his attorney, Gregory G. Petersen, for a news conference Friday outside the lawyer’s office in Orange County. Briseno lost his countersuit against King this week, in which he alleged that King had struck him while he tried to handcuff King. The jury found that Briseno had been hit but refused to award punitive damages.

Petersen said he sent a letter to Police Chief Willie L. Williams on Thursday demanding Briseno’s reinstatement. He said William’s office told him they would continue internal Board of Rights hearings into Briseno’s conduct. The next hearing is set for June 13.

But Petersen maintained that the LAPD Board of Rights “is not entitled to come to a decision different from the court. If they decide anything different from this they would be unlawful.”

Briseno said he will return to court if the department does not reinstate him.

“I’m not going to stand here and tell you I’m not tired of courts,” he said. “(But) I’m a Los Angeles police officer. I’m not going away. I’m staying right here. If the department wants to continue to do this, I have no problem with it.”

Briseno said life has not gotten any easier since the verdicts. People recognize him when he’s pumping gas or going to the grocery store.

“I just want to be with my family and to go somewhere and wake up and not have the King incident on my mind,” he said.

Briseno said he believes that he will ultimately triumph in his campaign to regain his job.

“I’m very confident that I’m going to continue to be a Los Angeles police officer.”