LOS ANGELES : Panel Urges $1.7-Million Payment in King Case

A Los Angeles City Council panel recommended Tuesday paying nearly $1.7 million in attorneys’ fees and other costs stemming from Rodney G. King’s police brutality lawsuit against the city.

Pending council approval, the city will comply with U.S. District Judge John Davies’ order to pay $1,691,000 in legal fees, costs and interest on top of the $3.8-million judgment awarded King.

The sum recommended Tuesday represents a substantial markdown from the $4.4 million that King’s lawyers sought for their work, which included holding news conferences and hiring tutors to teach King about black history.

“The court has done an extensive job in reviewing not only the hourly rates that they were charging, but also the various types of things they were claiming for,” said Senior Assistant City Atty. Tom Hokinson.

Addressing the Budget and Finance Committee, Hokinson said the city’s lawyers argued that the opposing side deserved to collect about $1 million.

Under federal law, plaintiffs who prevail in civil rights cases are entitled to have their legal bills paid by the defendants. King won his federal civil rights lawsuit in 1994, three years after his beating in Lake View Terrace.