Rodney King Trial in Spousal Abuse Begins

Trial proceedings began Tuesday at Alhambra Municipal Court in a spousal abuse case involving Rodney G. King and his estranged wife, Crystal, that stems from an alleged hit-and-run incident last year in Alhambra.

King has found strange celebrity since the 1991 videotaped beating that led to state and federal trials, prison sentences for two police officers who were tried, and a $3.8-million civil judgment in his favor. And his fame became an issue at nearly every turn of the current case.

In fact, King called his arrest “the catch of the day,” said David Lynn, a private investigator working for the defense.

King is charged with spousal battery, assault with a deadly weapon, hit and run and reckless driving.

“If he wasn’t who he is, we wouldn’t be here today,” Lynn said outside court.

“Because of who he is,” Crystal King told the court she had originally not wanted to press charges against her husband. She said she also feared that the incident--if brought to trial--could force King to face 25 years to life under the three-strikes law.

Crystal King said she agreed to press charges when Alhambra police detectives told her that the three-strikes law would not be a consideration in this case.

Seldom making eye contact when she took the stand to testify against her husband, Crystal said she filed for legal separation and is waiting for divorce proceedings to begin next week.

But on July 14, 1995, the day before she filed for separation, the couple drove to “someplace far” to look at a house they were interested in renting together, Crystal King told the court.

The two were heading back to the Altadena home they shared with the woman’s two sons and the couple’s 3-year-old daughter when they got lost and began to argue.

She said King pulled off the freeway onto Westmont Road in Alhambra and ordered her to get out of the car. When she leaned into the vehicle to get her wallet, he sped off.

Crystal King said she is not sure whether she was thrown off the car. Witnesses said they saw her in the street and came to her aid.

At Monday’s jury selection, all potential jurors were asked whether they thought King’s fame would make it difficult for them to render a decision in the case.

One woman who was selected for the jury answered: “It’s not a problem, but it does make me uncomfortable. Let’s be honest, I’m African American, [the Kings] are all African American, and I can just see my face on the front page of the newspaper.”

Between Rodney King and high-profile attorney Edi M.O. Faal in the courtroom, the case had more than its share of attention--and then attorney Gloria Allred showed up.

Representing Crystal in the King’s divorce proceedings, Allred said she came to the court to give her client moral support.