Wife Recounts Incident With King

The estranged wife of Rodney G. King continued her tearful testimony Wednesday at Alhambra Municipal Court during the second day of King’s spousal abuse trial.

King faces four misdemeanor charges stemming from a July 14, 1995, incident in Alhambra in which he and his estranged wife, Crystal, got into an argument.

Crystal King testified that she hopped onto the side step of King’s sport utility vehicle and leaned in through the driver’s side window to try to get her wallet when her husband told her: “You better get off the car.” At that point, Crystal King either jumped or fell off the step and the car sped away, she told the court.

When she landed, she injured her arm and received a head wound that required stitches.

Upon cross-examination by defense attorney Edi M.O. Faal, Crystal King denied allegations that shortly after the incident she told friends she would not press charges if King gave her $300,000.

King did not pay her $300,000, and Crystal King did not press charges. She testified because she was served a subpoena, she told the court.

She became visibly agitated during much of Faal’s cross-examination.

The attorney questioned her about an alleged confrontation involving a necklace that occurred at the office of Crystal King’s attorney, Gloria Allred. During a break from giving depositions at Allred’s office, Crystal King is alleged to have grabbed at a necklace of hers that her husband was wearing around his neck and demand that he take it off.

When asked if she had to be subdued by two attorneys during the confrontation, Crystal King responded: “What does this have to do with what we’re here for? I’m not here for reaching out for a necklace. I’m here for the criminal case.”

Losing his usual conviviality, Judge Michael A. Kanner admonished Crystal King. “You’re here to answer the questions,” he said.

She responded that the confrontation “wasn’t a big issue.”

One of two witnesses, Gina G. Amador, heard the couple arguing from her Westmont Drive home, and called 911 after hearing a man yell and a woman call for help, she told the court Tuesday. Amador said she also heard something that sounded as though one person was slapping another.

In court, Crystal King denied that either party slapped the other. And King, who has been arrested twice before on suspicion of beating his wife, told reporters: “I never laid a hand on her. I was wrongly accused.”