Ex-Officers in King Case Lose Recovery Bid

A federal appeals court on Wednesday denied efforts by two former Los Angeles police officers to win city reimbursement for $500,000 in legal fees they spent defending themselves against a lawsuit brought and won by Rodney G. King.

The unanimous ruling by a three judge-panel from the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals concluded that a judge was right to rule that Sgt. Stacey C. Koon and Officer Laurence M. Powell acted with “actual malice” in beating King after a chase on March 3, 1991. The two were convicted of violating King’s civil rights, and both served time in prison for that violation.

Their lawyers, however, argued that the city should reimburse them for the cost of defending themselves against King’s civil suit because it arose out of their Police Department work. Lawyers for the city said taxpayers are not liable when public employees act out of malice--and argued that that was the case in the King beating.

The 9th Circuit agreed: “When law enforcement officers betray the public trust and commit criminal acts with deliberate wrongful intent, the public should not be required to indemnify them.”