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Rodney King Held on Suspicion of Drug Use

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

Only in L.A. columnist Steve Harvey is on vacation.

Rodney King, whose beating by police officers led to the 1992 Los Angeles riots, was arrested in Claremont Tuesday on suspicion of being under the influence of PCP.

It was the latest in a string of problems King has encountered with police since his 1991 beating was caught on videotape.

“He just wants to live a normal, quiet life,” his civil attorney Renee Campbell said. “And every time it seems like we’re on that road, it seems like it eludes him again.”

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King, 36, of Altadena, told a clerk at a Howard Johnson’s motel where he was staying that his girlfriend had stolen his car, Lt. Gary Jenkins said. The clerk called police, but by the time they arrived, King remembered he had loaned the car to her, Jenkins said.

Police administered a field sobriety test because King was confused and had a high heart rate, Jenkins said.

King refused to give police a urine sample and was taken to Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center for a routine examination, Jenkins said. He then was taken to Claremont’s city jail, where he was booked. He was later issued a citation and released, with orders to return to court Oct. 2 to face the misdemeanor charge.

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Officers did not find any drugs in his motel room, Jenkins said.

Claremont is about 40 miles east of Los Angeles.

Aside from refusing to provide a urine sample, King was cooperative and his arrest was uneventful, Jenkins said.

Campbell, who is representing King in a lawsuit against his former attorney Steven Lerman, said King called her after the release and denied being under the influence.

“Rodney was mistaken about whether his car had been stolen,” Campbell said. “He told me the whole thing was a big mistake, and the next thing he knew he was being handcuffed.

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“I’m curious as to why he was detained at all.”

Police officers involved in King’s beating and arrest on the night of March 3, 1991, said they thought he was on PCP because of his behavior. It later was determined that he was not. The officers’ acquittal in 1992 sparked riots in Los Angeles.

Before he gained notoriety, King had been imprisoned for armed robbery and assaulting a convenience store clerk with a tire iron, Lerman said.

“It’s a shame he can’t learn his lesson,” Lerman said.

More recently, King served 60 days in County Jail for assaulting his daughter in early 1999 in San Bernardino County. He has been arrested six other times since 1991 on suspicion of driving under the influence, assaulting his wife and assaulting another daughter in the early 1990s, Lerman said.

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Times staff writer John L. Mitchell contributed to this story.

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