officers - The Black Vault

F1?;350 (Rev. 5·8·81)
.('-
.,
•(Indicate page, name of
newspaper, city and state.)
(Mount Clipping in Space Below)
At Least 4 Officers'­
Indicted in Beating
• Police probe: Grand
jury goes beyond Gates'
recommendation that
three be prosecuted and 12
be disciplined.
By LESLIE BERGER
and TRACY WOOD
TIMES STAFF WRITERS
· At least four Los Angeles police
officers were indicted Thursday by
a county grand jury investigating
the videotaped attack on a motorist ·
who had been stopped for speed·
in g.
The indictments were sealed and
the precise allegations and number
of indictments issued by the grand
jury were not known.
..1\ccording to their attorneys and
a law enforcement source, four of
the 15 .officers present at the
beating were indicted and were
ordered to. surrender in court to·
day.
_.
The 23·member panel began
hearing evidence Monday in the
case, which came to light when a
bystander at the early morning
March 3 incident in Lake View
· Terrace presented a homemade
·videotape to a Los Angeles televi­
. sion station.
The images of uniformed officers
repeatedly kicking and striking a
prone, .unarmed man have sparked
outrage nationwide and prompted
calls for the ouster of Los Angeles
Police Chief Daryl F. Gates ..
At least 400 people turned out
Thursday for a Police Commission
hearing, heckling Gates and cheering
a succession of black community
leaders and residents who called
for his dismissal. Gates, who sat
-l • RELATED STORIES: A3, A31
~ somberly through the session, later
· Tepeated his intention to remain as
chief of the 8,300-member departi
ment.
: All 15 officers present at the
r ·~ault on Rodney G. King, a
25-year-old Altadena construction
1 worker who is on parole after a
~ ~hhPrv f"'nnuif'llt;nn 'h!:!uo ~Dn .... o_
KEN LUBAS I Los Angeles Times
LAPD Chief Gates at hearing.
LOS ANGELES TIMES
. F r i . , Mar 15 , 1991
10n. •
Front Sect~on, Page 1
l oaEdtit:: Trtle:
AT LEAST 4 OFFI CERS
INDICTED IN BEATI NG
CharaCter: CIVIL RIGHTS
or
ClaSSifiCation:
Submitting Office: 80-33B
LOS ANGELES
Indexing:
SEARCHED
SE.RlAU~EO
INDEXED
fiLED
MAR 2 2 1991
FBI
LOS ANGELES I
IJYi1
.-
~1moved from active field duty by
:~Gates. On Thursday, King's doctor
;:: and .city officials denied a wide­
;.·.spread rumor, spread largely ."by
··word of mouth, that King had died
during surgery.
e·, Federal officials, meanwhile,
·-said the FBI is pressing ahead with
:t·, its investigation of the incident
!: -despite what appears to be a vigor­
,:ous local inquiry.
i.;; John· Dunne, assistant U.S. at­
- itorney general for civil rights, said
G.o.that although the FBI usually sus-
_pends investigations into such
-·matters as the King case if local
t:}aw enforcement response is
:g:strong, "this is not a standard
~~:case," based on "what I saw, in the
1
V:iull tape of the beating."
j:~. The case has carried racial over­
.ttones because King is black and the
L>fattacking officers white. King sufa
'fered numerous injuries in the
;::attack. He was held in custody for
· three days before prosecutors dei
·ltermined there were no grounds to
la'press allegations that he had evadl!l'ied
police in a high-speed chase.
! · The grand jury acted on evi­
!li;tience presented in secret sessions
; by Deputy Dist. Atty. Terry White.
:_ Witnesseses included the man who
. :made the videotape from a nearby
·balcony, bystanders from the same
.apartment building, a Los Angeles
~Unified School District police offi­
_.cer who was present, and at least
. two Los Angeles police of(icers.
·.The ce~tral
piece of evidenc~.
however, is the videotape. In
. the .two-minute tape, the sergeant
is shown holding a stun gun from
which a barb had been shot into
· g early in the incidept. As be
FBI/DOJ