officers - The Black Vault

1
1
0·350 (Rev. ~·8·81J
• •
1., ..
·-·
• ....
.
(Indicate page, name of
newspaper, city and state.)
P. A 8
Star-News
,-1J--~~-i-c:--.-\Af-. --E!~CM~iSJ~u~nt~.,~fip~~!;~na~ln~S~j~'l.~e~B~;;~w~~=i=~==:E!==-,~.---------;~aden!~~~~~~fornia
, of Possible award I
By Kevin Uhrich
Staff Writer
p.umber, because you have it all
·on tape and you h_ave to wonder
how many of these types of .
things happen that aren't on'·
PASADENA- Is the $56 million
that attorneys for Altadena tape."
1
resident Rodney King say they In the eyes of others, $56 mil- ~~
will seek for the beati,ng he en- lion will not compensate for the
duted at the hands of Los .A,nge- losses suffered by King and his
les police officers a realistic family.
sum?
"If What the doctors say is
Some local reside~ts inte!- true, he's going to be an in\ralid
viewed Wednesday said $56 ~il- in terms of thinking capacity,
lion - $1 million. pe:r RlQW m- ··fQ:r life," said Emmell Beech,
· flicted - isn't enougl}.. Others chief executive officer of the
1
! say the requested dam~ge figure Foothill. Ar~a Community Ser­
, is merely a stunt engm~e~ed to vice~.· "Tl}at's going ~o b~ a loss
generate even mote publicity for to hiS children, to his wife and
the case.
to his relatives."
"How can you quantify some- "Our young people see this
thing as terrible as that?" asked tape ... and I wonder what the 1
! Sally Mosher, a former candi- ·heck they think about. You and I
, date for the Pasadena Board of are reasonable people. But con­
I City Directors. "If the judgment sequently, there are some people
went against the police, where who are not reasonable."
would the $56 rnilHon come Pasadena attorney Joe Hopfrom?
It comes out of whoever kins said he originally was ap·
· has the deep pockets. Eventual- proached by members of King's I
ly, a lot of this stuff comes out of family and asked to represent
1
all of our potkets. You want to
do everythirtg you can do to dis- King before Bev:erly Hills attor-
1 courage that kind of thing from ney Steve Lerman took over the I
happening to a person. But this case. Hopkins said he was disap·
is another one of those mind- pointed by the King family's de-
, boggling requests for money." . cision to d9wnplay the alleged).y
Given the circumstances, said racist nature of the beating.
J3ill Geller, vice chairman of the Tony Stewart, president of the· '
Pasadena Young Republicans, Altadena NAACP, said it ap-'
' $56 million is not an unreason- pears King's lawyers are "grand- 1
able sum to request. standing" by sayihg they want :
"A lot of us Republicans have $1 million for each time K~ng ~
' a problem defending this/' Gell- was ~truck by police that night.
. er said. "You see it fu black and