officers - The Black Vault

King, an Altadena resident who
was released from prison in De­
. cember after serving a one-year
.sentence for robbery, is an unemployed
construction worker. He
.was CQnfronted by t)le officers
early Sunday after what police sail
was a high-speed car chase.
At his one-hour news confe
,ence, Gates said the sergeant at·
-scene should have prevented·
routine arrest from escalating \
-an uncontrolled beating. · .
"That supervisor was theree :
;process was followed," Gates~O.. ·
.. Unfortunately, we had a ~ta\
'human failure on the part ·o;.na:_
sergeant and many other officers
who should have interceded. There
was one officer who tried to intert
:cede just briefly, but it was far too
1
f ·brief." ·
In a move clearly intended to
. restore confidence in the department,
Gates annoul).ced the decision
to seek prosecution, which
resulted from departmental inquiries
into the events. One is a
criminal investigation by the Major
Crimes Unit and the other is a
review by the department's internal
affairs unit. ·
"If they really loved their fellow
officers they should have stepped
in and grabbed them and pulled
. them.back and said 'Knock it off!' "
Gates said of the officers. "That's
what every officer should have
. ·done. In my judgment it's a cowardly
thing . . . to stand there and
allow people to get themselves in
this kind of trouble."
;. The chief said the department's
f 8,300 officers are upset about being
r ~ painted with the same "broad
t brush" as those involved in the
~ attack.
~ . ·~You will not find a police officer .
'~1n- this City that will in any way
: ·attempt to justify what those offi:-
!~ ·cers did," Gates said. ·
t- .Although the district attorney
:~ will determine any specific charg­
~ ...:es, .Gates said the three officers
could be charged with assault with
·a deadly weapon or assault "under
·f.lle color of authority."
· The three officers and the sergeant
have been taken off field
duty but are still on the department
payroll, Gates said. They will
also be charged administratively
. . and may be suspended without pay
at that point. ·
Gates did not identify any of the
officers involved, including the
sergeant. However, a police report
on the incident identified the sergeant
as Stacey Koon, 40, a father
of five and a 14-year veteran.
"I'd like to talk to you, but this is
not an appropriate time," Koon told
• a reporter while standing in the
front yard of his home in Castaic.
• Capt. Tim McBride, 'head of the
Police Department's Foothill Division,
confirmed that Kocm and
_!.hree qth~r offi~g;r::$.:-::.Laurence.Michael
Powell, 28, Ted Briseno and
Timothy Wind, 3o"-have been relieved
of field duty.
Gates earlier did not identify the
,three officers who he-.bas recommended
be prosecuted. He did say,
. vhowever, that two of them beat
·.King with their··batons. Gates said
one. is a rookie and the other is a
three-year veteran. The third officer,
according to the chjef, kicked
King; he has peen on the force nine
years. ·
[ ·, · At l~t one of the officers had
been #sciplined before for excessiv.e
force, Gates said. Koon also
had been disciplined for reasons
Gates did not specify:
Gates said the crimil'lal cases
t ·against three officers will be presented
to the district attorney no
later than today.
All three officers apparently
were recorded on a videotape shot
by an amateur cameraman and
televised nationally by the major
-networks. Outraged viewers have
flooded pqlice telephone lines with
calls, and Bradley told reporters he
h~s received 1,000 complaint calls.
,After the beating, King was
booked by police for evading arrest
and held for four days. He was
released from Los Angeles County
Jail Ol} Wednesday after the district
attorney's office cited lack of
evidence to prosecute him.
King told reporters he did not
resist the officers. He .said he
feared for his life during the beating.
"-:
Separate investigations into the
incident are being conducted by
·.the district attorney and the FBI.
,. Ramona Ripston, executive di-
· reetor of the American Civil Liberties
Union of Southern Califor­
. nia, said Gates' respnnse did not go
far enough. She reiterated her call.
· io:r Gates to resign. . .
"He still says that this is an
aberration and l don't believe this ·
is an aberration," she said. "Instances
~imilar to the one we have
f on videotape happen all the time."
ates brushed aside this and
· Gother calls from community
organizations that he step down.
"I have absolutely no thoughts
1 of resigning," he said. "Please let
~ .my friends out there know who
-think this is the time, I'm-not going.
I'm going to be there. If anything
this is a time for ~trength of
leadership." :
·At a news conference Thursday,
.religious and community groups,
including the Brotherhood Cru­
.sade, an African-American service
·organization, pledged .to raise
$50,000 for civilian patrol teams
:armed with video cameras to monitor
police activities. .
... 'We need a peacekeeping force
to watch over LAPD," said Danny
Bakewell, president of the Broth­
.. erhood Crusade. "When they have
someone on the ground, ·we want
. people to rally around them and'
j, observe. Take a snapshot, don't let
•them intimidate you."
r, . Bakewell was joined at the news
' ·conference by representatives of
the Los Angeles chapters of the
NAACP and the Southern Christian
Leadership Conference.
. Gat~s said, "We can turn up
absolutely nothing that would suggest
[a racial motive], except for
.the officers were white and the
suspect was black."
King's attorneys said he spent
Thursday with f!llllilY and friends
• 'Visitil}g private doctors to receiv~
· treatment and establish an inde-
. .pendent record of his injuries. Ac­
~ording to~ doctor-who first treate~
hi~ at a Sun Valley ·hospital,
Kmg s lacerations required 20
stitches to the face and mouth.
· Attorneys for King said he also
IIl.l!Y ·h~Y~.§~fer~-~ QrQ~~!l an\cle.
Los Angeles ·city· Councilman
Richard Alatorre, chairman of the
r-council's Public Safety Committee,
called for a public hearing Tuesday
on the Police Department's policies
on the use of force.
in Sacramento, Senate President
Pro· Tern David A. Roberti ( D-Los
Angeles) reintroduced a bill vetoed
in September by then-Gov.
George Deukmejian that would
prohibit a peace officer from using
t.f ·more force 'than reasonable in
making an. arrest, preventing an
escape or _?Vercoming resistance.
rimes staff writers Leslie Berger,
Sam Enriquez, Andrea Ford, Jane
Fritsch, Carl Ingram, John Johnson,
Charlsse Jones John L. Mitchell and
Tracy Yfo,od contributed to this report.