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IDS ANGELES TIMES
LOS ANGELES, CA
Date: 'IHURS., 4/30/92
Edition: FRONT SECTION, PAGE 20
Title:
OFFICERS REVEL IN 'IHEIR
DAY OF VINDICATION
. • Police: After 14 grueling months they are exuberant.
One attorney says defense team was able to get the jurors
. to look at the case through the eyes of the defendants. : ·
i
By DEAN E. MURPHY
TIMES STAFF WRITER
: · SIMI VALLEY -It was the mo-
• ment they had all been dreaming of
• for nearly 14 anguished months.
, It was 3:15. p.m. Wednesday,
April 29, 1992. Not guilty. Ten
glorious times. .
· "A lot of my emotfons had to go
over my heartbeat that was pounding
in anticipation," a beaming
Officer Laurence M. Powell gushed
. to reporters. "I am very happy.
Veryhappy." ·
·For Powell and the three other
Los Angeles police officers acquit­
, ted in the beating trial of motorist
Rodney G. King, it was their longawaited
day of vindication.
Forget the 81-second · amatet,Ir
videotape of the officers striking
King, and the worldwide outrage it
·_provoked. A jury of six men and six
women decided that what happened
that March night in Lake
View Terrace was. not criminal.
There was just one hang-up, but no
one seemed· too concerned: On one
count of excessive force against
Powell, the jury could not reach
consensus and a mistrial was de-
. -clared. ·
"J think we were able to do
: what we set out to do, which
was to get the jurors to look at this
case not through the eye of a
camera, not through the eye of an
·amateur videq, but through the'
eyes of the police officers confronting
this situation on Mai'cli 3,
1991," said attorney Michael Stone,
who represents Powell.
The jury and officers were called·
into Courtroom No. 3 at 3 p.m., but
it took 15 tense minutes before the
outcome was known. Judge Stanley
M. Weisberg questioned the
forewoman, and then methodically
paged through the ·written ver-
. diets. The quiet of the courtroom
was interrupted only by the sound
of Weisberg turning pages.
Seconds dragged into minutes,
which hung like hours. The four
police officers and their families
could do nothing but wait-and
hope.
Weisberg then ·instructed the
clerk to read the verdicts. ·Not
guilty. Not guilty. Not guilty. Ten
times in all. .
Powell's sisters and mother wept
softly in the front ·row, relieved,
exhausted, finally able to let go.
Officei: Theodore J. Briseno jumped
to his feet, embraced his attorney
and shook his brother's hand. The
four defendants, not always on
friendly terms during the trial,
slapped each other on the back and
offered words of congratulations.
"Everyone has been acquitted so
there is no reason for bitterness,"
said attorney John D. Barnett, who
represents Briseno, the only defendant
to testify against his fellow
officers, accusing them of being
. :~~ut of control" durii?g_tJ?.!..beating. _
Character:
MAY 0 4 1992
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