officers - The Black Vault

FD·35P_.,..!Rev .• 5·8·81)
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•
Juror S · p ~ ho th~ mm was horrible.
ays . ane 1 ;~ut there's a lot more .to it.than th~.
, F J Kin . -~Ilm, and a lot more to it than the
e ~ . g Actions :;~~~-p~~e~.J:~. f!: .t~! ~~~~
'' 7.ere t BJ
.mterv1ewed by The Times. ···The
. t't' I . 0 8ffie ;wm does not show all of the things
': · Jhat went on before.'' · · · ·
By S~ERYL STOLBERG
·. 'The jury'~ verdict proved to be· a
TIMES. STAFF w.RITER
~esounding endorsement of the po-
. .. )~ce officers' conduct .. The juror-
In' the end, the now-famous ~}Vh'? spoke despite a pact reached
videotape-S! seconds of footage }:JY the 12 t~at th_ey would not talk
shocked the world. with its ,!P the media....;.srud the panel made
grainy images of a prone, seeming- }~e onl~. ~ecision it could have,
ly. defenseless Rodney G. King pased on the evidence· .presented.
bemg clubbed by Los Angeles :?'here was no wavering; it was not
officers-didn't matter. ~close call. . . · ·
:Instead, it.' was what King did;,;. The jur:y bel~eved that If King.
before the camera started rolling _ha~ complied Wit~ orders from the·
t~at prompted a jury of six men and :Pollee a~ they tned to arrest {lim,
!·siX women to .return verdicts of not )be beatmg would never have oc-
: guilty in the · celebrated trial of ·cu;;red. · . . ·
· Officer~ Laurence M. Powell, ...... ~~ :efuse~ to ·get out of the
• T~eodore J. Briseno~ Timothy E. 1 par, sa1d the.~u~or, who asked not
. Wmd and th~ir sergeant, Stacey c. ¥> be named. H1s two companions
· Koon. . . . · ~~t out of the car and cqmplied
»'1t{l. all the ·?rders and he just
.l!ontmued to f1ght. ·so ..the Police
lf>epartment had no alternative. He
)yas ?bviously a dangerous person,
jpass1ve size 11-I_ld thre.atening ac-·
tzons .... Mr~ King was control­
J!ng the whple show with his
actions.'' . - .
!>... . •
;r, The prosecution's decision not to
oput King on.the witness stand· may
bfive hurt its case, the juror said,
llecause King was not able to
.eXplain his actions:
~ ;,J wonder, could he have been a
,~elp to· the caseZ Maybe he could
;1}ave off~red us some insight as to
;?N.hat his thinking was.'' · ·
Y,;~· The juror said that the panel
ifound the officers' testimony credible.
Jurors did not believe Tace
was a factor ·in the beati.rig-if it
had ~e~~e juror .. sajd, . Kin~!:.;.
j{ln1(ficate page, name of
newspaper, city and state.)
IDS ANGElES TIMES
IDS ANGElES, CA
TIIURS., 4/30/92
FRONT SECTION, PAGE 1
JUROR SAYS PANEL FELT
KING ACTIONS WERE 10 BlAME.
Character: 44Aor
c~n: 80-33B
Submitting Office:
LOS ANGELES
b6
b7C
FBI/OOJ