officers - The Black Vault
officers - The Black Vault
officers - The Black Vault
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
presi<br />
' llHlwell<br />
, and<br />
is a<br />
•pany<br />
\OUr<br />
IJHCr.<br />
.rs of<br />
rtain<br />
•rs,"<br />
nt in<br />
o be<br />
ed on<br />
~gned<br />
.te, in<br />
· hie,"<br />
little<br />
iwork<br />
= ;o the<br />
Kan-<br />
·' ·'go-.<br />
i pre<br />
;, and<br />
i10ice.<br />
.e apqutual<br />
. "It<br />
,, the<br />
did it<br />
1 my<br />
Kanun<br />
the<br />
· plans<br />
that,"<br />
on the<br />
1dyce.<br />
·articiing<br />
of<br />
1ed it.<br />
what<br />
.-,t inlawl.l<br />
fide<br />
·how<br />
g the<br />
t was<br />
monlry,"<br />
"<br />
.• wyer,<br />
('tmding theat. it has<br />
such an impa.:t that. to do the story. it<br />
ultimately has ro·he a feature l;ilm for the<br />
rest of the wor'lll. Domestically. probably<br />
a mini-series. A three-night mini-series<br />
on him ... That is not all. <strong>The</strong>re will<br />
be a book. "Titerc are really two books,<br />
I should say. <strong>The</strong>re's the making of the<br />
story, and the story. Because the making<br />
is almost as interesting·as the story:"<br />
Banks has an idea in !llind for aT-shirt:<br />
"1 think Mr. K~ng's statement. ..'Can't<br />
we work togellber?' Glen's statement was<br />
a beautif4l statement. And I think that,<br />
with his picture, would be very apropos.''<br />
Meanwhile, Banks is busy writing "cease·<br />
and desist" letters to bootleggers using<br />
Rodney King's face or name without alicense,<br />
and he has an investigator tracking<br />
the pirates down.<br />
All of which leaves Aunt Angela-and,<br />
she says, the rest of the King family-out<br />
in the cold ... We're looking at millions<br />
and millions of dollars," she says. "And<br />
everyone's trying to find out who's doing<br />
what. Everyone except for his own immediate<br />
family. And he can't see this."<br />
With ·books and movie projects and<br />
the multimillion-dollar civil suit all<br />
in the works. King became a valuable<br />
commodity. But his partners soon realized<br />
that he was also a risky investment. In<br />
May 1991 , with the ink still not dry on his<br />
Triple-7 deal, King drove to Hollywood,<br />
where, in a dark alleyway, he engaged the<br />
services of a transvestite hooker. As luck<br />
would have it, two undercover L.A.P.D.<br />
vice cops were watching this particular<br />
prostitute, and they moved in for the<br />
pinch. King tore out of the alley, nearly<br />
.running over one of the cops. He then<br />
stopped a patrol car, told the cops about<br />
the incident, and was arrested for assaulting<br />
a police officer with a deadly weapon .<br />
Lerman maintains that the assault charge<br />
was a setup by the L.A.P.D., which was<br />
bent on discrediting King. For its part, the<br />
state attorney general's office decided<br />
against filing charges. "We felt that it<br />
was a defensible case, considering that<br />
they were undercover and there wasn't a<br />
reasonable conclusion that [King} knew<br />
they were police <strong>officers</strong>," says Deputy<br />
Attorney General Peggy S. Ruffra, who<br />
handled the ·case. "<strong>The</strong>re was some reasonable<br />
doubt as to whether he was trying<br />
to run over the person or just get the hell<br />
out of the alley.''<br />
Still, nobody denies that Rodney King<br />
was in that alley with that hooker-"I'm<br />
his lawyer, not his conscience," Lerman<br />
says. And soliciting hookers in dark alleys<br />
was not the ideal way for a man with a<br />
VANITY FAIR/JUlY 1992<br />
multimillion-dollar civil suit penl<br />
a~ainst the local police to he spending hi~<br />
lei~ure hour~. King's minders realized it<br />
was imperative to keep him from getting<br />
into any more awkward· circumstances.<br />
But Lerman prefers a different emphasis.<br />
"Rodney King doesn't need a keeper,"<br />
he says. "Rodney King needed protection<br />
from those that would do him harm. And<br />
the fact that he was set up [in Hollywoodj<br />
underscored his vulnerability."<br />
King has told people -he's miserable in<br />
his cloistered life. "He's just- kind of jittery,"<br />
Angela said after a recent visit to<br />
Ventura County. "He asked me to come<br />
out there; he wanted me to sit and talk<br />
with him awhile. He gets lonesome, and I<br />
odney King<br />
. . . '' .<br />
IS a VICtim,<br />
Lerman says, "and<br />
my intention<br />
is that Rodney King<br />
never become ·<br />
political fodder?'.<br />
know how it is-you know, your family<br />
not around."<br />
But Lerman has convinced King 1hat he<br />
needs his lawyer's shroud to survive.<br />
"He's mindful, because I've told him that<br />
there are people out there that know their<br />
place in history could be assured-if they<br />
took a shot at him," Lerman says. "I<br />
have to take Rodney King and .•. say,<br />
This is what's good for him. Not good for<br />
him because he likes it, or he agrees with<br />
this or that. I enjoy a dialogue with him<br />
that's unique."<br />
Lerman says that he has made King<br />
"part of my life," and that he has spent<br />
"hundreds of thousands" of dollars of his<br />
own money on the case so far. Lerman's<br />
colleagues and competitors aie in awe of<br />
the effort. "I mean, he's basically put<br />
King on a salary," says one. "He seems<br />
like he doesn't have any other cases. It's<br />
quite remarkable."<br />
<strong>The</strong> tight rein has clearly accomplished<br />
several crucial goab. If King·~ lift: is rt:ally<br />
in danger. it ha~ 1-.t·pt him -.afe ~~·far.<br />
And it has kept away other law~ t'J'~.<br />
"Tht:re were many attorney~ cha~ing him<br />
down. trying to Slllicit the case. trying to<br />
dissuade him from continuing to have<br />
Lerman represent him," says Rentzer.<br />
Lerman has also successfully kept at bay<br />
leaders of the black community who have<br />
sought to give King a more public role in<br />
confronting racism. "Rodney King is a<br />
victim," Lerman says, "and my intention<br />
is that Rodney King never become political<br />
fodder, never become ammunition for<br />
somebody' s agenda."<br />
I<br />
t's safe to guess that Rodney King was<br />
a reluctant volunteer when he made his<br />
famous plea for peace outside Steven Lerman's<br />
office two days after the cops' acquittal.<br />
"He was terrified," says James<br />
Banks. Reporters and TV crews, two hundred<br />
strong, had assembled. An L.A.P.D.<br />
helicopter hovered overhead. Los Angeles<br />
and the nation were waiting to hear from<br />
the man in whose name the city was being<br />
burned. Dozens of people had already<br />
·died, and although the National Guard<br />
and Mayor Bradley's dusk-to-dawn curfew<br />
had quieted the town, the wrong<br />
signal fr.om Rodney King could easily ignite<br />
another explosion. In fact, someone<br />
from Bradley's office cal1ed Lerman just<br />
before King's appearance for assurances<br />
that King would do nothing to heighten<br />
tensions.<br />
Wearing a blue jacket, 'blue slacks, and<br />
a blue shirt, King walked into the sunshine<br />
on Wilshire Boulevard and said:<br />
"People, I just want to say ... can ·We<br />
all get along? Can we get along? Can we<br />
stop making it horrible for the old people<br />
and the kids? ... We've got enough smog<br />
here in Los Angeles, let alone to deal with<br />
the setting of these fires and things. It's<br />
just not right. It's not right, and it's not<br />
going to change anything.<br />
"We'll get our justice. <strong>The</strong>y've won<br />
the battle, but they haven't won the war.<br />
We will have our day in court, and that's<br />
all we want .... I'm neutral. I love everybody.<br />
I love people of color .... I'm not<br />
like they're ... making me out to be.<br />
"We've got to quit. We've got to<br />
quit. ... I can understand the first upset<br />
for the first two hours after the verdict,<br />
but to go on, to keep going on like this,<br />
and to see this security guard shot on the<br />
ground, it's just not right. It's just not<br />
right, because those people will never go<br />
home to their families again. And I mean,<br />
please, we can get along here. We can all<br />
get along. We've just got to, just got to.<br />
We're all stuck here for a while .... Let's<br />
159