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"help" him answer questions. ··ask
Rodney a question. and Lennan would
say. 'Well, you remember you told me.
Rodney ... ' I didn't know where Rodney's
memory started and Lennan's memory
ended. "
White finally got his time alone with
King in late January, with the trial nearing,
and he did not like what he saw. King
was inarticulate, moody, inconsistent in
his answers, and quick to anger at what
White considered the easiest lobs. "You
could see the anger and the frustration, I
mean a lot of anger, coming out during
these questions. And he was still on medication
at the time .... and he was getting
very angry about these really not very
hard questions."
White imagined the impact on the jurors
if King were to lose his temper in
court. And then, when the trial started,
something happened that sealed his decision
not to put King on the stand. Melanie
and Tim Singer, the husband-and-wife
Highway Patrol team, testified that they
had not struck King. "Lerman calls me on
a Saturday morning and says, 'Rodney
wants to talk to you,' " White recalls.
"And Rodney got on the phone and he
was a very angry person. Profanity spewing
out. He was angry, saying, 'Melanie
Singer kicked me, Tim Singer kicked me,
and they're lying!' It was 'Fuck this,' and
'Motherfucker that,' and right then I knew
we had made the right decision."
The defense team later said it had earnestly
wished for a chance to go at King
on the witness stand. "We were very dis-
. appointed in the prosecution's decision
not to call him," says a member of the
team, John Barnett. "We really would
have enjoyed cross-examining him." The
irony is that, no matter what sort of witness
King made, the violent aftennath
might have been avoided if he. had testified.
If he'd been a convincing witness,
he might have clinched it; if he'd been as
bad as White feared and defense lawyers
hoped, he'd have been discredited and the
acquittal would have been less shocking.
King may yet tell his story on the
stand, when Officer Laurence Powell,
who was not acquitted by the Simi
Valley jury, is retried. But many doubt
that a federal case, revived by President
Bush in the politically-charged hours after
the acquittal, will ever materialize. ·
Which leaves King's multimillion-dollar
civil-rights suit. Scheduled for October,
it may never reach court. Lennan
wants a settlement for King, and the city
seems eager to oblige.
·City Attorney James Hahn is said to be
VANITY FAIR •JUlY 1992
more worried about .winning the case
court than losing it. "That's a f1ell of a
had settlement posture to he in.·· observes
one attorney associated with the case.
" 'If you don't settle with me. there'll he
a riot. • "
In early settlement talks. there was
some distance between the two sides: a
source reports that the city offered $2 million,
with a hint of going to $3 million,
while Lerman asked for $10 million plus
an annuity, which would give King an income
for life.
Even if the city does come much closer
to Lerman's figure, say, $7.5 million,
King will see only a portion of the settlement
money. First he'll have to pay off
his lawyer, and if Lerman has the usual
one-third contingency agreement, that
will make his fee about $2.5 million .. If
Lerman deducts cash advances ·made to
King, the cost of the twenty-four-hour security
force, living expenses, and so on,
King's take will be shaved even further.
He will also likely have to pay the considerable
medical bills he has accumulated
from private doctors-including
the psychiatrist, a plastic surgeon (he's
already had facial reconstruction), and a
neurologist.
While the two sides haggle, Rodney
King remains in his cocoon, safe from incident,
and from rival lawyers. James
Banks is keeping vigilant watch over Triple-Ts
investment, and Aunt Angela is
still stewing over the family's being shut
out in the Rodney King sweepstakes.
"Everybody else is out there making
money with Rodney King and no one's
saying nothing. And here I am, the main
source of the family, and you gonna tell
me I can't make a few T-shirts and ·sell
them? I talked to Rodney about it. He told
me ... if I could make some money for the
family, then go ahead, because it'll be a
while before.he'll have any."
In May, Angela finally decided to go
ahead and get into the Rodney King business
on her own. She cut out a picture of
her nephew from the newspaper, traced it
onto a white T-shirt, and painted on his
hair and mustache. She planned to sell the
shirts for six dollars-a bargain next to
the bootleg Rodney shirts that sell in
South-Central for ten dollars.
But then she got a message on her answering
machine that caused her to reconsider
her T-shirt project. The call was
from James Banks at Triple-7.
"Apparently," said Banks's recorded
voice, "some people are selling T-shirts
of Glen .... As I'm sure you're aware,
the rights .for Mr. King are with my
client ... '' 0
-·
l:llEIJITS
Page 4: Phologrophs, lop lo bollom, from Archove
Pholos, from A.P./Wide Worfd Pholos, by Errc Boman.
Page 8: Phologrophs, lop and bollom lefl, slyled
by Evyon Melzner and Nololie Zimmerman; grooming
by Richard Keo; boys' clolhing from all Gop
stores; girls' clothing from OP Junior· Swimweor,
Gollex, Robert Mannino, and Body Glove by Robin
Piccone.
Page 12: Phologrophs by lilly Dong (Kornbluth).
Ruven Afonodor (Cockburns), Kelly Campbell (Sea·
brook).
Page 32: Photographs, lefl, from A.P./Wide World
Photos; right, from Reulers/Bellmonn.
-Page 46: Photograph from Rex U.S.A.
Page 50: Photographs, lop, from Swonstock; bottom,
from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Page 53: Photographs, top, from Gamma-liaison;
bollom, from Space Biospheres Ventures.
Page 66: Photograph from Space Biospheres Ventures.
Page 7-1: Hair and makeup by Ricki Quesada for
Pix.
Page 76: Photographs, bollom, by Nigel Parry/
Katz Pictures (Kureishi) and Adam Scull/Globe 'Pho·
los (Plunkett and MacNeil).
Pages 78-79: Photograph from A.P./Wide World
Photos.
Page 83: Photograph from Gamma-liaison.
. Page 85: Inset photograph from Sunset/Kipa-lnter·
press.
Page 87: Photograph from the private collection 'of
Joshua Greene.
Page 88: Photograph from Ullstein Bilderdiensl.
Page 89: Photograph from FPG International.
Page 97: Slyled by Evyan Metzner ond'Notdlie
Zimmerman; grooming by Richard Keo; jeanS' from
all Gap stores.
Pages 98-99 and 101: Photographs from News·
day.
Page 102: Photographs, lop, courtesy of Fernando
Moreno; bottom, from Newsday.
Page 103: Photograph courtesy of Fernando Moreno.
•
Page 122: Photograph courtesy of John Rogers.
Page 123: Photograph from Block Star ..
Page 125: Bracelet from Harry Winston, N.Y. C.
Pages 126-27: Photographs, left to right, from !he
Hulton-Deulsch Collection, by Michel letadPoris
Match, from Dolmas/Sipo, by Morino Garnier, by
Roy Willey/Sipa.
Page 164: Photograph c 1935 (renewed 1963) by
the Conde Nasi Publications Inc.
Editor's note: In the June issue, the earrings on
page 123 were by Temple St. Clair Carr, and the
photo of Jonn Wenner and friends on page 127 was
by Patrick McMullan .
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