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