officers - The Black Vault

•
•(Indicate peoe, rwne of
newspaper, city and state.)
DAILY NE\~S
(~ount Cbpping In Space Below) SAN FERNANDO, CA
Second try in court PG. 16
• Federal indictments against
four LAPD officers are
welcome, though conviction is
hardly a sure thing.
The announcement Wednesday that
the four Los Angeles police officers
most directly involved in the Rodney
King beating have been indicted on
federal civil-rights charges is sure to
create expectations that may not be
met. Anyone who looks.forward to this
case as a chance to make up for the
failure of the state ju~tice system to
convict the four officers on excessiveforce
and other charges must remember
that an indictment is not the same
as a conviction, and the latter is never
a sure thing.
Although the federal case will be
tried before a jury that may be different
in racial composition and attitude .
th~n the.first one, a lot of complex human
and legal factors will come into
play. Among these are the competence
of the prosecutors and the tendency of
juries.(no matter their background) to
sympathize with police officers called
to account for what happens in the line
ofduty. .
Still another roadblock to conviction
- one that may be the most difficult
to sidestep - is the fact that trying
police misconduct cases can be
more difficult under federal law than
state law. In the opinion of some legal
experts, prosecutors in this case will
have a greater burden of proof than local
prosecutors did earlier this year.
At issue are two separate indictments:
one against Office~ Laurence
Powell, Timothy Wind and Theodore
Briseno, the other against Sgt. Stacey
Koon.
Powell, Briseno and Wind (who has
been fired from the force) are charged
with willfully and intentionally using
unreasonable force during the arrest of
King. The indictment, in essence,
claims a violation of King's Fourth
Amendment right to be free ofunreasonable
searches and seizures.
But the key word in the indictment
- "intentionally" - imposes a
tougher standard on federal prosecutors,
said Peter Arenella, a UCLA law
school professor and a nationally recognized
expert. on legal issues, on
Wednesday. ·
A federal jury, he noted, could conclude
that' excessive force was used but
(because of.the trauma of the moment
or some similar argument by the defense)
the officers had no actual intent
to do so. That alone could lead to
an acquittal, Arenella said.
~~:THURS., 8-6-92
EditiOn: EDITORIALS
THie: SECOND TRY IN COURT
Chlnc:tlr: 8 0 - 3 3 B
01
CillssHicatlon:
Submitting Office:
LOS ANGELES
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AUG 11992
FBI - lOS ANGElES
Winning a conviction against Koon
also .may be tougher for federal prosecutors.
Koon is charged with willfully: •'-------------­
permitting the assault against King I
and failing to take action to stop it.
But that means the prosecution will
have to show more than the fact that !
Koon failed to stop his subordinates !
from using excessive force, Arenella '
said. It also will have to show that
Koon intended for King to be pun- .
ished without due process oflaw, a·
violation of the 14th Amendment.
1
In effect, prosecutors will have ·to
convince a jury that the sergeant on
. the scene acted as judge and jury -.·
something the defense could claim
would have been too premeditated for
Koon in the heat of the moment.·
None of these difficulties, however,
makes the case unprosecutable. There
is-certainly enough evidence of criminality
under federal law to justify- g~ 1
ing to trial against ,Powell, Win