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LA TIMES
LOS ANGELES, CA
[Briseno Breaks Silence! ~su~~~R~: 23 - 92
\About King Beatitlgl- - :;~~~N~I~~E~~!T~~~ENCE
i • LAPD: Officer is defensive, bitter and angry as he
I describes his ordeal since that infamous night. He lashes
at politicians, th~ department and a co-defendant.
I . . . . . .. -- .J
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! By JIM NEWTON
' TIMES STAFF WRITER
: Sitting in his lawyer's office, , fendant-s for comments he made i
J. Briseno fidgeted in · in a manuscript, at the media for
AUG 2 4 1992
· the way they have covered the
: his chair, stare~ out the 18th-sto- case and at the federal gov:ern- I
FBl-lOS ANGELES
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, ry window and took a deep · . ment for new charges it has filed. ·
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breath. . I All of that leaves Briseno tight-
1 After months of self-imposed ly wound. He has gone for more
-
: silence, Briseno-facing federal : than a year without a paycheck,
I of silence" among police officers.
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1 civil rights charges in the March and bills are piling up. He worries
·Because of that-and because
' many familiar with the case be- ,
3, 1991, videotaped beating of · about his wife, Kathy, and his two
;; lieve that Briseno lied on the ·
I Rodney G. King-said he was 1 is 11, the other 9. 1
:stand-he has been ostracized by .
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eager to tell his version of the : He has trouble sleeping and eat- :
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: some officer-S and isolated from his
: events that transformed him from ; · ing, and says he has lost 22 : : co-defendants, with whom hesays !
I an'unknown street cop into one of pounds: the stiff-collared shirt he i • , he has never spoken at length.
wore Friday hung loose around
k
i the , four most infamous police his thin rieck. Lflst week, however, he emerged 1
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\ officers in the United States.- - . He sees a therapist twice a frQm his- long silence. His new
law.yer, Harland Braun, wants to
: But the case has so over- week, and joked bleakly about ,
1 r~ntold the public's view of Bri­
whelmed· Briseno's life that his
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suicide. Smiling thinly, he said 1
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$el)o.
I feelings come out in bursts. 1 1 that if he wanted to kill himself, · . With that encouragement, Bri-
Sometimes he is defensive and 1 would have done it long before 1
. senq is launching an ambitious
bitter, other times anguished. now. : :media schedule. l:le began last
"I have so much anger," Bri- "There are days where you 1
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seno, 40, said during a 2 1 h-hour · ' think everything is going OK,"
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w~¢k by giving interviews to the I
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"Today" show and the London \
interview with The Times on: i Briseno said, nervously tugging at : Daily Mail. ThiR week, he will ,
Friday. "I don't know what to do. ! a rubber band wound around his · appear on CNN~s ·"Larry King
with it all." i :left hand. "But then you sort of · Live."
~ - ~ _.........._ - -- - -
Once a supporter of President 1 , drift around, and you wake out of
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Bush, Briseno is furious with him : ; it and find yourself, in your back I
for his comments about the case. . . yard, and you don t know how
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, He is mad at Mayor Tom Bradley 1 you got ther~ or how long .Yo~:ve
; for condemning the verdicts, at, been there. Its overwhelmmg: .
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the Police Department for aban- I I ~t has been. 17 mpnths su~ce I
1 doning him, at one of his co-de- . : Briseno used his fo~t to push ~mg
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· - - ·- ·-·-~·~-~~----, . 1 • to the pavement m Lake VIew
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Terrace, a blow that prosecutors 1
: say was intended to hurt King and ,
I deprive hi~ of his civil rights.
' During the state trial in Simi
Valley, Briseno testified that h~
was King's defender, and w;:ts
trying to protect the motorist
from getting up and being struck
by other police officers.
That testimony, during which
'· ·
Briseno said the beating had gone
"out of control!" .~r~ke th~-~£()d~