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1993-03-05
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02/26/1993 LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A surprise prosecution claim that
police delayed medical treatment for an injured Rodney King brought
a sharp defense denial as the two sides unveiled their strategies in
the civil rights trial of four policemen.
The allegation came Thursday as the federal government set out to
do what state prosecutors could not -- win convictions in the
videotaped beating.
During opening statements, Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven Clymer
sprang a new claim that two of the officers -- Timothy Wind and
Laurence Powell -- took a 1 1/2-hour detour while moving King from
one hospital to another, stopping at their station to show the
beating victim to colleagues.
Not so, said the defense.
Attorney Michael Stone said his client, Powell, and Powell's
partner, Wind, were following "very strict protocol" and did no harm
by slowing King's move from a small hospital to a larger hospital
jail ward and trauma center.
"Only stable patients will be transferred from one hospital to
another," Stone said, adding: "And he wasn't in an ambulance. He was
in a police car."
Stone said that by stopping at the Foothill Station to do "remote
booking" and obtain a "parole hold" on King, a convicted felon, the
officers engineered his quick admission to the hospital jail ward.
Powell, Wind, Officer Theodore Briseno and Sgt. Stacey Koon are
accused of violating the black motorist's civil rights when he was
clubbed, kicked and stomped after a car chase in 1991. The beating
was videotaped by an onlooker.
The defendants could get up to 10 years in prison and $250,000 in
fines.
The four white officers were acquitted of brutality charges in
state court last spring, touching off riots that left 54 people dead
and caused $1 billion in damage.
The second trial began peacefully Thursday.
The video, newly enhanced by FBI experts, was shown to the jury
several times.
Clymer said that after the beating, King received some stitches
at Pacifica Hospital, then was to be transferred to Los Angeles
County-USC Medical Center for tests and further treatment. Powell
and Wind drove him.
"It was a half-hour drive," the prosecutor said. "But it took
them two hours." He said that Wind later falsified a police report
to show them leaving Pacifica Hospital an hour later than they
actually departed.
"Powell drove back to Foothill Station. He left Wind in the back
seat with Rodney King," Clymer said. "He sent police officers out to
look at Rodney King while Rodney King was in the back seat waiting
for medical attention."
No such evidence was presented at the state trial.
The prosecutor also accused the officers of trying to convince
medical personnel at both hospitals that King was under the
influence of the hallucinogen PCP when there was no evidence to
support that conclusion.