3 Plead Not Guilty in Denny Case; Black Trial Judge Removed

Three men accused of beating truck driver Reginald O. Denny and other motorists during the opening hours of the Los Angeles riots pleaded not guilty in Superior Court on Tuesday, and one of their lawyers accused the district attorney’s office of removing the assigned trial judge because he is black.

“Obviously, the district attorney does not want a black judge on this case,” said James R. Gillen, a lawyer for defendant Antoine Eugene Miller. “They say it wasn’t a racial issue. We say it was.”

Miller and two other defendants, Damian Monroe (Football) Williams and Henry Keith (Kiki) Watson, are charged with beating motorists at Florence and Normandie avenues. They face charges of attempted murder, aggravated mayhem, torture and robbery in the attack on Denny, as well as charges for allegedly assaulting 12 other people the same day.

All three defendants are black. The victims of the April 29 assaults are white, Asian and Latino. Supporters of the defendants argue that the prosecution of the three men is racially motivated.

The issue of racism surfaced again Tuesday as prosecutors used their only peremptory challenge to remove Superior Court Judge Roosevelt Dorn, who is an African-American.

The move outraged some demonstrators who had gathered for the hearing, and surprised some other defense lawyers, who thought the appointment of a black judge might help reassure the community that race was not a factor in the highly charged case.

But officials from the district attorney’s office denied that Dorn’s race was the reason for their challenge.

“We wanted this to go to a long-cause judge,” one who would not have to hear other matters while the trial was under way, said Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office. “It is not because (Dorn) is black.”

As Gibbons tried to speak to reporters, a group of demonstrators angrily drowned her out, chanting “No justice, no peace!” in a crowded hallway outside the courtroom.

“People need to see the double standard here,” said one of the protesters, Yolanda Madison, 21, a UCLA student. “If they (the defendants) do get convicted, I suggest that people burn the city down.”

In court, each of the defendants was handcuffed and shackled but appeared relaxed as they talked to their attorneys. Williams was asked to enter his plea first and he responded firmly: “I plead absolutely not guilty.”

After prosecutors used their challenge to remove Dorn, defense lawyers used theirs to keep the case from going to Judge George Trammell, who is white. Having used the peremptory challenges, both sides were then left with Judge John Reid, who also is white.

Judge Lance A. Ito, who presided over Tuesday’s arraignment, ordered the defendants to appear Sept. 14, when Reid will set a trial date.

Meanwhile, as a result of an order requested by Gillen, Miller will be interviewed by a psychiatrist or psychologist. Gillen said he and other lawyers representing Miller are considering an insanity defense and they want Miller interviewed to assess his state of mind and intellectual capacity.

Tuesday’s hearing also marked the official change of attorneys for Williams, who was represented during the preliminary hearing by attorney Dennis Palmieri, formerly of the Center for Constitutional Law and Justice. The center fired Palmieri on the last day of that hearing, however, and Georgiana Williams, the defendant’s mother, hired a new lawyer last week.

That lawyer, Edi M.O. Faal, was in court Tuesday. He said afterward that he will attempt to have excluded from evidence a tape-recorded statement in which Williams told officers that he hit Denny with a rock and that he threw other rocks. Williams denied harming anyone else.

“We strongly believe that the statement was illegally and improperly obtained,” Faal said.