City Tries to Link King’s Lifestyle to Stress in Effort to Reduce Damages

During his final moments on the witness stand Wednesday, Rodney G. King was grilled by defense attorneys who sought to show that his lifestyle has contributed to the emotional stress he has suffered since his beating by police three years ago.

The defense attorneys suggested during cross-examination that King has inflated his account of the beating to enhance his chances of getting a large award in his lawsuit against the city and 15 present and former police officers. King is asking for $9.5 million.

He was questioned about his criminal record, his relationship with his wife, a pending paternity case for failure to pay child support, and his use of drugs and alcohol before and after the beating.

Assistant City Atty. Don Vincent, the lead attorney for the defense, said that because King has claimed severe emotional damage, his lifestyle is fair game. “The city has agreed to pay damages, not inflated damages, but real damages,” he said.

King’s attorneys accused the defense of resorting to personal attacks because they cannot refute the overwhelming medical testimony that King has suffered permanent mental and physical damage.

“It’s the type of tactic used on a person who brings charges of rape,” said Federico Castela Sayre, one of King’s attorneys. “You assault the victim.”

Wednesday morning, before jury members took their seats, King’s attorneys attempted to block a request by the defense to question King about whether he failed to make child-support payments for an 11-year-old daughter. King’s attorneys said the information would prejudice the jury against their client, but the defense countered that King’s stress results from more than just the beating.

Ultimately, U.S. District Judge John G. Davies agreed to allow the questioning, saying that King’s life has “become an open book.”

In the jury’s presence, the defense asked King about several well-publicized incidents, including the time he picked up a “transvestite” in Hollywood and tried to flee police. He explained that he had thought the police officers were trying to rob him and that “I didn’t know (he) was a transvestite.”

Responding to a defense question, King said he never beat his wife, who had called police and complained he was throwing her clothes out of a closet. King admitted using cocaine once, and he said he tested positive for heroin once only because he had taken Percodan, a prescription pain killer.

King testified Wednesday that he pleaded guilty and went to prison for robbery in 1989 because he could not afford a lawyer to fight the charge. Although he was accused of robbing and assaulting a grocer with a tire iron, King said he was not at fault. He said the grocer attacked him after he attempted to walk out of the store after paying for some items with $5 in food stamps.

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A scuffle followed, King said, and the grocer attacked him with the tire iron.

“I picked up some pies off a pie rack and was throwing them at him,” King said.

“So you pleaded guilty, served two years in prison and three years of parole for throwing pies?” asked defense attorney Michael Stone, who represents former Officer Laurence M. Powell.

“That’s not what I was convicted of,” King said.

King was on probation for the armed robbery when he was stopped for speeding and beaten by four Los Angeles police officers.

The city has admitted liability and has offered to pay King $1.25 million for his injuries--a figure rejected by King’s attorneys. King also is seeking punitive damages from several defendants, including former Officers Stacey C. Koon and Powell,who are serving 30-month sentences in federal prison after a conviction in U.S. District Court for violating King’s civil rights.

Powell, Koon and former Officers Theodore J. Briseno and Timothy E. Wind were acquitted of nearly all assault charges in a state criminal trial, touching off three days of riots in Los Angeles. Briseno and Wind also were acquitted in the federal trial.

King’s attorneys are expected to call Briseno or Wind to testify today.