=*=-_ NEWS DIGEST aSss
Lawyers uncover every angle, argument in King trial
LOS ANGELES — It’s a different court in
a different town, but the key question is the
same: Did the four officers who beat Rodney
King abide by police rules in subduing him or
did they beat him to do him harm?
Lawyers pulled out all the stops in a two
month trial in which prosecutors maintained
that the white officers not only used excessive
force in the beating of King, a black motorist,
but did so intentionally.
Nearly a year after a state jury in suburban
Simi Valley acquitted the officers on most
assault charges, setting off an explosion of
rioting in Los Angeles, the hot potato that has
left a city unnerved is in the hands of a federal
jury deciding whether King’s civil rights were
violated.
Before the case went to the jury Saturday
afternoon, the panel was warned by U.S. Dis
trict Judge John G. Davies lo ignore “any
exiemal consequences of your verdict’’
Deliberations, which lasted about 21/2 hours
Saturday, didn’t resume until noon Sunday to
allow jurors to attend Easter services.
The defense introduced new technological
evidence and offered colorful courtroom dem
onstrations. Prosecutors were no less-dramatic
in calling civilian witnesses who gave emo
tional accounts of the beating to remind jurors
how horrible the scene appeared on March 3,
1991.
If convicted, the officers face up lo 10 years
in prison and $250,0(X) in fines.
The opponents in this civil rights trial essen
tially put on two cases: the emotional case and
the factual one.
On the emotional angle, the government
called King to the stand for the first time lo tell
of his pain as officers beat and shocked him
with an electronic stun gun. “I was just trying to
stay alive,” he said.
In final arguments, Justice Department at
torney Barry Kowalsk i acknowledged that K i ng
had little to add factually.
“The government called Rodney King to
testify not bccauseJic has a perfect recollection
of this incident,” he said.
“We called him to show you the one thing
that the defense doesn’t want to admit, that
Rodney King is a human being, that he has
rights like everyone else. Rodney King is not
some PCP-crazcd maniac.”
In the factual arguments, prosecutors showed
the videotape of King’s beating and had a Los
Angeles Police Department use-of-forcc ex
pert analyze the officers’ actions.
Sgl. Mark Coma, head of physical training
and self-defense at the city Police Academy
said Powell should have slopped beating King
after his baton blows knocked King to the
ground.
About 32 seconds into the videotaped beat
ing, Conta said all blows and kicks by the
defendants were unreasonable.
The defense’s emotional case hinged on
courtroom demonstrations — two policemen
rolling around on the floor to show how King
could have grabbed an officer’s gun, an attor
ney swinging a baton and Sgl. Stacey Koon
taking the stand to accept responsibility for his
officer’s actions.
“He was very dangerous,” Koon said. “This
individual had Hulk-like strength. If my offic
ers engaged him he could force it into a deadly
force situation.”
Israel seals occupied territories
JERUSALEM — Cabinet minis
ters endorsed Prime Minister Yitzhak
Rabin’s plans Sunday to keep the
occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip
sealed indef nitely and sharply cut the
Palestinian work force in Israel.
Rabin believes a separation of the
two areas is vital to curb violence and
win support among Israelis for future
concessions in Middle East peace
talks.
The closure, imposed March 31
after a wave of Arab-Isracli attacks,
bars 1.8 million Palestinians from
entering Israel and dealt a harsh eco
nomic blow to both sides.
The occupied territories were
sealed during mostof the Persian Gulf
War, and have been shut periodically
during limes of unrest.
Wages from 120,000 Palestinian
laborers in Israel account for half the
income of Gaza and one-third the
income of the West Bank. Israeli
employers, meanwhile, depend on
Arabs to fills many low-level jobs.
On Sunday, the Cabinet decided to
review the closure weekly and inject
more money into the territories to
compensate for the lost jobs.
In another development, aides to
Rabin said he would meet Wednes
day with President Hosni Mubarak of
Egypt in the Egyptian city of Ismai 1 iya
to try to work out problems hindering
the resumption of peace talks, sched
uled to restart April 20 in Washing
ton.
A key issue will be the participa
tion of Palestinians, who pulled out of
the U.S.-sponsored talks after Israel
deported about 400 alleged Muslim
militants to south Lebanon in Decern-,
ber.
On Saturday, Palestinian leader
Faisal Husseini said an Israeli prom
ise to "return all deportees was no
longer a condition to resume negotia
tions. The Palestinians have not, how
ever, announced they were returning
to the talks.
Palestinian peace negotiators, ad
dressing the closure of the territories,
complained Israel unilaterally decided
issues that should be negotiated in the
Washington talks on Palestinian au
tonomy.
“Rabin is imposing his vision of
the transitional period regardless of
our views,” Ghassan Khatib said.
Israel’s hawkish government op
ponents also oppose a long-term clo
sure, saying it is the first step toward
Palestinian independence.
U.S. will keep eye on Russian subs
WASHINGTON — The United
States docs not intend to end its de
cades-long surveillance of Russian
submarines as long as they carry stra
tegic nuclear missiles, administration
officials say.
“No, no,” one senior Defense De
partment official replied last week
when asked whether such a move was
under consideration.
A U.S. and a Russian submarine
collided last month in international
waters off Russia’s Kola Peninsula,
the second such encounter in two
years.
The USS Grayling is a nuclear
powered attack sub. The Russian ves
sel apparently was a Della III class,
which carries 16 SS-N-18 interconti
nental missiles, each with up to seven
nuclear warheads.
At last weekend’s Vancouver sum
mit, President Clinton apologized for
the mishap, calling it “a regrettable
thing, and I don’t want it to ever
happen again.”
Clinton also said he was ordering a
review of the collision and would
open talks with the Russians “to dis
cuss whether the policy should be
changed and where we should go from
here.
Russian President Boris Yeltsin
said he would send Gen. Pavel
Ghtchev, the minister of defense for
the Russian federation, to Washing
ton to “discuss the entire gamut of
issues of this sort, including close
passage of submarines, so that such
incidents might be avoided in the
future.”
Clinton’s comments appeared to
open the door for limiting the stealthy
cat-and-mouse missions that have
been a mainstay of Cold War subma
rine activity for decades. But subma
rine experts argue it is vital for the
United States to keep track of Russia’s
nuclear missile submarines,given the
political instability in that country.
U.S. attack submarines arc sup
posed to shadow the missile subs with
the intent of torpedoing them it war
breaks out — even though that has
become a remote possibility with the
demise of the Cold War.
A senior U.S. official, who spoke
on condition of anonymity, said the
practice of shadowing Russian sub
marine movements is in line with
Clinton's request.
“Grachev is going to come, and we
arc going to talk about it,” he said.
Although for security reasons he
was unable to discuss exactly what
changes might be made, the official
said there “arc things that you could
do that arc well short of telling the
Soviets where you arc.”
“There arc certain ‘rules of the
road’ that you can observe,” he said.
“There arc ways to handle the prob
lem.”
The official refused to say whether
the surveillance could be less aggres
sive, or whether the subs could be
monitored from a longer distance.
Easter offers little
for war-tom Bosnia
SARAJEVO, Bosnia
Herzegovina — Cathedral bells
rang and candles of hope were lit,
but Easier Sunday brought little
respite in Bosnia’s war as Serbs
hindered U.N. aid deliveries and a
truce in the east faltered.
NATO airmen spent the hoi iday
preparing to enforce a U.N.-im
posed ban on military flights over
Bosnia. The mission, which begins
Monday, gives pilots authority to
shoot at violators.
Bosnian Serbs had offered a
cease-fire around the Muslim en
clave of Srebrenica, but advanced
on the battered town before the
truce took effect, U.N. officials
said.
As theccasc-firc deadline passed
Saturday, two mortar shells landed
near U.N. aid trucks being unloaded
and another five shells slammed
into a valley just outside the town,
said Cmdr. Barry Frcwcr, Sarajevo
spokesman for U.N. peacekeepers.
No casualties were reported.
Frcwcr said Srebrenica was rela
tively calm early Sunday, but
stressed that U.N. military observ
ers could not monitor outlying ar
eas.
More than 20 local and nation
wide truces have failed to end
Bosnia’s war, which has left at
least 134,000 people dead or miss
ing since majority Muslims and
Croats voted to break away from
Serb-dominated Yugoslavia last
year.
Tension was also high in
Sarajevo after Serb fighters shifted
anti-aircraft artillery around the
airport on Saturday, forcing U.N.
- it
(The Serbs) have
been very tight,
belligerent and
obstinate, making it
very difficult for our
operations.
~Frewer
U.N. spokesman
-ft -
officials to suspend relief flights.
Serbs arc outraged at the discov
ery of ammunition aboard a U.N.
aid convoy headed for a Muslim
held Sarajevo suburb, and by NATO
plans to enforce the no-fly /one.
Since the ammunition was dis
covered Thursday, Frewer said,
Serbs had been increasingly hin
dering U.N. aid deliveries. On Sat
urday, they blocked a regular U.N.
shuttle service for supplies and
personnel between Sarajevo and
logistics headquarters in Kiseljak
to the west.
“They have been very tight, bel
ligerent and obstinate, making it
very difficult for our operations,”
Frewer said.
An empty aid convoy leaving
northeastern Tuzla on Saturday
came under mortar fire from an
unidentified position, Frewer said.
No aid workers were hurt, but four
children nearby were injured.
In Sarajevo, about 1,000 ethnic
Croats gathered at dusk Saturday at
the Sacred Heart Cathedral for Eas
ter prayers. Cathedral bells rang
and people lit candles as a symbol
of hope and new life.
I-World Wire
Water problem polluting city’s humor
MILWAUKEE — The water
contamination that has sickened
thousandsof residents hasn’t robbed
Dec Lenz of her sense of humor.
Boiling contaminated tap water
at the downtown restaurant she
manages makes plenty of extra
work. But her customers at Turner
Hall, famous for fish fries, cope
with the water crisis by joking, she
said. And the laughter is infectious.
“They say, 'We won’t drink the
water, we’re here todrink the beer,”’
Lcn/. said.
“People ask you, ‘How’s your
diarrhea?’ It’s almost become a
status symbol to have it twice,’’ she
said, having had that honor.
Mayor John Norquist last week
urged residents to boil drinking and
cooking water until at least
Wednesday as the city seeks to
pinpoint the source of a germ that
had contaminated the municipal
water supply.
Inmates riot at Ohio prison, 7 injured
LUL-Ao viLLb, Ohio — In
mates rioted Sunday ala maximum
security prison in south-central
Ohio, injuri ng at least seven guards
and taking others hostage, authori
ties said.
It wasn’t immediately known
how many guards were being held
or how many prisoners were in
volved in the disturbance at the
Southern Ohio Correctional Facil
ity, said Sharron Komegay, spokes
woman for the Ohio Department of
Rehabilitation and Correction.
Scioto County Sheriffs Senior
Dispatcher Phil Malone described
the disturbance as a “full-scale riot”
at the prison, which houses some of
the state’s most dangerous inmates.
The disturbance at the L Block
started about 3 p.m. Sunday with a
few prisoners, but other prisoners
became involved, Kornegay said.
The unit houses about 761 prison
ers, but not all those inmates were
involved, she said.
■ • -- * —I
I Waco or ‘Wacko’? Texas city may be marked
WACO, Texas — Allison Key
longs for the days when talk with her
customers at Cowtown Boots was
about who might win the rodeo or
even something as commonplace as
the weather.
She fears Waco will forever be lied
to David Korcsh, a religious zealot
who has been holed up with his fol
lowers in an out-of-town compound
since a Feb. 28 shootout in which four
federal agents and at least two cult
members were killed.
When Koresh was struggling as a
• rock singer in the m id-1980s, he once
wrote a song dubbed ‘The Mad Man
in Waco.”
Although the song wasn’t about
himself, it’s a prophetic metaphor for
r -—
- ii—
The longer this thing goes on, the more It’s driven
Into people s minds that Waco Is ‘Wacko.1
-Key
hairstylist
----
a storyline that has the Chamber of
Commerce cringing.
“For years to come, people arc
going to hear the name Waco and
think, Thai’s where that crazy guy
David Koresh, who thinks he is God,
lived,’” Ms. Key said.
‘‘The longer this thing goes on, the
more it’s driven into people’s minds
that Waco is 'Wacko.’”
w w
And the standoff has provided fod
der for late night television show hosts’
humor. “God would never live in
Waco,” David Letterman cackled in
one of his lop 10 lists.
A joke on Jay Leno’s “Tonight
Show’’ suggested authorities should
just put a fence around Koresh’s
sprawling cull compound and call it a
prison, instead of waiting for him and
his followers to surrender.
___ —
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