Edition: U.S. / Global


By RICHARD W. STEVENSON, Special to The New York Times
Published: March 20, 1991

Rodney G. King, whose beating at the hands of Los Angeles police officers on March 3 may long be linked in the public's minds to police brutality, is being described by friends and relatives as quiet and gentle.

Yet Mr. King, a 25-year-old high school dropout, pleaded guilty 13 months ago to robbing a grocer of $200. Mr. King, who wielded a tire iron during the robbery, was sentenced to two years in jail and was released on parole in December.

Two years ago he was convicted on a misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct for soliciting a prostitute. He paid a $352 fine and was placed on probation for one year.

Today a lawyer for Mr. King said Mr. King would seek a $56 million legal award for the beating, videotaped by a witness who was nearby. The lawyer, Steven Lerman, said the figure represented $1 million for each blow struck by the police officers. Mr. Lerman said at a news conference that Mr. King, who remains hospitalized with extensive injuries suffered in the beating, is still afraid that police officers might come after him again.

"I fear the police," Mr. Lerman quoted Mr. King as saying. Mr. King's lawyers have declined all requests to interview him since March 6, when Mr. King held a brief news conference.

In the aftermath of the beating of Mr. King, who is black, by a group of white police officers, a police sergeant and three officers have been indicted, and a Federal investigation of police brutality around the nation has begun.

Mr. King had initially said he did not consider the incident racially motivated. But asked today if Mr. King now believed race was a factor in the incident, Mr. Lerman quoted Mr. King as saying: "I'm scared to say that. I don't want to start a riot."

Mr. Lerman said he planned to file lawsuits on Mr. King's behalf in county and Federal courts. A Model Worker

Mr. King was unemployed at the time of the beating, but said he had a construction job lined up, and a former employer described him as a model worker.

Mr. King is married. He and his wife, Crystal, live with their two young children and some of Mrs. King's relatives in a neatly tended house on a palm-lined street in Altadena, 10 miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles.

Mr. King's friends and family say he is not violent or menacing, despite his criminal record. After pleading guilty in the robbery case last year, he wrote to the judge in June seeking to have his sentence reduced.

"Give me another chance, your honor," Mr. King's letter said. "I have a good job and I have two fine kid who wish me home. I have so much at stake to lose if I don't get that chance. My job and my family awaits me so please reconsider your judgment, your honor. The sky my witness and God knows."

A relative who answered the door at Mr. King's home today said he is kind.

"All I can say is that he is a very nice guy," said the relative, who declined to identify herself. "He's always willing to help around the house." Mr. King's Injuries

Mr. King remains hospitalized, recovering from what his doctors said were nine skull fractures, a shattered eye socket and cheekbone, a broken leg, a concussion, injuries to both knees and nerve damage that left his face partly paralyzed.

Mr. King has spoken publicly only once since the beating. At the brief news conference three days after the incident, Mr. King -- his face bruised, an eye swollen half closed and a leg in a cast -- said he had done nothing to provoke the beating.

"I was scared," he said. "I was scared for my life. So I laid down real calmly and took it like a man."

The opening seconds of the videotape of the incident show Mr. King jumping up and trying to spin away from the police officers, but it is unclear whether he had been beaten before then. The videotape does not show any evidence that Mr. King resisted attempts by the police to handcuff and arrest him.

Mr. King denied the contention of the police that he was stopped after a high-speed chase, although he acknowledged that he might have been speeding "a little bit." The police said they do not plan to file any charges against Mr. King in the case. No Other Trouble

Parole officers said Mr. King had not been in any trouble since being released from jail in December.

Mr. King has not given a public account of where he and his two passengers, Bryant Allen and Freddie Helms, were going the night of the beating. John C. Burton, a lawyer for Mr. Allen, said the three men were longtime friends and that they had gone for a drive, perhaps to a park where Mr. King used to go with his father. Mr. Burton said he did not know where the park was.

Mr. Allen and Mr. Helms have declined to be interviewed.

The robbery committed by Mr. King occurred in November 1989 in Monterey Park, a predominantly Asian community east of downtown Los Angeles. According to testimony at a court hearing and an interview with Tae Suck Baik, the victim, Mr. King walked into the store and asked if it accepted food stamps.

When told that it did, Mr. King bought gum, then pulled a tire iron from under his jacket, told Mr. Baik to open the cash register and reached in to take the cash. When Mr. King reached for some checks in the register, Mr. Baik grabbed his arm, and the two men began fighting. Mr. Baik picked up a small metal rod and hit Mr. King several times. Mr. King hit Mr. Baik with a small bread rack, but did not swing the tire iron.

Mr. King ran out of the store, jumped into his white Hyundai -- the same one he was driving the night of the beating -- and sped away. Mr. Baik wrote down the license plate number.

A week later the police searched Mr. King's car and found a check from Mr. Baik's store. Mr. King was arrested, and he pleaded guilty three months later.

Rodney G. King at a news conference on March 6 after beating. (Roger Sandler for The New York Times)