Fidel Lopez

Civil rights lawyers Monday made good on their promise to file claims against the city on behalf of nearly 1,800 people who say they were injured or had property damaged in the April-May rioting. The claims--which are expected to be rejected by the city attorney's office--ensure that the claimants will be able to file lawsuits in state courts if they choose to.

A man who videotaped the violence at a riot flash point testified Thursday that he saw several vehicles pelted with rocks and bottles as they raced through the Los Angeles intersection where Reginald O. Denny was beaten. Timothy A. Goldman, 34, said he saw a car struck by as many as 10 objects at the intersection of Florence and Normandie avenues on April 29, 1992. The vehicle was driven by a woman, a man was in the passenger seat and an infant was in the back, he said.

A bloodstained T-shirt recovered from the home of Damian Monroe (Football) Williams, a defendant in the attempted murder of Reginald O. Denny, is identical to one Williams is seen wearing on a videotape made of the attack, a Los Angeles police detective testified Thursday. The white shirt was found in a pile of dirty laundry at Williams' home when he was arrested.

After the reading of most of the verdicts Monday, people around the city commented: "We are elated with the fact that the jury came back and did not find guilt on the most serious crimes. Damian Williams will not be spending life in prison." --Don Jackson, spokesman for Damian Monroe Williams' family * "Our judicial system is running its course. Now is the time to look forward, not back. . . .

Eighteen months after being beaten unconscious at Florence and Normandie avenues, Reginald O. Denny said Monday he is "in total agreement" with verdicts in the trial of two of his attackers, adding: "Let's get on with life." In an interview with the TV newsmagazine "Inside Edition," the truck driver said he believes that Henry Keith Watson, who was convicted of a misdemeanor assault on Denny but acquitted of more serious charges, should be released from jail immediately.

Authorities arrested a consul general who allegedly sold forged Mexican passports and also broke up a gang in Tijuana that smuggled Central American aliens into the United States, officials said Wednesday. The government news agency Notimex said Fidel Alvarez Lopez, the Mexican consul general in Calexico, Calif., and two unidentified accomplices were taken Tuesday to Tijuana under heavy police escort. Notimex did not say when or where they were arrested.

A physician called as a defense witness Thursday may have bolstered the prosecution's case against one defendant accused of assaulting a contractor with a deadly weapon at Florence and Normandie avenues, a flash point of last year's riots. Dr. Irv Edwards, an emergency room physician who treated Fidel Lopez, testified Thursday that spray-paint may potentially cause death--an assertion that could support one charge against Damian Monroe Williams.

The Verdicts have left me confused and unsettled. I don't like the idea that Henry Watson and Damian Williams were acquitted of most of the charges stemming from the out-of-control violence last year at Florence and Normandie. The attack against Reginald Denny may have been the focal point of the trial, but I wanted a measure of justice for Fidel Lopez, a Latino immigrant who was attacked for no apparent reason.

Three amateur cameramen who videotaped looting and assaults on motorists near Florence and Normandie avenues last year testified Thursday that they could not identify any individuals photographed while committing crimes at the intersection. Their ground-level videotapes provide close-up footage of some victims and shots of two men prosecutors say are Damian Monroe Williams, 20, and Henry Keith Watson, 28, who are accused of trying to kill trucker Reginald O. Denny.