Raymond Masai Hewitt

The funeral of Raymond (Masai) Hewitt, a former leader of the Black Panther Party who died last week of a heart attack, turned into a reunion of sorts Thursday for people who belonged to what the late FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover once called "the most dangerous and violence-prone of all extremist groups." About 50 former Panthers were among the more than 200 mourners in Trinity Baptist Church on Jefferson Boulevard in Southwest Los Angeles for their fallen comrade's funeral service.

The funeral of Raymond (Masai) Hewitt, a former leader of the Black Panther Party who died last week of a heart attack, turned into a reunion of sorts Thursday for people who belonged to what the late FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover once called "the most dangerous and violence-prone of all extremist groups." About 50 former Panthers were among the more than 200 mourners in Trinity Baptist Church on Jefferson Boulevard in Southwest Los Angeles for their fallen comrade's funeral service.

Ester Soriano, 61, a Filipino American civil rights activist who was the jury forewoman in the civil damages trial of Rodney G. King, died April 3 at a Los Angeles hospital of complications from liver cancer surgery, said her sister, Emily Deitrich. King, who was black, was beaten by Los Angeles Police Department officers in 1991, an incident that would help spark riots the next year after the officers were acquitted. He brought a civil action against the city. Soriano facilitated a discussion between jurors who were split on whether King should get significant punitive damages.

Her fellow jurors saw her as the voice of reason, a 48-year-old widow and skilled mediator who steered them toward consensus. Ester Soriano-Hewitt knew she had a more complex role: juggling her responsibilities as forewoman with strongly held personal beliefs forged by her late husband's anguished past. That conflict remained a private burden as she guided the thorny deliberations that decided Rodney G. King's civil lawsuit.