Reginald O Denny

Fear of another riot played no role in verdicts reached in the Reginald O. Denny beating trial, the forewoman of the heavily criticized jury said Monday, but the lone alternate assailed the verdicts as an indication that "we are ruled by intimidation from a small group of people."

In the wake of numerous acquittals handed down last week by the Superior Court jury in the Reginald O. Denny beating trial, federal prosecutors are under public pressure to prosecute Denny's two assailants on civil rights charges. But scholars say there are numerous legal, practical and political problems that complicate the chances of successfully pursuing the case in federal court. Despite the comparisons that are constantly drawn to the police beating of Rodney G.

Once again, a jury has emerged with verdicts that pose a difficult question for the criminal justice system: Has outside pressure--either by activists or politicians or jurors armed with private agendas--tilted the outcome of Los Angeles' triumvirate of racially charged trials? That question was raised after last year's verdicts in Simi Valley, which some attributed to racist jurors.

When Orange County sheriff's deputies arrested six young men in the spearing of a San Clemente teen-ager last week, they booked them on suspicion of attempted murder. But when the Orange County district attorney's office filed formal charges three days later, the defendants were charged with felony assault, a decision that upset the victim's family members and many others, particularly in San Clemente.

Attorneys for Damian Monroe Williams requested Friday that his $580,000 bail be reduced to $35,000 because he was found not guilty of the charges that could have gotten him a life sentence in the Reginald O. Denny beating trial. Williams, who has been held since his arrest 17 months ago in the Los Angeles County Jail, was convicted of a reduced felony charge of simple mayhem for hitting Denny in the head with a brick.

The first juror to comment publicly on the Reginald O. Denny beating trial said Thursday that the verdicts were based on the evidence--not a concern that convictions might result in another riot. Asked about Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti's contention that jurors reached their verdicts more from a desire for peace than justice, the juror told KCAL-TV Channel 9: "He's dead wrong. He wasn't in the room with us. I don't think he should be speaking for us.

We've known them for a year and a half now, ever since they met at the intersection of Rage and Vengeance. We witnessed the horror through a television camera perched inside a helicopter. Our reaction was visceral. The victim, we soon were told, was named Reginald Denny. The prime suspect, we would later learn, was Damian Monroe Williams. From the start, this was a crime tinged by race and prosecution affected by politics. Police Chief Daryl F.

After two weeks at the center of a secret storm, jurors in the Reginald O. Denny beating trial announced Wednesday that they would say nothing about how they reached their decisions, leaving the city to guess about the debates that occasionally flared during deliberations.

In an emotional climax to one of the most racially charged chapters in Los Angeles history, a jury Wednesday acquitted Damian Monroe Williams of attempting to murder trucker Reginald O. Denny and deadlocked on the final assault charge facing Henry Keith Watson, who walked out of jail and into a city that was both jubilant and appalled. "It's a nice day out today, huh?"

Some believed that justice was served. Others thought political pressure and simple fear played a part in the controversial outcome of the Reginald O. Denny beating trial. Those varying opinions showed in the Van Nuys courthouse Wednesday as lawyers, just like others across Los Angeles, split in their reactions to the verdict. On Wednesday, Damian Monroe Williams, 20, one of the two young black men on trial for the attack on truck driver Reginald O. Denny during riots sparked by the Rodney G.