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                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, March 25, 1993                   TAG: 9303250176
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES                                LENGTH: Short

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DEFENDANT: RACE LED TO BEATING TACTIC

The sergeant who supervised Rodney King's beating testified Wednesday he was "inhibited" from using the outlawed carotid choke hold on King because the motorist was black.

As he dissected the videotape of the beating for jurors in his and three officers' civil rights trial, Sgt. Stacey Koon was asked by his attorney, Ira Salzman, "Why didn't you apply the choke hold?"

"The one thing inhibiting me here is Rodney King is black, and in Los Angeles the hoopla that surrounded doing away with the choke hold was the perception it had killed blacks," Koon said.

The Los Angeles Police Department barred the choke hold except as deadly force in 1982.

Koon insisted King "made the choice" to continue the beating when he refused to stay still and said King's behavior throughout the incident made him appear to be under the influence of PCP.

With intent a key issue in the federal civil rights case, Salzman frequently asked Koon about his intent in ordering more and more blows.

"The intent I had was to cripple him, to break bones, to make him unable to push off the ground. You can't push off the ground if your elbows are broken. You can't push off the ground if your knees are broken," Koon said. -

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