CRISIS IN THE LAPD: THE RODNEY KING BEATING : Lomax Defends Memo Release, Says She Will Not Resign Post

Embattled Police Commissioner Melanie Lomax said Monday that she did nothing improper in giving city legal memos to a civil rights group, is not biased against Police Chief Daryl F. Gates, and will not resign.

Ending five days of silence on the controversy over the memos, Lomax began a vigorous counterattack, accusing her critics of singling her out “for political reasons on totally wild charges.”

“I have not, in any way, in my judgment, damaged the credibility of the Police Commission,” Lomax said in an interview.

“I will not resign and I will not give in to political pressure and these calls for my resignation.”

Lomax said she believes she has the support of Mayor Tom Bradley, who has refused to publicly discuss Lomax since it was disclosed in court last Wednesday that she had given two confidential city attorney’s memos to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which is seeking Gates’ removal.

Lomax said she plans to go before the Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday to answer questions about the release of the memos.

Over the past week, Lomax has become a focus for City Council anger over the treatment of Gates in the aftermath of the videotaped beating of Rodney G. King.

In a series of actions Friday, council members asked City Atty. James K. Hahn for an opinion whether the commission is biased and should be barred from deciding on Gates’ future. Lomax was singled out by Councilman Hal Bernson, who charged that “she cannot be objective.”

Hahn is expected to deliver his opinion to the council in time for its meeting today.

Councilman Joel Wachs on Friday asked that Lomax appear before the council to answer questions about the confidential memos. Council President John Ferraro asked the city’s Ethics Commission to investigate whether she violated the city’s ethics code by releasing confidential information.

In a guest column written for The Times’ Op-Ed page, Lomax said: “I am not dishonest and I did nothing improper in releasing legal opinions to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.”

She denied that she had already taken a position on Gates’ future, adding that that would depend on the results of a commission’s investigation of the chief.

“Criticism of conduct and demands for accountability are not bias,” Lomax said. “Calling for a full and fair investigation . . . is not the same as prejudging what results should flow from such an investigation.”

The opinions contained no confidential information about the chief, Lomax said. Instead, they analyzed the legal basis for the commission’s authority to place the chief on paid administrative leave, she said.

She said it was the commission’s prerogative, as the client, to release the memos “to anyone it chose.” Lawyers, not clients, are prohibited from disclosing confidential information, she added.

“My conduct has been mischaracterized in an effort to discredit me personally, to silence a vocal critic of police misconduct,” Lomax said. The commission voted April 4 to put Gates on a 60-day paid administrative leave but the City Council voted the next day to reinstate the chief through a legal maneuver. The SCLC and other civil rights groups filed a lawsuit the following week backing the Police Commission’s action.

In her column, Lomax said that the object of the SCLC’s lawsuit was not to oust Gates, but to establish the authority of the Police Commission in relation to the City Council.

One of the chief criticisms of Lomax’s conduct in the controversy surrounding the memos stems from a television interview in which she appeared to deny leaking the documents to the SCLC.

In an interview last month with a reporter for KNBC-TV, Lomax was asked if she had given the memos to civil rights groups in the case. “No,” Lomax said. “And I think the charge that I have, I’d like to see the evidence of it.”

In her column, Lomax said the reporter used “10 to 15 seconds” from a five-minute interview. In the context of the entire interview, she said, it was “clear” that she denied releasing “confidential” documents.

“It was never my intention to deny giving these opinions to SCLC, only to refute the characterization of them as unauthorized disclosures,” Lomax said.

Meanwhile, sources said a showdown could be near in a dispute between Lomax and Police Commission President Dan Garcia, who have been at odds over the handling of the Gates matter. Several sources said Garcia was considering resigning from the commission today unless Lomax resigned. Attempts to reach him were unsuccessful.

A source said there has been animosity between them since Lomax was appointed to the commission late last year.

Garcia has expressed concern that Lomax’s actions give Gates’ attorneys ammunition to challenge the impartiality of the commission and may be a legal basis to remove the commission from decisions about Gates.

If Garcia resigns, Lomax said in the interview, “it would not cause me to re-examine my decision that I will not resign and I will not give in to the political pressure.

“I believe that the mayor will support me, and I don’t believe that the mayor believes I have done anything wrong.”

In other developments Monday, a judge began ruling on 30 pretrial motions--a four-foot high stack of papers--filed by prosecutors and defense attorneys for four police officers charged in the King beating incident.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Bernard J. Kamins denied a defense motion to dismiss the charges because four Taser stun gun darts shot at King were thrown away by nurses at Pacifica Hospital in Sun Valley, where King received emergency treatment after the March 3 beating.

Kamins said he does not view the loss of the darts as crucial, but he promised to reconsider the issue if defense attorneys can prove that forensic tests on the darts could determine whether the Taser gun was working during the beating.

The judge added that the Taser motion shows “a lot of gall” on the part of the defense because the same police who are decrying the destruction of evidence were present when the darts were removed from King’s clothing and could have preserved them.

“The officers charged here were not aware that a videotape had been made when they were at the hospital,” the judge said. “If they thought Taser darts were important to the case of Rodney King, they should have preserved them. They did not know then that they were defendants.”

The defense has argued that the police struck King with batons because he did not respond to the Taser darts, suggesting to them that he was under the influence of PCP. Some eyewitnesses told the Los Angeles County Grand Jury that King did not respond to the darts, while others said the electrical jolt knocked King to his knees.

Meanwhile, the judge agreed to allow prosecutors to add a special allegation of willful infliction of great bodily injury against two of the defendants, Officers Laurence M. Powell and Timothy Wind.

Kamins threw out a charge against Sgt. Stacey C. Koon, their supervisor at the scene, of inflicting great bodily injury, saying there is no evidence that he personally inflicted any injuries and that he may have been “overcharged.” The action reduces the maximum sentence Koon could face by three years.

Koon was not present in court Monday. His attorney, Darryl Mounger, produced a “certificate of disability” from Kaiser Hospital, saying that his client is bedridden with pneumonia until May 20.

The trial is scheduled to begin Monday, but a continuance is likely.

Hearings on the pretrial motions are expected to last several days, and prosecutors have expressed concern, in a written brief to the judge, about his appointment of “standby counsel” to represent Powell.

Powell’s attorney, Michael Stone, is tied up in another police misconduct case through next month. If the judge forces Powell to go to trial with a substitute lawyer, prosecutors said they fear an appellate court could reverse a conviction if it is determined that Powell’s right to counsel was violated.

Kamins also ruled that the defendants were not being unfairly prosecuted because they are white police officers. He disputed a defense contention that Officer Theodore Briseno, a Latino, was singled for prosecution while a black officer, who Briseno’s lawyer said acted similarly at the scene of the beating, went uncharged.

The four officers were indicted less than two weeks after the beating on charges of assault with a deadly weapon and use of excessive force under color of authority. Koon and Powell were also charged with filing a false police report. Also, Koon is charged with being an accessory after the fact; however, Kamins said Monday that Koon cannot be convicted of being both a principal in the crime and an accessory.

Times staff writer Lois Timnick contributed to this story.