King in rehabilitation as fortune drains away

Los Angeles Daily News ^ | Danny Pollock, AP

[hole_n_one]

King in rehabilitation as fortune drains away

By Danny Pollock
Associated Press

Shadowed by trouble since uttering his famous "Can we all get along" plea, Rodney King will spend the 10th anniversary of the Los Angeles riots in a Pomona rehabilitation center.

Rodney King during a 1992 press conference. (A.P.)

The drug use and indecent exposure charges that sent him there are just the latest in a long string of legal entanglements for the man whose name will be forever linked to the race riots that left 54 people dead and caused $1 billion in property damage.

His constant run-ins with law enforcement have frustrated African-Americans who hoped he could have become something else, a hero in the struggle against police brutality. Instead, King seems to have reinforced the image many non-African-Americans held of him, as an incorrigible hoodlum.

"He's a tragic figure," said Renford Reese, a political science professor at California State Polytechnic University in Pomona, who has counseled King. "He had a chance to do great things but was shackled by missed opportunities ... He is literally oblivious to what his name means."

King is halfway through a 12-month sentence at the American Recovery Center after pleading guilty last October to three misdemeanor counts of being under the influence of PCP and one count of indecent exposure. Police say he exposed himself in a park.

In the decade since the riots, the soft-spoken janitor's son and former usher at Dodger Stadium has had repeated problems with alcohol, drugs and domestic violence.

His legal battles and short-lived effort to start a rap recording label have consumed most of the $3.8 million settlement he received from the city of Los Angeles for the March 3, 1991, beating at the hands of four white LAPD officers.

Between scrapes with the law, King, now 36, has tried to make his life better. He earned his high school-equivalency degree, honed his surfing skills and went to work for his brother's construction company.

He even moved from Pasadena to San Bernardino County to escape the spotlight, but it seemed he couldn't outrun his problems or his notoriety.

Reese once had King speak to his political science class.

"A black woman asked why he couldn't stay out of trouble," Reese recalled. "He didn't answer the question."

King did not respond to a written request for an interview sent to the rehabilitation center. His lawyer, Renee L. Campbell, said he was not granting interviews.

Acquaintances hope King can find a way to turn his life around at the center.

"The last time I talked to him, he was very determined to shake the monkey off his back," said attorney Antonio Bestard, who represented King in the drug and indecent exposure case.

Reese attributed King's recurring problems to a lack of positive support, especially among African-American organizations.

"They should have been the ones to embrace Rodney King," he said. "They should have known he would become an icon of racial reconciliation and police reform."

King's Arrests

Rodney King has had numerous run-ins with the law since his March 1991 beating by four white Los Angeles police officers:

• May 1991. Arrested on suspicion of trying to run down a police officer who allegedly saw a transvestite prostitute get into King's car in Hollywood. No charges filed.

• June 1992. Arrested after his wife called police during a domestic dispute. No charges filed.

• July 1992. Arrested on suspicion of drunken driving in Orange after backing up quickly and skidding to a halt in a parking lot. No charges filed.

• August 1993. Arrested on suspicion of drunken driving after backing his vehicle into a wall outside a nightclub in Los Angeles. Pleaded no contest, placed on three years probation, fined $1,500 and sentenced to community service.

• May 1995. Arrested in New Union Township, Pa., on suspicion of drunken driving after the vehicle got stuck in a muddy yard. Tried on charge of drunken driving despite conflicting information about who was behind the wheel. Acquitted by jury.

• July 1995. Booked for investigation of assault with a deadly weapon and domestic violence after allegedly using his car to try to run down his wife in Alhambra. Acquitted of those charges but convicted of misdemeanor hit-and-run and sentenced to 90 days in Los Angeles County Jail.

• June 1999. Pleaded guilty to three misdemeanor charges that he struck his 16-year-old daughter and her mother and vandalized property. Placed on four years probation and ordered to spend 90 days in San Bernardino County Jail.

• October 2001. Pleaded guilty to three misdemeanor counts of being under the influence of PCP and one count of indecent exposure. Ordered to spend one year at a live-in drug treatment center in Pomona.

[Pagey]

"...Rodney King will spend the 10th anniversary of the Los Angeles riots in a Pomona rehabilitation center..."

It's kind of disgusting that a couple TV stations here in L.A.,are showing "10 years later,10 yr. Anniversary(?)" programs.They're so awful now.It's not a G.D. "Anniv."!Everything bad has an "Anniv.".I'm really sick of that 'term'.

Not one of them will mention what has happened to this piece of dirt, a real sorry excuse for a human,Rodney King.As harsh as this sounds,what he should've done was gone to the doctor and received some "shock therapy" when he received all that money, maybe that would've made him lose his biases, or perhaps he would've used that $$$ for better purposes.Nah,what was I thinking,no way.What's he going to do after he gets out of Rehab now,GET A JOB? LOL at the sheer stupidity of humanity.Remember, It all started because "HE" was loaded and refused to stop the car!

[Rodney King]

It is proper etiquette to ping freepers when you post about them.

[hole_n_one]

My bad........

[rabidralph]

Just imagine the headlines if these people get reparations:

"Leroy S. Jenkins was arrested on vagrancy charges...Jenkins, who lost his reparations money by playing the lottery, was homeless, blah, blah, blah." It's a never-ending cycle with these people and Rodney King just proves that money will not make a difference in these people's lives.

[thathamiltonwoman]

54 people were killed for this man's sake.

[Thinkin' Gal]

King in rehabilitation as fortune drains away

"Elvis ain't dead... he just went home."

[PLK]

Fox News Channel had on the husband of the husband/wife team who actually videotaped the Reginald Denny beating. They said they feared for their lives because so many of the rioters had guns, they thought they would be shot. It was an act of courage for them to hang in there and get as close as they did so America could see what those animals were doing. There was a LOT more footage to that tape than was EVER shown by the lamestream media at the time of the beating. It was exponentially more horrifying to see the entire tape than the bits the presstitutes allowed us to see 10 years ago. Remember that? Endless showings of the cops trying to subdue Rodney while he repeatedly tried to get up; now we learn that there is more to the Reginald Denny tape than we knew.

The man said that at the time they could not understand why no other news teams seemed interested in videotaping what was going on in South Central L.A. ...... If I remember correctly, he also said he was not called to testify for the trial, or that his tape was not requested for the trial?? Am I dreaming that part? Does anyone else recall seeing that spot on Fox several days ago? I cannot even remember what show he was on - duh... having a senior moment, I guess.

[rockfish59]

this just proves that 'RAP-erations' won't help!!

[rockfish59]

LOL!
that's what Robert Zimmerman used to say!

[Shooter 2.5]

Those were brave people to shoot that video. The only video I ever saw was the helicopter view. Denny has my sympathy. Not some clown that can't tie his shoelaces without going on a bender.

[PLK]

Actually, it was the people who did the helicopter view that were on Fox. Apparently they got down very close, close enough to be within shooting range.

[Shooter 2.5]

Now I understand. That makes it more dangerous. It wouldn't take much for some fool to think he can take down a helicopter.

[LarryLied]

the $3.8 million settlement he received from the city of Los Angeles

Poverty does not cause crime.

[TN Republican]

Pull himself up by his own bootstraps? All he had to do was put his money in an S&P index fund and he would have had enough money on which to live the rest of his life. I guess it made more sense to put it into a rap label.

[blam]

"54 people were killed for this man's sake."

The number I remember is 62. I never heard anything about them either. Did you? Who were they and how did they die?

[Libloather]

Damion 'Football' Williams Surrenders: Suspect Involved In Reginald Denny Beating Booked For Murder
07/19/2000

Damion "Football" Williams surrendered Wednesday in connection with the murder of Grover Tinner, whose body was found in an alley. Williams, a 27-year-old known gang member, spent four years in prison for the 1992 beating of trucker Reginald Denny during the Los Angeles riots.

Police believe that drugs were related in the murder of Tinner, 43, CBS 2 News reported. "This morning, knowing that he was wanted, Damien Williams, Damian 'Football' Williams, surrendered with his attorney here at the 77th street station," LAPD Commander David Kalish said at a press conference.

Tinner's body was discovered just after midnight in an alley adjacent to 1749 W. Gage Ave. Witnesses told police that they heard gunshots in the alley. Williams was booked Wednesday without bail. Two other suspects, described as two African-American males in their early 20s, are also being sought by the LAPD, CBS 2 News reported.

[razorback-bert]

Many, especially in our universities, now are convinced that war(crime) always results from real, rather than perceived, grievances, such as the poverty arising out of the usual list of sins: colonialism, imperialism, racism and sexism

Victor Davis Hanson, a professor of Classics at California State University

[Salman]

Between scrapes with the law, King, now 36, has tried to make his life better. He earned his high school-equivalency degree, honed his surfing skills and went to work for his brother's construction company.

Honed his surfing skills? Way to go Rodney!

That's one stereotype out of the way. I never heard of an African American surfer dude before.

[Salman]

Poverty does not cause crime.

But the correlation is there. I'd say that crime causes poverty.

[JZoback]

Eight arrest or covictions!!!

I think this white guy (myself) would be sitting in prison by now, not at a fancy rehab clinic.