Suspects in Beating of Trucker Are Entitled to Bail, Families Say

Relatives of two suspects arrested in connection with the April 29 beating of truck driver Reginald O. Denny complained Saturday that the young men charged in that attack are being unfairly denied bail.

“This is the kind of stuff that creates more hatred and more violence,” said Joyce Watson, the mother of Henry Keith Watson, one of four men arrested last week in pre-dawn raids by FBI agents and the Los Angeles Police Department. “We can’t understand this.”

Henry Watson--along with Damian Monroe (Football) Williams and Antoine Eugene Miller--have been charged with attempted murder, mayhem, torture and robbery. A fourth suspect, Gary Williams, has been charged with robbery.

Denny, 36, was driving his sand-and-gravel truck through South Los Angeles hours after the not guilty verdicts were announced in the Rodney G. King beating trial. As millions watched on live television, Denny was pulled from his truck and brutally beaten. The four suspects were identified from videotapes of that attack.

In the neighborhood where the beating took place, residents draw many comparisons between that attack and the one inflicted on King last year. Many see the Denny case as a mirror image of the King beating--this time with a white victim and four black men charged--and family members of the suspects said in interviews Saturday that their relatives deserve the same treatment given the officers who beat King.

“It’s unjust that they don’t get treated the same,” said Mark Jackson, the older brother of Damian Williams. “How can they say that Laurence Powell deserves to be free until his trial while my brother has to stay in jail?”

In a statement he read to reporters Saturday afternoon, Jackson denounced violence and vowed political retaliation if the “L.A. 4” do not receive justice.

“If these African-American youngsters do not receive bail like the Caucasian police officers did in the Rodney King case, then all hell will break loose at the ballot box,” Jackson said

Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner, who is up for reelection next month, and U.S. Atty. Lourdes G. Baird, who is awaiting confirmation to federal judgeship, downplayed comparisons between the cases at a news conference last week. They said the Denny suspects should not be allowed to go free on bail because they represent a greater flight risk.

All four suspects in the Denny beating are being held in “super max,” the highest security classification in the county jail system. They all refused requests to be interviewed Saturday.

Several groups have begun to raise funds to pay for the legal defense of the suspects. The Nation of Islam has announced creation of one defense fund, and the families of the suspects have been asking their friends for support as well.

Meanwhile, Jackson told reporters Saturday that he had seen what he called the first flare-up in the Los Angeles rioting, and he blamed it on heavy-handed police tactics. According to Jackson, a 15-year-old boy named Shandal was arrested by officers at 71st Street and Normandie Avenue, one block from where Denny was beaten.

Jackson said Shandal, who was carrying a rock, was choked by officers, and when the boy’s mother tried to come to his aid she also was choked.

“That’s what got everything going,” Jackson said. “They made four arrests, and then they took off . . . People went wild.”