Denny Trial Judge Removed From Riot-Related Case

Superior Court Judge John W. Ouderkirk, who presided over the Reginald O. Denny beating case, lasted about five minutes Wednesday as the judge in the last unresolved case stemming from incidents at Florence and Normandie avenues at the start of the Los Angeles riots.

Ouderkirk had just begun a pretrial hearing in the case of a man accused of shooting at Denny’s truck, other vehicles and a gas pump on April 29, 1992, at the corner when one of the defendant’s lawyers objected to his presiding.

Chokwe Lumumba used his legal right to eliminate one judge in the case to ask for a reassignment. The prosecutor also gets a chance to remove a judge, but Deputy Dist. Atty. Kevin McCormick said he has no problem with the reassignment.

Ouderkirk obliged Lumumba and the case against Lance Parker, 28, was reassigned to Superior Court Judge Florence-Marie Cooper. Lumumba said he took the action because he believes Ouderkirk could not give his client a fair trial based on the judge’s actions in the trial last year of Damian Monroe Williams and Henry Keith Watson, whom a jury found guilty of some charges related to the beating of Denny and others.