Powell Finishes Sentence; Koon to Be Released Today

Former Los Angeles Police Officer Laurence M. Powell, a defendant in the Rodney King beating, was officially released from federal custody Wednesday after serving more than two years in prison, a halfway house and home confinement.

Co-defendant Stacey C. Koon, an ex-LAPD sergeant, is scheduled to be released today. Details of Koon’s confinement have been kept secret since an apparent attempt on his life while he was in a halfway house.

Both men could be sent back into custody for as long as five more years, depending on the outcome of a U.S. Supreme Court hearing Jan. 9. The high court has agreed to consider whether the trial judge erred in straying from federal guidelines in giving 2 1/2-year sentences that critics said were too lenient.