Battle Likely Over Officers’ Files : Police: The four indicted in Rodney King beating probably will ask the court to block release of their personnel records to an outside commission.

Four Foothill Division police officers indicted in the Rodney G. King beating are expected to file suit in an attempt to block the commission investigating the Los Angeles Police Department from obtaining their personnel files, attorneys in the case said Friday.

The Independent Commission on the Los Angeles Police Department has asked for more than 1 million pages of documents as part of its unprecedented review of police brutality, including use-of-force reports and officers’ personnel files.

Assistant City Atty. Linda Lefkowitz said her office will agree on Tuesday to temporarily exempt the four officers from the commission’s sweeping request--but only until a hearing is held on the matter. That way, Lefkowitz said, the commission can carry on the rest of its investigation and attorneys will have time to prepare for another complicated legal case that has sprouted from King’s beating.

Eventually, the city will argue that the four indicted officers should not be treated any differently than other LAPD officers, and that their files should be made available to the commission because of the “public interest in a full and complete inquiry into this matter,” Lefkowitz said.

She added: “We have been assured that the commission and its staff understands very clearly the need to review these cases under a measure of confidentiality and intend to ensure that throughout the process.”

The attorney expected to file suit on behalf of the four officers could not be reached for comment Friday.

Also concerned about the release of personnel files is the police officers’ union, the Police Protective League, whose attorney said Friday she is trying to work out an arrangement in which officers’ names would be deleted from files turned over to the commission.

“Everybody quakes at the idea of having his personnel records opened to public inspection, which is what this could amount to,” said attorney Diane Marchant, who has been hired by the league to represent some of the officers who were present during King’s beating.

“We understand that the commission has a tremendous number of attorneys and paralegals who are going to have access to these files,” Marchant said. “I’m not saying we don’t trust them, but that’s an awful lot of people to have access and makes it awfully hard to control the information.”