Staggering King Scared Him, Officer Says : LAPD: Witness likens scene to ‘a monster movie.’ His description of baton blows differs from earlier testimony.

SIMI VALLEY —  Twice belted over the head with a police baton and jolted with a stun gun, Rodney G. King conjured up “a scene from a monster movie” as he staggered, on his feet, his face convulsing, a California Highway Patrol officer testified Tuesday.

CHP Officer Timothy J. Singer, testifying against one former and three current Los Angeles police officers accused in the March 3, 1991, beating of King in Lake View Terrace, said he was frightened as King came toward him.

“There was the Taser (stun gun) and his being struck by the baton, and he was continuing to come in my direction,” Singer said. “It appeared as though his body weight was carrying him in my direction.”

Then Singer, with his own baton in hand, demonstrated how defendant Laurence M. Powell suddenly burst forward swinging his baton.

“The thought that came to my mind was, ‘How can he do this, striking Mr. King in the head?’ ” said Singer, a prosecution witness. “I knew it was against CHP policy to strike someone in the head because the result could be deadly.

“And I just knew it was wrong, and the thought went through me, ‘How could he be doing this?’ ”

Singer spent most of Tuesday on the witness stand. Prosecutors attempted to use his testimony to bolster that of his wife and patrol partner, CHP Officer Melanie Singer, that Powell struck King half a dozen times in the head after a 7.8-mile car chase in the San Fernando Valley.

But defense attorneys, particularly Michael Stone, who represents Powell, tried to focus on disparities in the testimony of the two CHP officers.

Melanie Singer testified that King was on his knees when he was hit in the head, but her husband said the black motorist was on his feet and in a “threatening” position when Powell delivered the first two blows to the head.

Melanie Singer also recalled that another officer on trial, Theodore J. Briseno, stepped in at one point and tried to stop the beating by grabbing Powell’s baton and “pushing it away.”

But Timothy Singer, asked about Briseno’s movement, answered: “I don’t remember it.”

Both Singers, however, agreed that a lengthy pursuit had preceded the beating. They described King driving at speeds of more than 115 m.p.h. on Interstate 210, and up to 80 m.p.h on surface streets.

They agreed that King was smiling when he first got out of his car. And they both stressed that the baton blows to the head were unnecessary.

But in the amateur videotape of the incident, in which images are at times fuzzy and distorted, the blows can be seen only as landing on or near King’s upper body.

Timothy Singer, under cross-examination by Stone, said baton blows to the head could be lethal or cause severe injuries.

But Stone produced photographs that show King with only one bruise on the right side of his face, and extensive injuries on his upper arm.

After the court recessed Tuesday, Stone said Powell swung his baton at King because he was threatened when King staggered forward, refusing to lie down as he was ordered.

“In Officer Powell’s perception,” the lawyer said, “he was coming right at him.”

But Stone said memories are fuzzy on whether King actually punched or kicked any of the officers that night, as Melanie Singer wrote in a CHP memorandum a day after the beating.

“I’m not even sure,” Stone said, “that Larry Powell could answer that.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. Terry White, the lead prosecutor in the case, noted that the jury was told “up front about Mr. King’s conduct and his lack of cooperation” in ignoring the officers’ commands to lie down at the scene.

“Timothy Singer said he was staggering. He may have been losing his balance. Now, we’ll have to wait and see what all the evidence shows,” White said.

CHP Officer Frank M. Schulz--who arrived on the scene as King, already handcuffed and hogtied, was being dragged away--testified briefly Tuesday. He said Melanie Singer later advised him that King had been struck in the head.

Powell, Briseno, Sgt. Stacey C. Koon and former Officer Timothy E. Wind have pleaded not guilty in the beating of King. The trial resumes this morning.