CALIFORNIA v POWELL
... They were driving at very high speeds when noticed by a husband-and-wife team of the California Highway Patrol, Tim and Melanie Singer. ... Koon, who had arrived in the police cars along with Officers Laurence Powell, Timothy Wind, Theodore Briseno, and Rolando Solano, told Melanie Singer to “Stand back. ... What he recorded was King getting to his feet and making a charge in the direction of Officer Powell. ... Powell also typed a message “I haven’t beaten anyone this bad in a long time”. ... But later the attorney for Briseno tried to characterize Powell as "out of control" to try and get his client off as trying to stop the beating. Melanie Singer stated that Powell came up to King and in a matter of seconds, he took out his baton, and with a power swing struck him across the top of his cheekbone, splitting the face from the top of his ear to his chin. ... Prosecutors brought up the notes wrote by Powell in his car and conversations held between Powell and King at the hospital. Powell compared the beating to "a good hardball game," and said that he had hit "quite a few home runs". ... Almost all of its evidence had focused on just two of the four officers, Koon and especially Powell. ... Laurence Powell told jurors that he was completely in fear for his life and scared to death that if King got back up, he was going to take his gun away from him. ... He made such statements as “Powell was out of control and had a look Id never seen before” and in “his opinion, the beating was excessive” and he “yelled to Powell to get the hell off King, but that Powell ignored him”, “It was like he moved, they hit him”, “I just didnt understand what was going on out there. ... In my belief Officer Powell was out of control.