| In the interest of speed and timeliness, this story is fed directly from the Associated Press newswire and may contain spelling or grammatical errors. |
Rodney King pleads innocent to driving under influence of PCP
Friday June 20, 2003FONTANA, Calif. (AP) Rodney King, whose videotaped beating by police officers sparked the deadly Los Angeles riots of 1992, pleaded innocent Thursday to three misdemeanor charges filed after his SUV slammed into a utility pole.
King, who suffered a fractured pelvis and cracked ribs in the crash, limped into Superior Court, where he pleaded innocent to one count each of reckless driving, driving under the influence of PCP and being under the influence of PCP. He was ordered to return to court July 9 for a pretrial hearing.
Police said King raced through a Rialto intersection at more than 100 mph in his new SUV on April 13 before losing control of the car, striking a utility pole, careening into a fence and hitting a house. Authorities said tests revealed he had a ``significant amount'' of PCP in his system.
Outside court, King acknowledged he ``may have been speeding a bit'' but denied being under the influence of drugs or alcohol. He said he lost control of the car when he hit potholes on a poorly maintained street in Rialto, where he now lives.
``When I hit those potholes it was all she wrote,'' he said.
King had been pulled over for speeding in Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley in 1991 when he was beaten by police officers who said he acted menacingly and refused to follow their orders. A bystander videotaped four white Los Angeles officers pummeling King, who is black, with their nightsticks and feet and shooting him with stun-gun darts.
After a jury acquitted the officers in 1992, riots broke out across Los Angeles and lasted four days, leaving 55 people dead and more than 2,000 injured. The mayhem caused $1 billion in property damage.
King received a $3.8 million settlement from Los Angeles in 1994.
He had several run-ins with the law in the years that followed and was sentenced to 90 days in jail and four years probation in 1999 for spousal abuse. In 2001 he pleaded no contest to indecent exposure and being under the influence of PCP and was sentenced to a year in a drug treatment center.
King told reporters Thursday his year in drug rehabilitation helped him turn his life around, adding he's working on an autobiography and a rap album. He plans to name the latter ``Rodney King, The Living Legend.''
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