Stacey Koon

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Stacey C. Koon was a Sergeant with the Los Angeles Police Department. On March 3, 1991, after a high speed chase, he and four other officers -- Laurence Powell, Timothy Wind, Theodore Brisenio and Rolando Solano -- attempted to arrest Rodney King. King resisted arrest and Officers Powell and Wind and Brisenio unsuccessfully attempted to use their batons and stun guns to subdue him. The incident was videotaped by nearby resident, George Holliday, who sold it to local TV station KTLA. The station aired parts of the video and CNN aired it the next day. The police officers were charged in a state court in Simi Valley and acquitted. The four officers were retried in a federal court, and Powell and Koon were convicted for violating King's civil rights and sentenced to 30 months in prison.

The initial sentencing of officers Powell and Koon was appealed to the United States Supreme Court on the issue of whether the Federal District Court properly applied departures from the Federal Sentencing Guidelines. See Koon v. United States, 518 U.S. 81 (1996). Ultimately, the Court affirmed the lower court and allowed the officers' sentences to be significantly reduced due to three factors: King's own provocation, the officers' susceptibility to abuse in prison and the officers' successive prosecutions in state and federal courts.

Koon served his sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin, California and the Federal Work Camp in Sheridan, Oregon. He was released on October 15, 1995. An armed assailant attempted to kill Koon in the halfway house in November 1995, but Koon was away for Thanksgiving.