| Stacey Koon | |
|---|---|
| Los Angeles Police Department | |
| Place of birth | Los Angeles, California, USA |
| Service branch | United States |
| Years of service | United States Air Force: 1971-1974 Los Angeles Police Department: 1976-1992 |
| Rank | Sworn in as an Officer - 1976 - Police Officer 3 - 1978 - Sergeant I - 1982 |
| Awards |
- LAPD Medal of Valor |
| Other work | Convicted in connection to the Rodney King beating |
Stacey Cornell Koon is a former sergeant with the Los Angeles Police Department who became nationally notorious in the wake of the Rodney King incident. Koon has a bachelor's degree and a master's degree in criminal justice from California State University in Los Angeles, and a master's degree in public administration from the University of Southern California.[2]
On 3 March 1991, in Los Angeles, a high-speed chase was initiated by California Highway Patrol officer Melanie Singer after motorist Rodney King was observed behind the wheel of a 1988 white Hyundai Excel allegedly traveling at a high speed. The chase ended on the right shoulder of Foothill Boulevard. Koon and four other officers (Laurence Powell, Timothy Wind, Theodore Briseño and Rolando Solano) attempted to arrest King. The officers stated that King resisted arrest and Officers Powell, Wind and Briseño had to use force to subdue him. The incident was videotaped by a 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 tried for the use of excessive force in state court in Simi Valley in 1992 and acquitted on April 29 of that year. Later the same day the 1992 Los Angeles riots erupted, which went on to claim the lives of fifty-three people. In 1993, the four officers were tried in a federal court in Los Angeles; Koon and Powell were convicted of violating King's civil rights and sentenced to 30 months in prison.
In his 1992 book, Presumed Guilty: The Tragedy of the Rodney King Affair, Koon defended his actions and blamed the riots on the media and community leaders.[3]
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 when it granted two downward departures to 30 months from section 242 of the sentencing guidelines, in Koon v. United States, 518 US 81 (1996). Ultimately, the Court affirmed the lower court and allowed the officers' sentences to be significantly reduced to 30 months due to four factors: King's own provocation, the officers' susceptibility to abuse in prison, their successive prosecutions in state and federal courts, and the unlikelihood of them repeating the same crime, as any felony conviction rendered both of them ineligible for future law enforcement employment.
Koon served his sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin, California, and the Federal Work Camp in Sheridan, Oregon. He was released on 15 October 1995.
Koon eventually moved to suburban Castaic, where he lives on sales of his book.[4]