By Ruth Manuel-Logan on Sep 8th 2010 10:27AM
Rodney King, whose senseless beating by the Los Angeles police became fodder for news outlets worldwide, became engaged to one of the jurors who awarded him a $3.8 million settlement in a civil suit against the LAPD, reported
RadarOnline.
King met former juror
Cynthia Kelley at a pizza shop a day after he was awarded the money.
Reportedly, Kelley was King's strongest supporter during the trial.
When they met, they were both married at the time. After they each got divorced, though, they began a relationship that ended when King agreed to take part in the VH1 reality TV show 'Celebrity Rehab With Dr. Drew' in 2008. King had admittedly become addicted to PCP and wanted to kick the habit.
On a whim last May, the 44-year-old King decided to call Kelley to see if she was still available, and as luck would have it, she was:
"It just so happened that we reconnected. "It was like we were never apart from one another," Kelley told Radar. "She is a godsend, a blessing in my life," King told the Website. "I don't know what I would have done without her in my life. "I can't wait to make her my wife."
King rose to national prominence back in March of 1992. He was a cab driver chauffeuring two passengers and speeding. Police spotted him and gave chase. King was afraid that since he had been drinking, he would be arrested for drunk driving, so instead of stopping, he decided to try and lose the policemen who were on his trail.
Several other police cruisers and a helicopter were summoned to the scene. When police finally caught up to King, the situation intensified: He refused to exit his car at first, then complied. Officers testified that King reached toward his back pockets and that they thought he was going for a gun. More police approached King and eventually used a stun gun on him.
King was thrown to the ground, and what occurred thereafter became pages for history books: A posse of white policemen began pummeling King, even while he was lying helpless. The 25-year-old cab driver was beaten to a pulp with fists, batons and swift, hard kicks by four officers, while 10 other policemen stood around and watched. Unbeknownst to law enforcement, though, a man had been videotaping the entire incident.
After the merciless beating, King was taken to a hospital, where he was diagnosed with 11 skull fractures, permanent brain damage, broken bones and teeth, kidney damage, and emotional and physical trauma. One of the nurses overheard some of the officers who had accompanied King to the hospital joking and bragging about the number of times he had been struck.
Even though the videotaped footage was aired by news agencies around the world, sparking anger and unrest, particularly in the Los Angeles area, the four policemen involved in King's attack were acquitted.
The acquittals triggered the 1992 L.A. riots, which left more than 50 people dead and resulted in $1 billion in damages. A subsequent federal trial for civil rights violations ended with two of the officers being found guilty and sent to prison, while the other two were acquitted.
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Comments: (365)
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By: dsaqt4life on 9/08/2010 10:05PM
how would she know she would make the jury? and why would they wait so long to get married? ridiculous, baseless accusations are not the same as facts.
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By: srerrn2 on 9/09/2010 2:46AM
Really Joe? A set-up? Maybe it was a big conspiracy. He actually knew her before, "egged" on the cops that night until they beat him into a coma, filed a civil suit and arranged for Ms. Kelley to be on the jury. Then they "just accidently" meet the day after the verdict, date, break up for many years. He fakes his addiction, goes to rehab, get's his life together and then calls her. Now, almost 20 years later they are getting married and the plan the whole time was to split everything 50/50.
No, no, no wait, she is a gold digger after his money 20 years later. She really is a patient woman. Thank God you pointed out this big conspiracy to the rest of us.
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By: Frank on 9/09/2010 8:12AM
Well, I don't really think that is what Joe was saying, but who knows you may just be very right? I sure can't speak for Joe but it sure looks like it was someone else who used the word conspiracy and then took off from there with it. I do have to agree with one thing though, a female on his gury and after he gets all that money she begins to date him? There's plenty more to this story that's for sure. As for this post, I hope you do feel better doing your best to make someone else look bad? Maybe next time though, stick tot he points made and don't make things up to "fit" your own story.
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By: Jolene on 9/08/2010 8:18PM
Now the real truth comes out.... no wonder she voted in favor for him. Next time a guy beats another in a robbery, gives the police a chase for miles, caught and fights back because he's dopped up and the only way to subdue him is with trunions which he doesn't remember getting hit with. give the perpertrator millions of dollars. oh yeah.
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By: Blue Lorax on 9/08/2010 8:19PM
Rodney King was on 'Sober House' but he didn't do well. Before he got on the show, he worked in sanitation and was shown vomiting out the window of the garbage truck while he was working. Before the L.A. riots, King spent his life breaking the law and getting high. Now he has some money and is getting married. I hope he turns his life around, but it seems his lowlife ways are not engrained into his personality. That money and the wife will be gone in no time.
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By: Cold Hard Truth on 9/08/2010 8:24PM
He is such a piece of crap quintessential criminal. Rodney King did nothing but cost the city millions of dollars. Funny how the liberal media failed to report the hundreds of White victims of violence which resulted from the King incident. The infamous video failed to show what led up to the incident and the liberal media fails to tell the public how many times he has been arrested since then. Blacks should be ashamed, and that is the Cold Hard Truth.
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By: Pam on 9/09/2010 3:39PM
"Blacks should be ashamed?" What a joke. If anyone should be ashamed it is whites for all of the violence and oppression that they have inflicted on everyone of color in the entire world!
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By: lenny on 9/08/2010 8:23PM
Can't wait to see what happens when she calls the police for Domestic abuse
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By: Holly on 9/08/2010 8:23PM
No amount of money can undue the emotional and physical trauma this man experienced. I cried while reading this article remembering all too clearly when it happened. Then what happened after the cops were aquited was just as horrible. The innocent truck driver and many others. God bless them and rodney King. He always seemed so gentle and even kind.
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By: RJ on 9/08/2010 8:24PM
The beating was not senseless. He had been drinking and then led the police on a chase. What if he had wrecked and killed somebody? No big deal, right? Give me a break. Innocent people don't run from the law.
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