Another Denny Juror Out; Panel Starts Over : Trial: Man is excused for hardship. Defense lawyer says he will seek the removal of one more for misconduct.

For the second time in two days, a juror was removed from the panel deliberating the fate of two men accused of trying to kill Reginald O. Denny, and a defense attorney said he will seek to have yet another juror removed today.

Superior Court Judge John W. Ouderkirk excused the embattled panel’s lone Anglo male, known only as Juror 152, Tuesday for unspecified personal hardship. He was replaced by a black man in his late 40s who was selected at random, leaving only one alternate.

If the panel is reduced to fewer than 12 members, a mistrial probably would be declared, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office said. California law allows a trial to continue with fewer than 12 jurors if prosecutors and defense attorneys agree to do so, he said, but that would be unlikely.

The jury had begun deliberations anew Monday afternoon after one of its members was replaced. Verdicts were reached Monday on two counts against defendant Henry Keith Watson, but Ouderkirk ordered those verdicts sealed after Watson’s attorney, Earl C. Broady Jr., objected.

Broady said outside court that he preferred having the same 12 jurors decide the case.

“Don’t have one 12 decide on Watson and another 12 decide on Williams,” he said. “I hope they don’t run out of alternates.”

After Broady’s objection, Ouderkirk ordered the jury to begin considering the evidence from scratch for the second time.

Attorney Edi M. O. Faal, who represents defendant Damian Monroe Williams, said Tuesday that he had intended to seek the removal of Juror 152 for misconduct before Ouderkirk excused him for personal hardship.

Faal said he would file a motion today to remove Juror 104, an Anglo woman in her 30s, for what he described as misconduct and incompetence. In seeking the juror’s removal, Faal said, he would apply the same standard Ouderkirk used in removing a juror on Monday.

In that instance, the judge removed a middle-age black woman from the panel over vociferous defense objections because, he wrote, “she (was) failing to deliberate as the law defines it.” That juror was replaced by an Asian-American woman who appears to be in her 20s.

Faal could not elaborate on the standard Ouderkirk used to remove the juror because the action came after a closed hearing. Ouderkirk has sealed transcripts of that and other closed hearings, and news media organizations--including The Times--are seeking to have the transcripts released.

It was revealed Tuesday that the original panel also had reached a verdict on the same two counts against Watson before the juror was removed Monday. The fact that they had arrived at verdicts undercuts Ouderkirk’s reason for removing the juror for failing to deliberate, defense attorneys said. Those verdicts also were ordered sealed when Juror 373 was removed from the panel.

“There is no evidence whatsoever that this juror failed to deliberate,” Faal said outside court on Monday. “I think this is the basis for a mistrial or a new trial.”

He called the removal an injustice, saying the judge’s action was “wrong and improper.” He requested--and was denied--a mistrial and later said Ouderkirk “has no authority whatsoever to remove this juror” for the reasons the judge stated.

Ouderkirk’s removal of the juror prompted reaction in South-Central Los Angeles, where Danny J. Bakewell, president of the Brotherhood Crusade, said he was “appalled and outraged” by the judge’s decision.

Bakewell, joined by a dozen community leaders at an impromptu news conference at the Brotherhood Crusade’s offices, accused Ouderkirk of trying to “tip the scales of justice and railroad the defendants.”

Under state law, a juror can be discharged if the court determines there is good cause that the juror is unable to perform his or her duties. Several legal scholars agreed in interviews that the grounds for dismissing a juror are a matter of debate and are not always clear.

The dismissal of a juror in the midst of deliberations is extremely rare, law professors said. The most common examples are for physical illness or misconduct, such as a juror deciding a case before all the evidence is heard or discussing a case with outside parties.

Juror 373 on Monday and Juror 152 on Tuesday were the fourth and fifth jurors to be replaced. Two had been excused earlier for illness and another for alleged misconduct. That juror, a middle-age black man, allegedly discussed the case with neighbors and announced that he would vote to convict the defendants even before he heard the defense’s entire presentation. He was replaced by a black woman who appears to be in her 30s.

Although the two jurors Faal accused of misconduct are Anglos, the attorney said his desire to see them removed has nothing to do with race.

“It’s coincidental that Jurors 104 and 152 are white,” he said. His reasons for wanting them removed from the panel, he said, have to do with “specific conduct known to the attorneys in the case.”

Defense attorneys unsuccessfully sought to have Juror 104 removed during testimony, arguing that she was acting more as an advocate than a juror. While cross-examining a defense witness, Deputy Dist. Atty. Lawrence C. Morrison covered a corner of a video monitor to prevent the witness from seeing the time recorded on a videotape.

Juror 104 pointed out to Morrison that the witness could see the time on a smaller monitor at the witness stand, Faal said, adding Tuesday that the misconduct he will note in his motion to have her removed goes beyond that incident.

“If the transcripts are released, the public will be able to see that there has been misconduct by Juror 104,” Faal said.

The jury of 10 women and two men is now composed of four African-Americans, four Latinos, two Anglos and two Asian-Americans.

Juror 152, who was excused on Tuesday, is a member of Hope Chapel, a fundamentalist Christian congregation in Hermosa Beach. He estimated during questioning before the trial that perhaps 20 of the congregation’s 1,000 members are African-American.

His replacement on the panel, Juror 84, said he had been harassed by police when he was 21. That was nearly 30 years ago, he said, and he has not dwelt on it since.

The jury is weighing the fate of Williams, 20, and Watson, 29, who are charged with premeditated attempted murder in the beating of Denny at Florence and Normandie avenues, a flash point for rioting last year.

Williams also is accused of aggravated mayhem--intentionally causing permanent disability or disfigurement--for allegedly hitting Denny in the head with a brick. Attempted premeditated murder and aggravated mayhem carry maximum penalties of life in prison.

The two men also are charged with assaulting or robbing seven other people at the intersection as rioting broke out after the not-guilty verdicts in the Rodney G. King beating trial in Simi Valley.

Times staff writer John L. Mitchell contributed to this story.