King v. United States District Court for Central District of California

Order Rodney King has filed a petition for a writ of mandamus seeking to have Judge John G. Davies disqualified from presiding at the trial of his civil damage action against the City of Los Angeles and the officers involved in his beating. We deny his petition. The statutory provision underlying King's mandamus petition, 28 U.S.C. § 455(a), states that ""any Justice, Judge or magistrate of the United States shall disqualify himself in any proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned."" Recusal ordinarily is required ""only if the bias or prejudice stems from an extrajudicial source,"" and not from a Judge's conduct or rulings during the course of judicial proceedings. Pau v. Yosemite Park and Curry Co., 928 F.2d 880, 885 (9th Cir. 1991).