It was a Caveman, and it was on his ankle.
After greater than two years of resisting subpoenas to testify about deputy gangs throughout the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Division, this week former Undersheriff Tim Murakami admitted underneath oath that he as soon as sported a tattoo representing the Cavemen, a controversial subgroup affiliated with the East Los Angeles station.
When requested whether or not former Sheriff Alex Villanueva — who made Murakami his No. 2 a couple of months after taking workplace — knew concerning the ink, Murakami replied: “I consider that he did.”
The admission marks the primary time the division’s former second-in-command has publicly confirmed long-standing rumors about his tattoo, which he mentioned has since been lined up or eliminated.
“It’s not there,” he advised the small group of spectators who confirmed as much as watch his testimony at Loyola Regulation Faculty as a part of the Civilian Oversight Fee’s eleventh particular listening to on deputy gangs.
Over the course of 4 hours, Murakami admitted to realizing about at the least half a dozen tattooed teams, together with the Cavemen, the Indians, the Banditos, the Little Pink Devils, the Grim Reapers and the Bounce Out Boys — a few of which he mentioned nonetheless exist throughout the Sheriff’s Division.
However he couldn’t independently bear in mind the identify of a single tattooed deputy, and he bristled on the concept of calling the teams “deputy gangs,” even after one commissioner identified that state penal code makes use of the time period “gangs” to explain rogue regulation enforcement teams. Repeatedly, Murakami insisted that the tattoos symbolize laborious work and “station delight” and that there was “no nefarious connotation” to having deputy subgroups function contained in the division.
“The intent of the deputies concerned just isn’t something unhealthy, however the best way it’s being perceived now, it’s detrimental,” he mentioned, talking concerning the tattooed teams. And concerning the ink itself, he mentioned, “That’s why, if folks have one, I like to recommend they take away them.”
To fee Chair Sean Kennedy, the previous undersheriff’s admissions have been each a hit for oversight officers and a sign that the division has an “inherent battle of curiosity” in terms of investigating deputy gangs when so many officers have subgroup tattoos themselves.
“After dodging the difficulty for years, Mr. Murakami underneath oath lastly needed to admit that he’s a tattooed Caveman, and that extra not too long ago he altered his ankle tattoo to flee detection,” Kennedy advised The Occasions on Thursday night. “He’s the third undersheriff thus far to confess having one among these tattoos.”
Although he confirmed up late, Murakami’s time on the stand was much less chaotic and yielded extra info than the fee’s final deputy gang listening to in January, which featured a number of hours of combative testimony from Villanueva, who incessantly insulted oversight officers and was repeatedly interrupted by jeers and cheers from the viewers.
In an emailed response late Thursday, the previous sheriff didn’t immediately tackle the query about whether or not he knew about Murakami’s tattoo.
“I used to be involved with conduct, not tattoos,” he wrote. “The staffing disaster throughout the LASD is threatening public security, and chasing phantom deputy gangs just isn’t going to enhance recruitment.”
For 5 many years, the Sheriff’s Division has been suffering from allegations about tattooed teams of deputies operating roughshod over sure stations and selling a tradition of violence. The teams are generally recognized by names such because the Executioners, the Banditos, the Regulators and the Little Devils, and members sometimes have matching, sequentially numbered tattoos that includes macabre imagery.
Throughout his testimony, Murakami mentioned that he bought his ink at a tattoo store on Whittier Boulevard someday within the Eighties, when he labored on the East Los Angeles station.
“It was primarily a caveman carrying a membership,” he mentioned. “It had ELA for East Los Angeles both throughout the abdomen or the chest.”
The picture additionally featured the quantity 10, which Murakami mentioned indicated that he was the tenth deputy to get that tattoo.
There have been six to 10 different deputies on the store with him the day he bought inked, he mentioned, although on Thursday he couldn’t bear in mind any of their names. He was additionally unable to recollect the identify of the one that invited him to get the tattoo. At one level, he mentioned he’d by no means really seen one other deputy with the Caveman ink on the station — a declare that sparked an indignant outburst from one commissioner.
In the course of the 4 years he spent at East Los Angeles, Murakami mentioned, he labored basic patrol and on the gang suppression crew, which drew a pointed query from Anthony Pacheco, the fee’s particular counsel.
“So whenever you had a Caveman tattoo in your ankle you labored in gang suppression?” Pacheco requested.
Murakami confirmed that he did.
The tattoo symbolized “station delight, and being acknowledged as a hardworking deputy,” Murakami added.
The previous undersheriff additionally testified concerning the existence of two different tattooed teams on the East Los Angeles station — the Banditos and the Little Pink Devils. He mentioned that he was not a member of both, and that of the three East L.A. teams, solely the Banditos nonetheless had members within the division.
After his early years in East Los Angeles, Murakami transferred to the Metropolis of Trade sheriff’s station, the place he spent most of his profession.
The station is house to a bunch referred to as the Trade Indians, whose existence first turned public this yr after Occasions reporting confirmed two suspected members have been fired after a violent confrontation with a bunch of youngsters exterior a bowling alley in Montclair referred to as the Bowlium. The teenagers have since filed swimsuit.
Although on Thursday Murakami admitted to realizing concerning the group, he mentioned that he’d by no means really seen an Indians tattoo and that, if he had, he wouldn’t have accomplished something about it. He mentioned he believed that there have been nonetheless some deputies with Indians tattoos on the station however he couldn’t bear in mind their names.
He mentioned he didn’t study of the Bowlium brawl till after he retired, when he examine it within the information.
Although he answered dozens of questions on his tattoo and the East Los Angeles subgroup, on the recommendation of his legal professional, Murakami refused to supply any particulars about one other tattoo that he has.
“I’ll admit that I do have a tattoo,” he mentioned when requested about another ink he may need. “It’s a personal matter and nothing to do with the Sheriff’s Division.”
Thursday’s testimony was a number of years within the making, and it got here as a part of the fee’s long-standing efforts to look at violent, tattooed cliques of deputies allegedly working as gangs throughout the Sheriff’s Division.
Final yr, the fee’s particular counsel issued a 70-page report condemning the “most cancers” of deputy gangs and urging Sheriff Robert Luna to create a stronger coverage banning the teams.
The report’s findings relied closely on testimony from a sequence of public hearings, lots of which concerned witnesses testifying underneath oath. The fee sought testimony from each Murakami and Villanueva, however — till not too long ago — each refused to adjust to repeated subpoenas.
In late 2023, after a number of years of sparring with the county’s legal professionals in courtroom, Villanueva lastly agreed to testify earlier than the fee underneath oath. Throughout a four-hour listening to in January, the previous sheriff repeatedly denied the existence of deputy gangs. He mentioned he’d by no means systematically investigated them and admitted that he didn’t query his prime leaders about their involvement within the secretive subgroups.
For years, Murakami additionally fought oversight officers’ subpoenas, at the least as soon as citing a scheduling battle and extra incessantly citing medical issues.
Attorneys for the county accused him of utilizing delay techniques, alleging in a January courtroom submitting that Murakami “merely doesn’t wish to undergo examination” by the fee. In February, Superior Courtroom Choose Anne Richardson ordered Murakami to obey the subpoenas.
After 4 many years within the Sheriff’s Division, Murakami leaped up the ranks after Villanueva took workplace in 2018. On the time, Murakami was the captain overseeing the Metropolis of Trade sheriff’s station. Then, Villanueva promoted him three ranks without delay, making him one of many division’s assistant sheriffs.
In that function, Murakami was one among three division executives Villanueva appointed to his controversial “reality and reconciliation” panel, which was created to reevaluate disciplinary selections made underneath earlier administrations. In early 2019, the panel sparked an outcry after its reevaluation of a case paved the best way for Villanueva to rehire a deputy who’d been fired in reference to allegations of home abuse and stalking.
A number of months later, Villanueva abruptly eliminated his second-in-command, then-Undersheriff Ray Leyva, and put in Murakami in his stead.
At one level, it appeared Murakami’s place may have been in peril when the County Fairness Oversight Panel really helpful in 2020 that he be disciplined for allegedly utilizing a Japanese racial slur to consult with workers of colour. However Murakami, who’s Japanese American, denied the accusation, and in the end Villanueva rejected the panel’s advice.
On Thursday, Murakami was requested questions on these allegations underneath oath, however he refused to reply after his lawyer argued that data concerning the matter weren’t thought of public. A lawyer for the county defined that they have been, however Murakami nonetheless refused to reply questions on them and his lawyer maintained that publishing them could be a “violation of regulation.”
Afterward, Kennedy advised The Occasions that the fee will now need to determine whether or not to hunt a courtroom order requiring Murakami to reply questions concerning the fairness panel’s findings.
