After years of ignoring subpoenas and requests to address questions about gangs in the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, former Undersheriff Tim Murakami admitted under oath that he once had a tattoo of a caveman, which supposedly represents a controversial subgroup of deputies affiliated with the East Los Angeles Station, according to a report Friday in the Los Angeles Times.
Murakami answered questions from the Civilian Oversight Commission at Loyola Law School for about four hours on Thursday. During that hearing, he was asked if former Sheriff Alex Villanueva knew about his caveman tattoo. Murakami said, “I believe that he did,” the Times reported.
It was the first time Murakami, who was the second-in-command in the sheriff’s department under Villanueva, publicly confirmed long-standing rumors about his tattoo, which he said has since been removed or covered up.
“It’s no longer there,” he told the small group of spectators who showed up to watch his testimony as part of the commission’s 11th special hearing on deputy gangs, according to the Times.
During his testimony, Murakami admitted to knowing at least a half dozen tattooed groups, including the Cavemen, the Indians, the Banditos, the Little Red Devils, the Grim Reapers and the Jump Out Boys, and said some of those group still exist in the sheriff’s department.
However, he told the commission he did not remember the names of the tattooed deputies and did not describe the groups as deputy gangs. At one point during his testimony, one commissioner highlighted that state penal code uses the term gangs to describe law enforcement groups.
Murakami told the commission the tattoos represent “station pride” and there was “no nefarious connotation” to the deputy subgroups at the stations, the Times reported.
“The intent of the deputies involved is not anything bad, but the way it’s being perceived now, it is detrimental,” he said, speaking about the tattooed groups. In regard to the tattoos, he said, “That’s why, if people have one, I recommend they remove them.”
Commission chair Sean Kennedy told the Times Murakami’s admission was a success for oversight officials and an indication the department has an “inherent conflict of interest” investigating deputy gangs.
“After dodging the issue for years, Mr. Murakami under oath finally had to admit that he is a tattooed Caveman, and that more recently he altered his ankle tattoo to escape detection,” Kennedy told The Times on Thursday. “He is the third undersheriff to date to admit having one of these tattoos.”
Even though Murakami attended the commission meeting to answer questions, he was late. The Times reported that his time testifying was less chaotic and yielded more information than the commission’s previous deputy gang hearing in January. That hearing featured several hours of what the Times described as combative testimony from Villanueva, who insulted the commission officials, and was interrupted with cheers and jeers from audience members.
Allegations about tattooed groups of deputies at certain stations has plagued the sheriff’s department for five decades.
Murakami said during his testimony he got his tattoo at a shop on Whittier Boulevard in the 1980s when he worked at the East Los Angeles station.
“It was essentially a caveman carrying a club,” he said, according to the Times. “It had ELA for East Los Angeles either across the stomach or the chest.”