Two years ago, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department internal investigators learned about a group of Lakewood station deputies who shared a common tattoo of a spade, with the number 13.
Internal affairs officials told the station brass, who sent surveys to a few dozen deputies asking whether the image was the symbol of a deputy gang or subgroup — and the deputies all said no.
At that point, as The Times reported last year, the department stopped investigating.
But this week, federal court filings in an unrelated case renewed questions about the tattoo and the department’s inquiry into it.
In a plea agreement filed late Thursday, Deputy Eric Chase Saavedra admitted to conspiring with a crypto mogul who paid $100,000 per month for Saavedra to provide deputies to serve as his round-the-clock bodyguards and sometimes also commit crimes. Over the course of 49 pages, the plea agreement describes an array of criminal acts involving Saavedra and other unnamed sheriff’s deputies, who allegedly harassed and threatened people to intimidate the crypto mogul’s enemies and further his criminal aims.
The deputy, who has since been relieved of duty, also admitted to lying on a search warrant, writing a fake search warrant and using confidential law enforcement databases to find information about the crypto mogul’s foes.
And in a single paragraph tucked in the middle of the agreement, Saavedra admitted to having a Lakewood station tattoo — which he said he received only after other tattooed deputies voted to decide whether he should be allowed to get it.
The plea agreement does not call the group a deputy gang or subgroup. But oversight officials have long said that exclusionary behaviors — such as voting on which deputies are allowed to have a tattoo — are hallmarks of the controversial groups.
“Secrecy and exclusivity are prima facie evidence of gang activity in the tattooed groups,” said Inspector General Max Huntsman. “When the department validates this code of silence, we have repeatedly seen gang-like activity such as that discovered in this federal case.”
Last year, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department defended its probe into the Lakewood group, saying there was “no evidence to support the allegations of a gang” at the Lakewood station.
“As we actively work with our federal partners, we have advised them of the law enforcement gang issue and requested that they review any nexus of law enforcement gang activity associated with this ongoing criminal investigation,” the department said in a statement this week. “The Sheriff is using and will continue to utilize all available tools, including law enforcement partners, to identify and remove any personnel that are involved in such behavior.”
On the steps of the federal courthouse Friday morning, U.S. Atty. E. Martin Estrada said that, while court filings note that Saavedra has a station tattoo, prosecutors “are not alleging that he is necessarily part of any deputy gang” or that his conduct was linked to gang activity. But, he added, the investigation is ongoing.
Brian Gurwitz, the attorney representing Saavedra, did not address the tattoo in a comment Friday but said his client “recognizes the breach of trust his actions represent and deeply regrets the harm they have caused to the community he dedicated decades to serving.”
For half a century, the department has been plagued by allegations about tattooed groups of deputies who run roughshod over certain sheriff’s stations and promote a culture of violence. The rogue groups are commonly known by names such as the Executioners, the Banditos, the Regulators and the Little Devils, and their members typically have matching, sequentially numbered tattoos featuring lurid imagery.
Early last year, a highly critical Office of Inspector General report faulted the department for failing to thoroughly investigate the groups, saying officials still minimize evidence of gang activity and allow cursory inquiries that fail to identify suspected gang members. In September, Sheriff Robert Luna unveiled a new anti-gang policy that banned being in a deputy gang or hate group and required department employees to participate in investigations into them.
Until he was relieved of duty, Saavedra worked as a detective in the department’s anti-gang unit. In his capacity there, court records show he testified as a gang expert, describing what bad acts would help criminals move up in a gang, including committing robberies, thefts and shootings.
Though the unit — which has long battled its own allegations of a secretive tattooed subgroup known as the Jump-Out Boys — is its own bureau, the detectives within it are assigned to different stations across the county. For several years, Saavedra was assigned to the Lakewood station.
While there, Saavedra admitted in his plea agreement, he got a tattoo on his left ankle of the “unofficial logo” of the Lakewood station: a spade with the number 13 inside of it.
“Defendant got the tattoo after a panel of tattooed Lakewood station members voted to approve defendant’s tattoo,” the agreement continued. “Defendant was the 55th person to get that tattoo.”
The Lakewood group first came to light in the course of an investigation into possible members of a suspected deputy gang — the Industry station Indians – who’d been fired after allegedly getting into a boozy brawl with some teenagers in a parking lot, according to the OIG report and sources familiar with the case.
Four deputies were fired in connection with the incident and, according to The Times’ investigation and the later oversight report, two admitted to having Industry Indians tattoos. The fired deputies all appealed to the county’s Civil Service Commission, according to a county source who was not authorized to speak publicly.
Once internal affairs investigators learned about the City of Industry group, they asked the deputies involved whether they knew of anyone else with that tattoo. But because investigators “did not press” for names, the OIG report said, they were able to identify only two other possible members.
However, the OIG report said one of the deputies told investigators he’d seen “a lot of” deputies at the Lakewood station with spade tattoos. The deputy said he wasn’t sure whether the tattoos were the sign of a subgroup or gang — so supervisors surveyed 69 deputies at the station to find out more.
Of the 64 who responded, the report said 13% reported knowing of a Lakewood station tattoo and 100% said they were not aware of any gang or subgroup at the station.
“Based on my inquiry, I did not find any potential violations or evidence to indicate we have deputy sub-groups, cliques, or deputy gangs,” a lieutenant later wrote in a memo quoted in the oversight report. “The morale of Lakewood station personnel is positive, inclusive, and promotes a family atmosphere.”
In its report last year, OIG took a dim view of the adequacy of that response, and this week Huntsman criticized the department’s “refusal” to investigate the Lakewood group last year.
“Perhaps the sheriff will now identify the members to determine if PC 13670 applies,” he said, referring to the state statute that bans law enforcement gangs. “We thank the FBI and the U.S. attorney’s office for their anti-corruption work.”
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