Sheriff’s official ’embarrassed’ over alleged deputy gang tattoo

When phrase obtained out, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Division rumor mill sprang into motion. Some stated Joe Mendoza was a tough employee and deserved the coveted promotion. However others whispered that he sported the mark of a “deputy gang.”

And he did — however he doesn’t anymore.

“I obtained it coated up,” the newly minted chief informed The Occasions, including: “I’m not a gang member. I’m a household man.”

On his higher arm the place Mendoza stated he as soon as had a Banditos emblem — a bandolier-draped skeleton carrying a sombrero — he now sports activities a tattoo of St. Michael, the patron saint of legislation enforcement.

In an interview, Mendoza defined why he obtained the picture coated up: He noticed troubling headlines in regards to the East L.A. Station clique’s unhealthy conduct and was embarrassed. So he determined to steer by instance.

“I’m fascinated by altering the tradition,” he stated. “I need individuals to grasp how advanced this challenge is, and the way good folks that had a tattoo can nonetheless lead. As a result of I’m positive I’m not the one one on this place.”

Dangerous press, together with repeated lawsuits and criticism from oversight officers, seems to be pushing some formidable deputies to rethink their controversial ink. As well as, some see the tattoos representing so-called deputy gangs as a roadblock to development.

Except for Mendoza, half a dozen different deputies and supervisors — most of whom requested to stay nameless as a result of they weren’t licensed to talk on the report — informed The Occasions that they or deputies they knew had been contemplating getting ink eliminated or coated up.

Two deputies stated at the least one different high-ranking official had spoken about getting his tattoo coated. A 3rd deputy stated it was “only a matter of time” earlier than he had his personal ink eliminated or altered. And Undersheriff April Tardy, who last year admitted to having what she described as a “station tattoo,” just lately stated she’d been excited about getting her Temple Station ink coated.

“At this level, I’ve not had my tattoo coated or modified,” she wrote in a textual content, “however I’m contemplating it.”

Though he’s not the primary to take away or cowl up a controversial tattoo, Mendoza’s change of coronary heart may very well be another sign of a sluggish shift contained in the Sheriff’s Division. That’s how Sheriff Robert Luna appears to see it.

When he ran for workplace, Luna vowed to crack down on deputy gangs. He held up Mendoza for instance of a great chief dedicated to exhibiting youthful deputies a unique path ahead within the division.

“We’re conscious that he had a department-related tattoo, however we additionally acknowledge his open and sincere statements about denouncing deputy gangs, subgroups, and cliques,” Luna wrote in a press release. “As we transfer ahead in altering the Division tradition to eradicate deputy gangs, personnel that share their expertise can have nice affect on the long run era of deputies.”

To Inspector Basic Max Huntsman, the county watchdog tasked with overseeing the division, rewarding deputies who take away or cowl tattoos looks as if a protracted overdue change — however it isn’t sufficient.

“We nonetheless have an issue,” Huntsman stated, “so long as the Sheriff’s Division is secretive about alleged gang exercise and doesn’t completely examine it and establish all of the members.”

For many years, the division has been affected by allegations about tattooed teams of deputies working roughshod over sure stations and flooring of the jail. The teams have been the topic of lawsuits, oversight investigations, an FBI probe and repeated allegations of misconduct. Final 12 months, a Civilian Oversight Fee report urged Luna to ban the “most cancers” of deputy gangs.

“They create rituals that valorize violence,” the report stated, “similar to recording all deputy-involved shootings in an official ebook, celebrating with ‘capturing events,’ and authorizing deputies who’ve shot a group member so as to add gildings to their frequent gang tattoos.”

The tattoos function macabre imagery of skeletons and weapons and are sometimes sequentially numbered. They signify teams referred to as the Executioners, the Indians, the Rattlesnakes and the Reapers. Probably the most well-known operates out of the East L.A. station and is usually known as the Banditos.

A number of former high officers — together with undersheriffs and chiefs of staff — have publicly admitted to having tattoos representing the teams, and earlier this 12 months an oversight report famous that “admitted members have [been] promoted to the very best ranges of the Sheriff’s Division.”

Up to now, some sheriffs have denied or downplayed the existence and affect of deputy gangs throughout the division. However when Luna took workplace in 2022, he reversed course and vowed to “eradicate” them. Since then, he’s repeatedly come below fireplace for not performing rapidly or decisively sufficient to rout them out. However amongst different adjustments, his administration began asking questions on group membership and tattoos throughout promotional interviews for these looking for to enter the higher echelons of the division.

“For the reason that starting of my administration the query of any department-related tattoos has been requested within the interview portion of the promotional course of for the rank of captain and above, which has by no means been completed earlier than,” Luna stated in a press release. “Our division is not going to promote any personnel who’ve exhibited conduct per legislation enforcement gang exercise as outlined in State legislation or Division coverage.”

However having a tattoo isn’t essentially disqualifying.

The kid of Mexican immigrants, Mendoza was the primary particular person in his household born in Los Angeles. He spent most of his youth in East L.A., surrounded by violence. He watched his neighbors get swept up in a life that always led to jail or drug dependancy, or typically each. As a teen, he liked enjoying baseball — and it was by means of the game that he met a coach whose love for his job as a deputy sheriff appeared inspiring.

Regardless of his father’s reservations about seeing his son go into legislation enforcement, Mendoza joined the Sheriff’s Division in 1992 and began patrolling the streets of East L.A. within the late Nineties.

On the time, he stated, loads of his colleagues wore gear with what he described as “station symbols” — together with the skeletal picture representing the Banditos.

“It was in all places — it was on bumper stickers … it was on hats, it was on T-shirts, it was on the station wall,” he stated. “The best way it was then, it was the image of my station, and it was simply throughout me.”

At a preferred annual relay race, he stated, even command employees sported shirts emblazoned with the picture. Mendoza didn’t consider the image as signifying a gang, a clique or perhaps a drawback.

“It didn’t seem to be something was fallacious,” he stated. “We had been all station household.”

Greater than 20 years in the past, Mendoza stated, he obtained his tattoo — quantity 56 — at a barbecue. He stated he didn’t know who else bore the identical tattoo, or whether or not the group included girls in its ranks. And he stated that, if any of the opposite 55 tattooed deputies who got here earlier than him voted on whether or not he may get his ink, he wasn’t conscious of it. He didn’t affiliate the tattoo with unhealthy conduct and stated he didn’t condone or interact in misconduct, both throughout his time at East L.A. or since.

In 2008, Mendoza transferred out of the station. He ultimately turned the captain overseeing the division’s Murder Bureau, then moved as much as turn into a commander of the Detective Division.

As he climbed by means of the ranks, Mendoza stated, he didn’t sustain with all of the goings-on at his former station. However by the late 2010s he started seeing alarming tales within the information. At that time, the Banditos had been making headlines for his or her alleged involvement in an off-duty scuffle outdoors the Kennedy Corridor occasion house in 2018, when a number of Banditos allegedly attacked one other group of deputies. The combat sparked a legal investigation, oversight inquiries and a sprawling $80-million lawsuit that’s anticipated to go to trial this 12 months.

For Mendoza, the regular stream of stories protection struck a nerve.

“I had been gone from East L.A. for 16 years, and among the issues being mentioned, I didn’t know these individuals,” he stated. “However I examine it and I used to be embarrassed.”

Then, someday in 2022, he went on a trip and the sensation hit him once more, however more durable: “Everyone was taking their shirt off,” he stated, “and I used to be embarrassed.”

Not lengthy after Luna took workplace, Mendoza interviewed for a promotion from commander to chief — the highest-ranking position within the Detective Division, overseeing the bureaus that deal with fraud, main crimes, narcotics, murder and extra. At that time, he nonetheless had his tattoo, and he didn’t get the promotion.

A couple of months later, he stated, he had the picture coated. And when he interviewed once more for a promotion, he obtained it.

“I listened to Sheriff Luna and his imaginative and prescient of taking this group ahead and altering the tradition,” he stated. “And after I communicate to youthful deputies, I communicate to them in regards to the unfavorable connotations and the general public notion and the way we have to work with our communities, and they should belief us and albeit we have to belief them.”

Although Mendoza’s choice to cowl his ink comes amid an obvious shift in sentiment towards the controversial photos, this isn’t the primary time division officers have spoken publicly about eliminating their tattoos.

At a listening to in March, former Undersheriff Tim Murakami testified below oath that he as soon as sported the tattoo of one other East L.A. subgroup, an alleged deputy gang referred to as the Cavemen. When he obtained the picture inked on his physique within the Nineteen Eighties, he stated, it had signified laborious work and “station delight.” About 5 years in the past, he stated, he had it coated or eliminated — he didn’t specify which — in mild of “unfavorable publicity.”

Two years earlier than Murakami’s sworn admission, Larry Del Mese, former Sheriff Alex Villanueva’s chief of employees for a time, equally testified that he had his Lennox Station Grim Reaper tattoo eliminated round 2018 or 2019.

“It served me no objective from the day I obtained it, however it had clearly turn into a legal responsibility,” Del Mese said.

Some deputies informed The Occasions the shift started even earlier than that — below the administration of former Sheriff Jim McDonnell, who held the workplace till 2018. It accelerated in recent times amid elevated media scrutiny and Civilian Oversight Fee hearings on deputy gangs.

“It appears to be a problem that isn’t going away,” one tattooed deputy stated. “Extra persons are anxious in regards to the chance Luna received’t promote you in case you are identified to have one. It appears inevitable the exterior stigma will turn into an inner stigma because of the strain on Luna for change.”

However some deputies had been skeptical. One stated that having a tattoo eliminated could be seen as “nearly a betrayal” of others who’ve it. One other stated removing could be tantamount to an admission of wrongdoing and that not all tattooed subgroups really interact in misconduct.

The county watchdog shared that sense of skepticism — however for various causes.

For years, Huntsman has been urging the division to develop a listing of suspected deputy gang members and to implement a stronger coverage banning membership within the teams. Final 12 months, he despatched a letter to the Sheriff’s Division demanding that several dozen deputies present up for questioning about their very own tattoos and others who’ve them. The union filed a lawsuit, and the case has been tied up in courtroom since.

This 12 months, Huntsman’s workplace issued a sequence of reviews criticizing the department for failing to completely examine the secretive subgroups or make any actual effort to establish all their members — even amid revelations a couple of newly uncovered group operating out of the City of Industry Sheriff’s Station. In that occasion, two deputies who allegedly bore Trade Stations Indians tattoos had been fired. However Huntsman faulted the division for failing to completely query them in regards to the group and its different potential members.

“Regardless of a brand new California legislation geared toward addressing legislation enforcement gangs, and a brand new administration,” oversight officers wrote within the report, “the Sheriff’s Division has, up to now, by no means undertaken an investigation geared toward figuring out each member of any subgroup or figuring out whether or not any of these teams interact in a sample of conduct that violates the legislation or Division coverage.”

Legal professional Bert Deixler — who served as particular counsel for the Civilian Oversight Fee hearings on deputy gangs — nonetheless lauded the shifting views on subgroup tattoos.

“My sense is that any step away from a signifier that one belongs to a deputy gang is a step in the fitting course,” he stated. “It’s a sign that the tradition maybe is altering — altering slowly, however any change is sweet.”