Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva’s second in command used a Japanese racial slur to refer to employees of color and drew a rebuke from a county oversight panel for his behavior, according to law enforcement sources and court filings.
After reviewing a sheriff’s investigation into the claims against Undersheriff Tim Murakami, the County Equity Oversight Panel concluded Murakami violated the department’s policy against discrimination and urged the Sheriff’s Department to take “appropriate administrative action” against him, an internal record of the case reviewed by The Times shows.
The record — a letter from a sheriff’s official formally notifying a lieutenant who made the accusationsof the panel’s decision — does not address whether the panel found that Murakami referred to Black and Latino employees using the slur, considered to be the Japanese version of the N-word. Murakami denied the allegations.
In an interview with The Times, Murakami denied using the slur toward subordinates. He said he had heard the term and used it as a child, but now, “it’s just not part of my vocabulary.” He said he did not know if he considers the word derogatory.
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