Former Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva has agreed to testify before a civilian oversight panel tasked with investigating deputy gangs operating within the Sheriff’s Department, ending, for now, a years-long, back-and-forth court battle over whether the sheriff would be compelled to appear.
In a Dec. 13 letter to the county’s Sheriff Civilian Oversight Commission, an attorney for Villanueva said he was “very willing to testify before the COC” and would appear at their next meeting on Jan. 12.
“Former Sheriff Villanueva will attend … the COC meeting and answer any questions you have under oath,” wrote Linda Miller Savitt, an attorney for Villanueva.
Neither Savitt nor Villaneuva immediately responded to requests for comment about the letter.
That letter came less than a week after Superior Court Judge Anne Richardson granted L.A. County’s petition asking her to order both Villanueva and his former second-in-command, former undersheriff Tim Murakami, to explain why they would not answer the Civilian Oversight Commission’s subpoenas.
Richardson scheduled a hearing for Jan. 23 in her Downtown L.A. courtroom.
After receiving Villanueva’s letter, county attorneys asked Richardson to delay the hearing for the former sheriff. But they also asked the judge to keep the hearing on the calendar for Murakami, who as of Wednesday had still not responded to the commission’s subpoena.
“Former Sheriff Villanueva has agreed to appear and testify before the COC … the County will report to the Court after [the meeting] whether former Sheriff Villanueva complied fully and completely with the COC’s subpoenas,” county attorneys wrote to Richardson. “The County respectfully requests that the Court leave on calendar the show cause hearing … for Respondent Timothy K. Murakami.”
Savitt represents both Villanueva and Murakami. In 2022, Murakami refused to answer a commission subpoena stating in a letter to the court that he had “a…
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