#Compton courthouse tattoo trial

Tanaka’s portrayal of himself as an outstanding supervisor who was above reproach. When it came time for cross-examination, prosecutor Brandon Fox worked to challenge Mr. Tanaka’s actions during the summer of 2011 when the hiding of Anthony Brown and other events took place.Īt trial, Tanaka himself took the stand, where he countered the prosecution’s portrait by presenting himself as someone with an “unwavering sense of right or wrong,” who attempted to impart that ethic to those working under him. This, according to the prosecution, was the larger context surrounding Mr. During his trial, the government alleged, among other things, that he helped hide a inmate/federal informant Anthony Brown from his FBI handlers in an effort to obstruct a federal grand jury investigation into corruption and brutality in the county’s troubled jail system.Īt Tanaka’s trial, government prosecutors presented their case in two parts that they labeled “the crime” and “the context.” The context, according to the government, was Tanaka’s style of supervising, which-they suggested-favored a cowboy brand of law enforcement where toughness was allowed for- even required-and deputies were encouraged to step over the legal line, as needed, and subsequently protected from any consequences of their actions. Paul Tanaka, if you’ll remember, was convicted of obstruction of justice and conspiracy to obstruct justice.

#Compton courthouse tattoo trial

Tanaka still had a Vikings tattoo on his ankle,” never mind that the Vikings insignia was simply “the Lynwood substation mascot,” according to Sevilla.Įchoing his client’s statements during the trial that took place in late March and early April, 2016, Sevilla said that the Vikings basically engaged “intramural sports competition,” and that anyone could join.

Lead government prosecutor, Brandon Fox, Sevilla said, “kept at it for ten pages, about this lawless gang engaged in civil liberty misconduct. Tanaka was a “member of a gang of lawless Lynnwood deputies engaged in civil liberties violations.”

“In the Paul Tanaka trial,” said Sevilla to the panel of three judges selected to hear the case for the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, the government made a tremendous point of claiming that Mr. During the Monday appeals hearing for Paul Tanaka, the former powerful number two man of Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, his attorney, Charles Sevilla, talked mostly about the Lynwood Vikings and why the prosecution’s insistence on trying to paint Tanaka as a member of the notorious deputy clique meant his client could not get a fair trial.