Retired LAPD Lt. Jimmy Sakoda stepped before no less than 11 TV cameras and dozens of reporters Saturday to speak about a Los Angeles homicide case he has followed for more than 25 years.
Dressed in a dapper dark suit and gray tie, Sakoda offered no new details about the convoluted case involving Kazuyoshi Miura, a Japanese businessman who allegedly conspired to kill his wife on a downtown Los Angeles street in 1981. More than a decade after being acquitted of the crime in Japan, Miura was arrested Feb. 22 by U.S. authorities in Saipan acting on a warrant issued years ago by Los Angeles police and the district attorney's office on charges of murder and conspiracy.
But to the roomful of mostly Japanese journalists -- who not only attended but also arranged the Redondo Beach news conference -- Sakoda's appearance was news enough. It gave them one more peg for one more story to feed the voracious appetite in Japan for news, any news, about a case considered much bigger than O.J. Simpson's.
Like Simpson, Miura has persistently proclaimed his innocence.
Since Miura's arrest in Saipan, dozens of reporters have been dispatched to Los Angeles from Tokyo, New York and Washington, D.C. Scrambling for any shred of news, they have plied the police with interview requests, camping out at the home of Los Angeles Police Department Chief William J. Bratton. They have tracked down old witnesses and prosecutors and bombarded Sakoda until he finally agreed to speak Saturday.
Among those present was Noriaki Takada from Nippon TV, who flew in from New York and may have to forgo coverage of the space shuttle launch in Florida for Miura, he said.
Hiroo Watanabe, a Washington, D.C., correspondent from Japan's newspaper Sankei Shimbun, said he was taken off the presidential campaign for round-the-clock coverage of Miura; he will miss the Texas primary Tuesday as he and his Los Angeles bureau colleague, Michiya Matsuo, churn out stories every day for both morning and evening editions on every angle they can think of. (Angles include an interview with LAPD Det. Rick Jackson, reaction of the Japanese American community, the involvement of Sakoda, and differences in Japanese and U.S. legal processes.)
"It's really tiring," Matsuo said with a laugh. "It's hard to find new developments."
