Case Against Japanese Dignitary Pursued : Investigations: Gift shop agreed not to press shoplifting charges after mayor contacted airport police. But L.A. police referred matter to prosecutors.

Authorities are pursuing a shoplifting case against a Japanese dignitary who was released within hours of his arrest last month after Mayor Tom Bradley contacted police at Los Angeles International Airport.

Los Angeles police detectives presented the case to city prosecutors, who will decide whether to file misdemeanor counts against Yukio Umemura for allegedly stealing merchandise at an airport gift shop, according to Peter Covette, an assistant supervisor in the city attorney’s office.

Earlier this week, the district attorney’s office declined to press felony grand theft charges because “clearly this was not the profile of a professional thief,” said Ronald H. Carroll, chief deputy of the district attorney’s Santa Monica branch.

Umemura, 59, quit his post Thursday as chairman of the Nagoya City Assembly, according to a Japanese press report. The resignation occurred the day after The Times disclosed that Umemura had been arrested on April 14 for allegedly taking two Gucci wallets and a leather purse valued at $450 from a duty-free airport gift shop.

The shoplifting case was dropped by airport police after Bradley contacted a watch commander to express concern for Umemura and the concessionaire agreed not to press charges, according to police reports. The mayor has refused to discuss his involvement in the case, but his press spokesman said Bradley did nothing inappropriate.

“The mayor has always expected the authorities involved, the police and legal agencies, to do their jobs,” said Bill Chandler. “The mayor was not concerned then or now what actions the authorities took.”

A police tape obtained by The Times on Friday indicates that watch commanders for both the Airport Police and the Los Angeles Police Department agonized over how to release Umemura on a felony complaint without violating department procedures.

On the tape, Airport Police Sgt. Carolyn Harris makes several references in conversations to the first call she received from Bradley and a visit to the station by Jeffrey A. Matsui, the mayor’s executive assistant.

For example, Harris left a message at the home of her captain to inform him that “I just got a call from Mayor Bradley concerning (Umemura),” according to the tape.

The tape does not contain the mayor’s conversations because Bradley called on an administrative line, police said.

In a call to LAPD Sgt. David J. Crosbie, Harris explained her predicament:

“I need some help on something. We’ve got a gentleman who was picked up for shoplifting over in Bradley Terminal. He took about $450 worth of stuff. In itself, that is no problem. The Duty Free (Shoppers Ltd.) security people held him and we brought him in. But since then, we found out that he is chairman of the Nagoya City Assembly and . . . the mayor has called and (the mayor) also has sent an executive assistant with him.”

Harris told Crosbie that airport police “were contemplating” releasing Umemura, but she noted that he was accused of a felony.

Crosbie responded with an expletive. After leaving the phone for a moment, the LAPD sergeant returned and said: “OK. He has to be booked for grand theft.”

“OK,” the airport sergeant said with a groan.

“He has to be booked and bailed out,” Crosbie said.

“Yeah, that’s what we were trying to avoid,” said Harris. “If Duty Free were willing to drop the charges, could we go that way?”

“That’s up to the store.”

But Harris noted that Duty Free wanted to press charges at the time. “They aren’t budging on it too much.”

Crosbie instructed her how to handle Umemura’s release. “You write out a long police report. I’d make a long, long entry that you discussed it with the Duty Free people and all these people come down and people were willing to drop the charges. Make sure your boss approves it . . . at least you’re covered.”

Harris concluded the conversation by saying that airport police would attempt to solicit Duty Free’s cooperation.

“We’ve got interpeters, and we’ve got an assistant to the mayor in the station now,” she said. “We’re trying to work it out through Duty Free. We got them on the line, so maybe we’ll be able to work it out.”

Police records show that Duty Free officials wanted to press charges against Umemura, but changed their minds after conferring with Matsui, the mayor’s aide. Both Duty Free and Umemura then signed a mutual waiver agreeing to drop all criminal charges and not to publicize the incident.

When top Los Angeles Police Department administrators learned of the incident through a Times inquiry, they decided to file the case with prosecutors, police spokesman Cmdr. William Booth said Friday.

“It is not for (the airport police) to decide what the disposition should be,” Booth said. “That is for the prosecution agencies who are charged with that responsibility.”

Airport Police Chief Gil Sandoval said Friday that he accepted the LAPD’s decision to revive the case.

“When (Duty Free) signed a waiver saying they didn’t want to prosecute, we didn’t think we had a case because they didn’t want to pursue it,” he said. “If (LAPD officials) feel that they want to get the district attorney’s and city attorney’s opinion on it, that is their right.”

The day before the airport incident, Bradley and Umemura exchanged gifts in the mayor’s office. The mayor tentatively plans to travel to Japan later this month as part of a sister-city agreement to take a replica of the Hollywood Walk of Fame to Nagoya.

Umemura, despite denying any wrongdoing, resigned over “the many troubles” caused by the incident, according to a Japanese news report.

Peter Langenberg, a Los Angeles attorney and a member of the Los Angeles-Nagoya Sister City Affiliation, who is an acquaintance of Umemura, said: “It is a very common practice in Japan for people to accept responsibility for . . . public embarrassment by resigning.”