L.A. City Council candidate Rudy Martinez was investigated in 2005 for possessing badge of slain LAPD officer

The Eagle Rock businessman seeking to unseat Los Angeles City Councilman Jose Huizar abruptly quit his post as a reserve police officer five years ago after investigators found he had a police badge — one issued to an officer who died in the line of duty.

Rudy Martinez, then serving as a volunteer at the Los Angeles Police Department, “refused to cooperate” with investigators and quickly resigned after he was asked about the badge, which was found by the employee of a towing company in 2004, according to a police report.

“He was uncooperative from the onset of this investigation, refused to be interviewed, and obstructed the investigators from carrying out and fulfilling their duties in appropriately investigating this matter,” said the report, a copy of which was provided to The Times by Huizar’s campaign.

The report, which was heavily redacted, said Martinez had Badge No. 8029. That badge was issued to Officer David Kubly, who died in 1979, said Alicia Pinedo, a management aide in the Police Department.

Martinez campaign consultant Eric Hacopian acknowledged that the candidate had a badge but had received it from the LAPD so he could make miniatures for a celebrity golf tournament run by the department. Hacopian called the matter a “non-issue” intended to distract voters “from the real issues.”

Hacopian also said Martinez was unaware that the badge had originally been issued to an officer who was shot to death.

Martinez is running in the March 8 election to represent Huizar’s Eastside district. Huizar campaign consultant Parke Skelton said the report shows that Martinez “definitely has a problem with the truth.”

“Obviously he did not want an investigation into his activities, which is why he obstructed the investigation,” Skelton said.

Possessing a police officer’s badge without the authority to do so is also a violation of the city’s municipal code and can result in jail time and a $1,000 fine, said Bill Carter, head deputy for City. Atty. Carmen Trutanich.

The revelations contained in the LAPD report, written in 2005 and provided to Huizar’s campaign as part of a public records request, are only the latest to surface in a brutally negative campaign between two men who were once considered friends.

Martinez and two former Huizar staffers said last week that FBI agents had interviewed them about the councilman’s financial dealings. Huizar, in turn, shone a spotlight on $6,000 in contributions to the Martinez campaign that have become the subject of an inquiry by Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley.

Cooley deputies also are conducting an inquiry into Huizar’s consulting work for a union nonprofit while he was on the Los Angeles school board. And Martinez has four convictions that stretch from 1985 to 1992, including two counts of misdemeanor battery.

Martinez served as a Police Explorer from 1980 to 1984 and as an LAPD volunteer from 2000 to 2005. He did not identify the person who provided him with the badge, saying through a spokesman that the badge was included in a package of items for a fundraiser, along with a mug and a towel.

Martinez gave a similar response five years ago, saying he was planning to make “trinkets” from the badge. In their report, internal affairs investigators called his answer a “fabricated explanation.”

The police report, completed in 2005, said Martinez pulled over on the 134 Freeway to help move a car that had been in an accident. He left the wallet with the police badge in his car, which was then found by an employee of the towing company that was on the scene.

The towing company then contacted the LAPD, which began its investigation. When officers approached Martinez, he provided a series of answers that were “not only highly unlikely but implausible to a degree that defies belief and logic,” the report said.

The report said police were unable to determine how Martinez got a “second duplicate badge,” adding that he may have had it while working for the LAPD’s public affairs section.

Huizar campaign consultant Skelton said Martinez needs to explain whether he ever used the badge to impersonate an officer, which would be a misdemeanor. “Why would he be carrying it around in an official LAPD billfold if he wasn’t flashing it at people?” Skelton asked.

Hacopian said Martinez never did and assertions to the contrary are “slanderous.”

david.zahniser@latimes.com