LOS ANGELES (CN) —For decades, the Lunada Bay Boys have been famous among surfers as the leading example of localism — that is, when a group of surfers stake out a beach as their own, and bully outsiders into leaving.
“Visiting surfers since the early 1970s have had rocks thrown at them while walking down the cliffside Lunada trail, and returned from the water to find their car windows broken and their tires slashed — the work of local surfers, the sons of millionaires, determined to keep their break free of outsiders," reads an old entry from the Encyclopedia of Surfing.
Two plaintiffs in a civil trial, currently in its second week, say that the Bay Boys' harassment and intimidation is an organized effort and amounts to a violation of California's Coastal Act, since it is designed to prevent access to a public beach. They also say that the city of Palos Verdes Estates, which owns Lunada Bay, is complicit in what they've said is a "conspiracy."
But this week, a number of witnesses have called into question just how organized that practice is.
Sang Lee was initially named as a Bay Boy, and defendant in the case. Lee — along with all but one Bay Boy — previously reached a settlement with the plaintiffs, vowing to stay away from the beach for a year or pay a fine.
Lee took the stand, on Monday, as a somewhat hostile witness for the plaintiffs, and insisted that there was no carefully planned conspiracy to keep out non-locals.
"Is it true that you believe Lunada Bay belongs to you and a select group of people?" plaintiffs' attorney Vic Otten asked Lee.
"No, I don’t think so," said Lee nonchalantly. "It has a special place in my heart. We try to clean up the area." He also disputed the notion that Lunada Bay had a "world class" wave, saying it was merely "better than average."
Otten asked Lee about a long, rambling email Lee sent to some other surfers in which Lee referred to himself as a "pirate" and said he would "die by these rules," adding, "what we have here in our backyard is priceless."
When asked about what rules he was referring to, Lee said, "What are the rules? There’s no rules. I don’t know why I said that."
He later added: "I don’t know, maybe I was drinking."
Otten asked if surfers at Lunada Bay gave deference to people who'd been coming there for longer.
"That’s respect, not rules," Lee said.
When asked why he called himself a pirate, Lee said, "I just said that cause I kind of like pirates."
On Tuesday, plaintiffs called a surfer, Thomas Long, who said he'd been harassed at Lunada Bay multiple times. As he walked toward the waters, Long testified, another surfer said to him, "What the fuck are you doing here? You’re blowing it being here. Those guys are going to eat you alive.” Another told him: "You’re not welcome here.”
On cross examination, defense attorney Harry Safarian pointed out that Long had never been threatened or subjected to any violence.
"You were told you were doing things inconsistent with surfing etiquette," Safarian said. Long agreed.
The plaintiffs also called Steve Barber, a 30-year veteran of the Palos Verdes Estates police department. Attorney for the plaintiffs Kurt Franklin tried to demonstrate, through Barber's testimony, that the Palos Verdes Estate cops don't take surf gang localism seriously. But Barber disputed this.
"What is the stated policy regarding claims of locals harassing outsiders?" Palos Verdes Estates attorney Christopher Pisano asked, during cross-examination.
"If anything is brought to our attention, we will investigate it to the fullest," said Barber.
When questioned by Otten about the organizational structure of the Bay Boys, Barber replied, "I don’t pretend to know what the hierarchy of the Bay Boys is. I don’t know who they want to let into their little club. I just don’t know."
Superior Court Judge Lawrence Riff appeared to be growing impatient with the proceedings. He had hoped the trial would be wrapping up by the end of the week, but that hope was laid to rest on Tuesday.
When asked about the timeline for the rest of the trial, Franklin said he had a list of 17 victims to call, in addition to experts, city officials and reported Bay Boys themselves. Riff told Franklin to winnow his list down.
"It will be unduly cumulative, and will be an undue consumption of time," Riff said.
Riff has said that the trial will have to proceed in fits and starts after this week in order to accommodate his increasingly busy calendar, and go on hiatus for the last week of August. On Tuesday, Riff suggested that the parties should consider returning to the negotiating table during the break.
"If there is an option for settling, I think everyone ought to pursue it," Riff said.
Franklin said his clients would be open to settling, adding, "Our clients don’t want money. They want to see equitable relief."
In a brief filed on Monday, Franklin laid out just what his clients are asking the city to do: abate all non-permitted development at the beach, like the makeshift huts that have come and gone over the years, and report all complaints of harassment and localism to the Coastal Commission.
They also want the city to install a panoply of improvements to encourage public access: signs welcoming visitors and pointing them toward available parking, upgrades to the steep and rocky "goat trail" leading down to the beach making it easier to descend, a "blufftop sea telescope," as well as seating, water fountains bike racks and railing all along the blufftop.
As for the last remaining Bay Boy defendant, Alan Johnston, the plaintiffs are asking the judge to order him to stay away from the beach for three years and to pay an unspecified fine. Johnston, who now lives in Singapore but has flown back to LA and is expected to testify on Friday, is not inclined to settle, according to his attorney.
Riff asked the parties if they would be open to private mediation. Both Franklin and Christopher Pisano, an attorney for the city of Palos Verdes Estates, said they would be — though Pisano noted, "There’s a big gap in terms of viewpoints in this case."
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