Female LAPD cop hospitalized with high blood pressure after her fake nudes were circulated among colleagues
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: A female LAPD captain reportedly suffered a major depressive disorder and had to be hospitalized after a photoshopped nude photo of her went viral among her colleagues. Despite making complaints, Lillian Carranza received no support from her bosses and no action was taken.
The veteran police officer was taken to hospital on Christmas Eve in 2018 after her blood pressure was alarmingly high, a civil trial now heard. Los Angeles Police Chief Michel Moore also testified during the trial on Thursday, September 22, and claimed that the pictures were circulated to “ridicule, embarrass or harass or smear” Carranza’s reputation.
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In December of that year, Carranza, who is now heading the Gangs and Narcotics division, spoke to her seniors and informed them that the topless pictures were actually not of her and that they were morphed. However, instead of telling the department members about it, the cop’s bosses apparently ignored it, dreading “it had the potential of becoming viral,” The Los Angeles Times reported.
In 2019, Carranza filed a suit, accusing the police department of sexual harassment and building an unfavorable work environment while demanding “damages for emotional distress”. In her court filings, she stated, “I felt hurt, abandoned, and devalued by my superiors who took no steps to prevent known harm to me from occurring and who stood by and watched, encouraged or simply looked the other way as I was ridiculed, humiliated and degraded by fellow LAPD employees, despite my persistent pleas for help.”
The declaration papers also added that the 33-year LAPD veteran claimed, "The facial features of the woman in the picture bore a striking resemblance to me, although the photograph was not actually of me. In fact, I concluded that my own eye appears to have been Photoshopped into the picture.”
A year later, in 2020, Carranza said, “Due to the large-scale and mostly anonymous nature of the actions of LAPD employees targeting me related to the nude photograph, I have been left to constantly wonder and worry about whether all the employees I encounter as I go about carrying out my duties with LAPD have participated in or observed the circulation of the nude picture in question in the department.”
“As a result, all or nearly all of my professional interactions and relationships have been negatively impacted by the harassment at issue,” she added.
At the time, defense attorney Mark W Waterman had even tried to discard the suit. He had asserted, “It is undisputed that (Carranza) did not see or have knowledge that the subject photo was in her immediate workplace, that no one shared the subject photo with her in her immediate workplace and that she was not directly subjected to any harassing conduct — not even gawking — in her workplace. She has presented no evidence that her direct work environment was permeated by abusive sexual harassment.”