A veteran Los Angeles police captain claims she was so distraught when co-workers shared a fake nude photo of her that she had to check herself into a hospital on Christmas Eve.
Greg Smith, a lawyer for LAPD Capt. Lillian L. Carranza, told jurors Thursday that when the 33-year department veteran learned about the circulated doctored photo, her blood pressure skyrocketed, landing her in a hospital bed on the holiday, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Carranza alleges in a 2018 lawsuit that department brass knew the “deeply humiliating” naked image was being circulated within the force, along with disparaging comments about her, but never alerted her. The trial on her suit began this week, and she’s slated to testify Tuesday.
LAPD Chief Michel Moore testified Thursday the image was intended to “ridicule, embarrass or harass or smear” Carranza. However, he said that after Carranza sued the department in late 2018 and asked him to notify the 13,000 members of the force the photo was a fake, he declined because doing so might create “a viral interest, human or otherwise” and a “potential for further embarrassment,” with others potentially seeking out the image.
Carranza said in recent court documents she believes parts of her face were Photoshopped onto the nude image, according to the Los Angeles Times.
“I noted that the facial features of the woman in the picture bore a striking resemblance to me, although the photograph was not actually of me,” she said in a declaration. “In fact, I concluded that my own eye appears to have been Photoshopped into the picture.”
She also said she 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.”
Carranza, who now heads the agency’s Gangs and Narcotics division, also claims she was victimized in 2013 when a detective supervisor was captured on audio telling her that she was a “very cute little Hispanic lady” who had been “swapped around a bunch of times,” according to her lawsuit.
The incidents are part of a sexist culture within the department that subjects women to ongoing verbal harassment, Carranza maintains.