Veteran female LAPD commander hospitalized on Christmas Eve with panic as fake topless photo shared

A veteran LAPD officer was so traumatized by sharing fake nude photos of her among her colleagues that she was hospitalized in panic and stress on Christmas Eve, a court has heard.

Captain Lillian Carranza, who is now the head of the Gang and Narcotics Department, claims she told her bosses that the topless photos they claimed to show her were not real and were Photoshopped – but they refused to tell her colleagues.

She claims her superiors knew about the photo but didn’t tell her, and she didn’t hear about it until a friend from the force told her.

She is suing the LAPD for sexual harassment and creating a hostile environment, and is seeking damages.

Carranza’s attorney, Greg Smith, told the court on Thursday that she was so humiliated by the situation that she sank into a deep depression and had to be taken to the hospital on Christmas Eve with a rising blood pressure.

Carranza holds a press conference to announce the arrest of four suspects in connection with a spate of high-profile burglaries at the homes of singers, athletes and other celebrities in Los Angeles in October 2018

Smith said that even after she sued the department for the incident, the chief did not publicly tell his officers it was fake or instruct them not to share the image.

Carranza’s lawyer said she was so upset by the Photoshopped photos that she was hospitalized

Carranza said in court documents that she felt “hurt, abandoned and devalued by my superiors … who took no steps to prevent known harm from happening to me and who stood by and watched, encouraged or just the other looked away as I was ridiculed, humiliated and humiliated by fellow LAPD employees, despite my persistent pleas for help.”

She believes parts of her face in the nude photo were Photoshopped.

“I noticed that the facial features of the woman in the photo bore a striking resemblance to me, even though the photo was not really mine,” she said in her statement.

“In fact, I came to the conclusion that my own eye appears to have been Photoshopped in the photo.”

Carranza is a 33-year veteran of the LAPD and says she has been repeatedly humiliated

Carranza is seeking damages in her trial and is expected to testify on Tuesday

On Thursday, LAPD chief Michel Moore testified that he believed the image was intended to “mocker, embarrass, harass or smear” her.

But, he said, he opposed her request to make a statement, saying it was a fake photo, thinking it would only serve to draw attention to it.

Moore said he was instead focused on finding the “person responsible for sending it.”

Debra McCarthy, who is now retired but served as a former deputy chief and oversaw the LAPD investigation as chief of the Professional Standards Bureau, said she supported Moore’s decision.

She said Carranza contacted them after the investigation was underway and asked to spread the word that it wasn’t her.

McCarthy said she discussed that request with Moore, but believed a statement from the chief could “give it the potential” and harm their investigation.

LAPD chief Michel Moore testified on Thursday that he did not want to inform police about the fake images because he believed it would spread them.

Carranza has to testify on Tuesday.

She said the 2018 photo incident was one of many abusive incidents in her career — noting that in 2013, a detective giving a training class referred to her as “a really cute little Hispanic lady,” and that she was “a number of times was swapped’ .’

Months after Carranza filed her complaint, the city council approved a $1.8 million payout to a female officer who accused an internal affairs lieutenant of sexual harassment and ordered her to supervise her when she rejected his advances. The Los Angeles Times reported.

In 2020, the city paid $1.5 million to settle a lawsuit brought by a police detective who said she had been assaulted, abused and blackmailed by a fellow officer and that department officials ignored her complaints.