(NewsNation) — A Los Angeles police officer is suing the city one year after her husband, also an officer, was charged with misdemeanors after he allegedly sent sexually explicit photos of the woman to colleagues.
The woman’s lawsuit, filed Wednesday, charges the police department with sexual harassment and whistleblower retaliation, the Los Angeles Times reported. She is seeking unspecified damages.
The woman’s husband, Brady Lamas, is awaiting trial on six counts of disorderly conduct by distributing a private intimate image. He was arrested last year, the Times reported, after his wife discovered he was sending nude photos of her to other officers.
She claims his actions led to her being harassed by colleagues at work over the past year and that the department failed to prevent the images from being further shared.
“The department simply did not care enough to do all that was necessary to protect plaintiff,” the lawsuit states, according to the Times.
The woman alleges that two co-workers began making “unusual” comments toward her such as “Brady is a lucky man” and “He doesn’t know how good he has it.” She came to understand why the comments were being made after she discovered the images on her husband’s phone that were being sent via text message and messaging apps WhatsApp and Kik, the Times reported.
She reported Lamas to a supervisor, filed a complaint with the sheriff’s office and was interviewed by Internal Affairs but feared the harassment would continue, according to the Times.
“What is worse is this humiliation will keep repeating, perhaps forever, because the private pictures and graphic videos are now in the hands of strangers and multiple co-workers at the LAPD,” she stated in her complaint.