LOS ANGELES (CNS) - A Los Angeles police detective announced a lawsuit against the department today, claiming a fellow officer with whom she had an intimate relationship physically abused and extorted her with sexually explicit photos, but LAPD officials refused to take action.
Detective Ysabel Villegas, a 30-year veteran of the department, claims she dated Officer Danny Reedy from 2013-18, and he was physically and verbally abusive to her throughout the relationship.
She also said Reedy “took sexually explicit images of her and then threatened to release those images if she left him or otherwise displeased him,” according to the lawsuit, copies of which were provided by her attorney, Lisa Bloom. When she broke up with him, Reedy “distributed the explicit photographs to fellow officers, including supervisors, who still failed to report Officer Reedy's behavior.”
The lawsuit claims that Villegas told supervisors about Reedy's abusive actions in 2016 and 2017, but her supervisors failed to report Reedy.
The LAPD declined to comment. An attorney for Reedy could not be reached.
“One of the things that hurts so much is that my LAPD family has turned its back against me,” Villegas said at a news conference with Bloom. “To this day, I have not been contacted by phone, email or text by any LAPD manager to offer me anything. No counseling, witness protection detail, threat assessment or simply to check to see how I am doing.”
Bloom blasted the LAPD for not reacting to a case of revenge porn.
“This state, California, has very strong revenge porn laws,” Bloom said. “But they are useless if they are not enforced by our own law enforcement agencies. LAPD officers are required to report known misconduct among their ranks, and they failed to do that in this case.”
Villegas obtained a restraining order against Reedy in January, with a judge ordering Reedy to stay at least 100 yards away from Villegas, surrender all of his firearms and refrain from distributing any photos of Villegas. According to her lawsuit, Villegas went on a “stress leave of absence” due to the situation, and she remains on leave.
Villegas is the estranged wife of former LAPD Assistant Chief Jorge Villegas, and the lawsuit contends he was among the people to whom Reedy sent the explicit photos.
The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages.
Photo: Getty Images