A lawsuit filed Tuesday accuses the Los Angeles Police Department of retaliating against an officer after she reported her husband, a fellow police officer, for sharing intimate photographs of her with their coworkers in the department without her knowledge or consent.
In sworn statements, Officer Anna Lamas said she was “horrified” Jan. 30, 2022, when she went to record a message for her now ex-husband on his phone and discovered the alleged breach of trust.
Brady Lamas is facing six misdemeanor violations of penal code section 647j(4), which is commonly referred to as “revenge porn” law, although no motive has been discussed with respect to the allegation. Both Brady and Anna Lamas were Santa Clarita Valley residents at the time of the incident.
This week’s court filing was concerned with their employers’ response: The day Anna Lamas found a KIK chat on her husband’s phone — which included pictures of both of them naked, which she had been unaware of, and had been sent to their coworkers — she contacted her supervising lieutenant.
She also named two other officers in her division who she knew had received the photos and had harassed her in the past, as part of her report of a hostile work environment.
This information was passed on to her supervising lieutenant, Marc Evans, who passed it on to Deputy Chief Allan Hamilton, who passed it on to Assistant Chief Beatrice Grimala, along with the recommendation that the two officers be moved out of the division in order to “reduce the likelihood they would encounter the plaintiff,” according to the lawsuit.
A spokesman for the department declined to address any of the claims, citing the case as part of active litigation.
When Lamas returned to work a little over two weeks after discovering the alleged breach of trust, not only had the two officers not been moved or placed on loan pending the outcome of an Internal Affairs investigation — which the lawsuit alleges is standard practice — the officers “would routinely see plaintiff and subject her to sexual harassment.”
The lawsuit also alleges the department failed to send out any correspondence telling officers to cease and desist in the sharing of the photographs, which furthered the hostile work environment Lamas was facing.
The lawsuit also contends Anna Lamas again reported the harassment earlier this year, and the same lieutenant ultimately failed to address the situation again, which was part of the reason she was filing suit.
Her lawsuit claims sexual harassment and retaliation in violation of the Fair Housing and Employment Act, as well as whistleblower retaliation and failure to take all reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment and retaliation in violation of the FHEA.
Anna Lamas’ attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit.
Brady Lamas is due back in court Feb. 7 in his criminal matter for an 8:30 a.m. pretrial conference.
The separate civil matter does not yet have a date set in the L.A, County Superior Court system.
Brady Lamas was initially assigned “home leave” following the allegations and then an investigation by the department’s Internal Affairs Division.
LAPD officials confirmed Thursday that Brady Lamas is currently “a full-time police officer assigned to Gang and Narcotics Division.”
