Michael "Mike" Verdugo, the fired Hollywood officer who once appeared in a gay porn film, can keep his police certification, a 19-member state panel ruled Thursday.
"We won,'' Verdugo, 36, told The Miami Herald just after the Florida Department of Law Enforcement hearing in Tampa. "They voted unanimously. We're done. My certification stands. I'm happy. Shocked -- in a good way.''
Hollywood Police Lt. Scott Pardon, a department spokesman, declined to comment on the FDLE ruling, which places Verdugo on a one-year probationary period and requires him to take a state-approved ethics-training course.
The Hollywood Police Department fired Verdugo last year for not disclosing previous employment -- the porn film -- on his job application, his lawyers said.
Verdugo, who also was a former Design Star contestant on HGTV, has sued to get his job back. The case is scheduled to be heard in November in Broward Circuit Court.
"Now this really puts the cards in Mikey's hand, the appeal of Mikey's arbitration,'' said Wilton Manors attorney George Castrataro, who is handling the case for free.
Castrataro said he believes the arbitrator in the case "didn't have a strong comfort level at all with LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender] issues.''
The case went to arbitration, and the department fired Verdugo after a 1996 video turned up online showing the future cop in a 15-minute bondage scene from a gay porn flick called Rope Rituals. HGTV also dumped Verdugo from Design Star, a reality program in which 12 home designers compete for their own TV show.
Verdugo, who grew up in Hialeah and was known on TV as Mikey V, says he made the film for $700 at age 22 as a way of exploring his sexuality.
He performed nude, but didn't engage in hard-core sex, he said.
Three years later, he decided to become a police officer.
Verdugo said it never occurred to him to put the movie on his résumé when he first became a Lauderhill cop in 1999 or when he applied to the Hollywood department two years later.
From Steve Rothaus’ Gay South Florida:
Michael Verdugo’s 15 minutes of porn film fame cost him his job as a Hollywood police officer and his budding career as “Mikey V” of HGTV’s Design Star.
Verdugo is fighting to get back his police job and is preparing to sue the police department for discrimination.
Hollywood Police fired Verdugo — and Design Star dumped him — after a 1996 video turned up on the Internet showing the future cop in a 15-minute bondage scene from a gay porn flick called Rope Rituals.
“I don’t regret it,” Verdugo, 35, said of his one-time appearance at age 22 in porn, three years before he became a police officer. “It was a time in my life that I wanted to explore.”
Verdugo — billed as Jeremy Wess in Rope Rituals — said he performed nude in the short scene, but didn’t engage in hardcore sex. “It was all role-playing bondage. I was tied. I used handcuffs later on in my career.”
Just after the video turned up in July 2008, Design Star uninvited Mikey V from a reunion episode. Hollywood Police put Verdugo on administrative leave with pay. An investigation followed and the department fired him in January 2009 for not disclosing on his police application that he had made the porn film. An arbitrator recently upheld the termination.
Now, Verdugo has asked his attorney, Alberto Milian, to file a civil lawsuit against Hollywood Police for wrongful termination and discrimination.
“When you’re a gay cop in a paramilitary organization like law enforcement, a lot of discrimination exists,” said Milian, a Coral Gables criminal defense attorney who also specializes in labor law for police officers and firefighters. “He was a damn good cop. This guy was an asset and there’s no doubt his talents were very useful to the people of Hollywood.”
A police officer in Hollywood, Florida has been taken off duty after it was alleged he starred in a porn film five years before he joined the force.
Michael Verdugo, 34, has become well-known from his appearance on reality TV show "Design Star."
Earlier this week he was put on administrative leave with pay by the Hollywood Police Department after reports he starred in a porn film called Rope Rituals in 1996.
He joined the force in 2001.
Al Milian, Mr Verdugo's lawyer, told NBC6.net in South Florida:
"He's a great cop with a distinguished record of serving this community for many years. I think every police officer during their career are subject to investigations. The overwhelming number of allegations are always found to be unfounded. I think when you have a certain lifestyle in the 21st century, you're always going to be subject to heightened scrutiny."
Mr Milian refused to comment on whether or not the allegations against his client are true.
Last year a 22-year-old was fired from a branch of sandwich chain Subway after a customer recognised him from his gay porn work and complained. Kurt Wild was employed in a restaurant near St Louis, Missouri.
Source: PinkNews.co.uk
Michael "Mike" Verdugo, the fired Hollywood officer who once appeared in a gay porn film, can keep his police certification, a 19-member state panel ruled Thursday.
