The former Hollywood cop who claims he lost his job for appearing in a gay bondage porno has filed a lawsuit seeking to get his badge back.
Michael Verdugo, 35, filed the suit yesterday in a Broward Circuit court, according to the South Florida Gay News.
Verdugo claims he was fired last January for being openly gay and for appearing in the porno, even though it was filmed long before he became a cop.
In 1996, Verdugo, then 22, was in a 15-minute scene in "Rope Rituals." Though he didn't do any hardcore sex scenes, he appeared naked and shackled.
A Lauderhill cop in 1999, Verdugo joined the Hollywood force in 2001. In 2008, he appeared on HGTV's "Design Star" as Mikey V.
When the "Rope Rituals" tape surfaced that year, Verdugo lost his cop job and spot on "Design Star."
Hollywood officials said Verdugo lost his job for withholding the porno tape when he applied for a job with their police force.
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Verdugo's lawyers claim his failure to disclose the porno doesn't matter, since it was completely legal and his omission of it on his employment application was inadvertent.
"If he had failed to disclose he spent one day appearing in a Shakespearean play no one would have cared less," attorney Norm Kent said. "It was a bias against homosexuality that drove Hollywood up a wall.”
An arbitration hearing between Verdugo and Hollywood went in the city's favor, but now Verdugo wants the arbitration award vacated.
Verdugo said in January that he just wants to rejoin the boys in blue and possibly help other cops who might want to come out.
"They don't want to come out because they see what happened to me. It's a double-edge sword," Verdugo said. “Discrimination is still huge in the police community. It's just huge."
