Former Porn Star and Reality TV Host Michael Verdugo Sues WeHo for his Police Job Back
You may have seen his chiseled torso in the gay fetish porn Rope Rituals.
You’ve seen his million dollar smile on HGTV’s Design Star.
And you used to see him on the streets of Hollywood as a cop.
But once Michael Verdugo’s porn past caught up with him in 2008 — Rope Rituals is a bondage fetish film — he was put on leave from his taxpayer-funded job. And now he’s gonna sue to get his job back. And maybe for some cash money, too.
Rituals came out in 1996, when Verdugo was 22 and going by Jeremy Wess, and three years before he became a cop. “I don’t regret it,” he says. “It was a time in my life that I wanted to explore.”
And it was his stab at reality show fame, appearing on Design Star, that alerted the web fiends a former bondage performer was now making a go at interior design. HGTV uninvited the fourth place finisher from its reunion episode. And once police brass found out about it, he was put on leave, and eventually terminated — not because Verdugo is gay, insists the LAPD, but because he lied (omitted?) his porn past. Thus, the discrimination lawsuit, which Verdugo says is based on his sexuality.
Police Officer applicants must undergo an extensive background check, including past criminal record, driving record, employment record, drug testing, psychological and references. An applicant who omits material background information will not be hired, as the applicant must “swear under oath under penalties of perjury “as to the truthfulness of his background.
