(WSVN) - A scandal over a sex tape at one South Florida police department has a mother and daughter suing — and their outrage goes all the way to the top. 7’s Brian Entin investigates in our special report, “Chief Concern.”
Brian Entin: “I wanted to ask you about the claims you showed a mom and daughter who work here a pornographic video.”
Chief Pedro Taylor, Florida City Police: “That’s a legal matter that will be handled in court.”
Florida City Police Chief Pedro Taylor is not talking about the meeting this mom and daughter say humiliated them.
Suzzette Medina-Vives: “And to be watching something of that nature with my mom, to be honest, is just sick. To me, what that was, was just sick.”
Both Suzzette and her mom Susan worked at the Florida City Police Department. Suzzette was a dispatcher. Her mom still works there as an administrative assistant.
They say, in 2013, Chief Taylor called them in for a meeting at work — and played a sex tape.
Susan Vives: “The tape was a sexual videotape. A man having full-blown intercourse with a female.”
The man in the sex tape is a Florida City Police officer who was Suzzette’s supervisor.
The mom and daughter say there were rumors the woman in the video was Suzzette, but it was not her.
Suzzette Medina-Vives: “It’s so obvious that it’s a darker complexion woman. And then they had said something about you can tell by the sound of my voice in the video talking. There was no talking. Like, he turned up the volume only for us to hear moaning the whole time.”
Susan Vives: “The embarrassment, the humiliation. There’s no words to describe that moment.”
The city investigated the women’s allegations, and the police chief admitted to showing them the sex tape.
But he said the mom “…wanted to see the video and asked to see the video” to dispel rumors about her daughter.
Susan and Suzzette told the investigator that is not how it happened.
Susan Vives: “I’m like, ‘Why are you showing me this? Why are you bringing me in and showing me this?'”
The city’s investigator concluded in 2013 that the police chief “may have used poor judgment” for allowing the women to see the sex tape, but their claims of sexual harassment were “unsubstantiated.”
But last month, there was a new twist. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission finished its own investigation, concluding “…there is reason to believe that violations have occurred…”
Brian Entin: “The EEOC now says there is reasonable cause that it did happen.”
Chief Pedro Taylor: “That’s not so.”
Brian Entin: “I have the letter right here if you want to see it. It was just released by the EEOC.”
Gary Costales, attorney for women: “To have a mother and daughter shown a pornographic video in the workplace by their boss just speaks for itself.”
The mom and daughter are now suing the city.
Susan Vives: “It was such a mixture of emotions because I was angry, I was devastated, and I was embarrassed. I was humiliated as a female.”
The mother no longer reports directly to the chief. An attorney hired by the city says, after investigating, there was just not enough evidence to support the women’s claims. The city is now preparing to defend itself in court.
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