Fired Florida Cop Files Suit

Ostensibly fired over failing to disclose his appearance in a gay porn film, former Hollywood, Fla. police officer Mike Verdugo has filed a wrongful termination suit against the city.

Verdugo filed suit in Broward County circuit court Wednesday, reports SouthFloridaGayNews.com. City officials claim Verdugo deliberately omitted his onetime appeareance in a 1996 gay bondage movie from his job application. The former police officer denies this, saying his participation in the film was not illegal and happened years ago, so it wasn't necessary to include it in the application.

Verdugo and his lawyer contend that his firing -- upheld by an arbitrator they say was biased -- is rooted in both homophobia and the fact that Verdugo previously filed a successful sexual harassment complaint against his supervisor at the police department.

"If he had failed to disclose he spent one day appearing in a Shakespearean play, no one would have cared less," Norm Kent, Verdugo's lawyer and publisher of SouthFloridaGayNews.com, said in a press release. "It was a bias against homosexuality that drove Hollywood up a wall."

Verdugo's suit asks that the arbitration ruling be overturned and that he be given the opportunity to seek damages against the city and officials who brought about his firing.