PINOLE — A Bay Area woman who was allegedly secretly recorded by a fired Pinole cop has sued him and the city’s police department, alleging that he shared a secretly recorded explicit video of her with at least one other police officer.
The plaintiff, who this newspaper is not naming, alleges that Anthony Luciano Vasquez secretly filmed a “brief” sexual encounter between her and Vasquez in his room, then shared the video with the text messaging group. The lawsuit alleges that Vasquez “distributed, shared and offensively discussed” the video “with at least one other law enforcement officer,” who failed to report what was going on.
Vasquez, 25, was charged in September 2021 with one felony count of eavesdropping and one misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct, both related to allegations that he secretly filmed this woman with a hidden camera in March 2021. The lawsuit alleges that police contacted her in May that year to inform her of the recording. Vasquez was fired from the Pinole police department after the allegations surfaced.
Authorities allege that Vasquez was part of a text messaging group called “The Mafia” that included 17 participants. Prior to the alleged secret recording, another member of the group asked Vasquez if he would soon have sex with the woman and said, “send a video,” and “get that b—- on snap,” referring to SnapChat, according to the lawsuit.
The suit alleges that supervisors within the Pinole Police Department “were aware, or reasonably should have been aware that its employees were engaging in such unlawful conduct,” yet failed to stop it. The city has not responded to the suit, which was filed last June. A status conference has been set for next week.
Meanwhile, Vasquez’s legal problems are stacking up. Though he remains out on $20,000 bail, he was arrested and charged last March with a misdemeanor count of domestic battery and one misdemeanor count of false imprisonment, related to an incident in November 2021, two days before Vasquez’s 25th birthday. His attorney declined to comment on the new charges.
In the eavesdropping case, Vasquez is next due in court in December, for a preliminary hearing, records show. Vasquez’s attorney said in a September 2021 he expected to prove that “everything that occurred regarding these investigations occurred with full consent by all parties.”
