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Orlando Police Officers Admit To Emailing Each Other Porn

Posted: 6:00 pm EST November 13, 2006Updated: 6:22 pm EST November 13, 2006

Eyewitness News has learned high-ranking Orlando police officers admitted under oath they were emailing each other pornography on city time on city computers. Channel 9 found out about the pornographic emails because of a lawsuit filed against the police department by five officers.

The lawsuit claims the five officers were sexually harassed at work and, on top of that, they faced retaliation for reporting it.

Two Orlando police lieutenants, who were questioned recently by the officers' attorneys about the pornographic emailing, admitted under oath it happened frequently. Now, the Orlando Police Department is investigating.

Among the images, there were women wearing only Santa hats, suggestively posing with candy canes. There were naked women on the beach posing in a sexual way, and two women in a bathtub. Some of them were racially offensive.

When Lt. Shawn Fawbush was asked under oath who in the Orlando Police Department sent him pornographic emails, he testified, "Gosh, a number of people." When asked how many times, he testified "hundreds," so many times that he could not remember the specifics of any one of them.

Lt. Brian Gilliam admitted that, before he was promoted, he received and sent out what he admitted were pornographic emails on his department computer. Both Gilliam and Fawbush said some of the emails they had gotten had come from Lt. Vick Uvalle, who was the supervisor of the five officers who are suing the city.

The five officers' attorney said his clients told OPD's internal affairs investigators about the pornographic emails two years ago, but they were not investigated until now, after the recent testimony of the two lieutenants.

Orlando Police Chief Mike McCoy denied there was any cover-up. He said he's letting the investigation take its course and he'll take appropriate action at the appropriate time.

Sending sexually-suggestive emails is against OPD's policy and could be grounds for disciplinary action, including termination.

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