NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — A Queens woman is suing the NYPD for wrongfully using her photo on a “wanted” poster for a thieving escort.
Eva Lopez is seeking $30 million in damages after seeing her picture was plastered on the sign last August.
Lopez and her boyfriend were returning from Florida when she received a text from a friend after she got off the flight with the wanted poster, according to court papers.
“I thought it was something fake. I really couldn’t believe the police would put me on a wanted poster,” she said.
Lopez had some doubts about the poster being real so she ignored it until her boss convinced her it might be real and told her to reach out to the 9th precinct. She called the detective listed on the flyer, Kevin Dwyer, who told her he “knew it was an issue before she called,” according to the court documents.
The poster had already been taken down by the time Lopez called, Dwyer said, because the actual suspect had a tattoo sleeve and Lopez does not.
According to Lopez, the damage had already been done at that point. “It was already spread around on social media. … It was still being passed around, still being talked about, still making me look like a thief and a prostitute,” Lopez told The New York Post.
The NYPD was searching for an escort who allegedly stole a $13,000 Rolex and credit cards from an Upper East Side apartment after a man booked her services online on Aug. 3, police said.
Police named Lopez because the victims showed detectives her photo. Lopez, who has amassed over 862,000 Instagram followers, is a fashion influencer and bartender in Queens.
The detectives used a photo of Lopez taken weeks earlier at a friend’s birthday party with Lopez wearing a hot pink tube top, leggings and high heels and said she is wanted for grand larceny.
The NYPD shared the poster on social media and blog sites where it was re-shared thousands of times to millions of followers, Lopez said, and though she attempted to proclaim her innocence, Lopez said her reputation took a hit.
Lopez added she has never been in trouble with the law nor has ever worked as an escort and does not know the victims. Her lawyer believes the suspect in question may have been using Lopez’s social media photos.
“The NYPD should commit to more thorough investigations before haphazardly accusing and identifying innocent people of fantastic lies and brazen crimes,” Lopez’s lawyer Mark Shirian said.
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