An innocent Queens, New York City woman is suing the New York Police Department for $30 million after the Department wrongly used her photo on a “wanted” poster for a thieving hooker.
The 31-year-old innocent woman, Eva Lopez, who is an Instagram influencer, first learned about the wanted poster on Aug. 16, when she and her boyfriend stepped off a flight from Florida. According to court documents, a friend informed Lopez’s boyfriend through text message as soon they stepped off the plane that day.
“I thought it was something fake. I really couldn’t believe the police would put me on a wanted poster,” she told the New York Post.
At first, Lopez thought the poster was fake until her boss convinced her it might be real, and advised her to reach out to the cops.
Lopez contacted Detective Kevin Dwyer, whose number was listed on the wanted poster, only to discover that Dwyer already “knew it was an issue before she called,” according to the legal filing.
Dwyer told Lopez that the department had already taken down the wanted poster from its Facebook page and other websites as well, she said. The main wanted person had a tattoo sleeve while Lopez doesn’t have, the detective said.
However, the damage had already been done.
“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 Post.
The headline of the wanted poster reads: “Wanted for Grand Larceny,” “Perpetrator — probable cause to arrest.”
According to the information on the poster, the NYPD was looking for a thief who posed as an escort online and stole a $13,000 Rolex and Chase credit card from a man after the man booked her on Aug. 3.
Lopez said she was in Queens on Aug. 3, not in Manhattan. She took the photo used on the poster a month or two earlier, as she headed to a friend’s birthday party, she added.
Dwyer told Lopez that the victim showed police her pictures. Lopez claimed in the Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit that she works as a fashion influencer as well as a bartender at a club in Queens.
Lopez lamented about how the wanted poster got shared over thousands of times — 10,000, 20,000 times on Facebook. Then it was also posted on Instagram by a lot of blog sites that have millions of followers.
Lopez said her friends did not believe her when she proclaimed her innocence on her own Instagram page.
“People didn’t think I was being honest,” she said. “It was just really, really embarrassing, not only for me but for my family as well.”
She said some of her co-workers were even gossiping about her.
“I just really want people to know that’s not me, in any way, shape or form. The girl has nothing to do with me,” she said.
Lopez insisted she’s never met the victim, never had a run-in with authorities, and never worked as an escort.
She “had absolutely nothing to do with any grand larceny,” she said in court papers filed against the city, the department and the detective.
“The NYPD should commit to more thorough investigations before haphazardly accusing and identifying innocent people of fantastic lies and brazen crimes,” said her lawyer Mark Shirian, who speculated the escort may have been wrongly using Lopez’ social media shots.
