Hollywood, Florida- from www.miamiherald.com – Former Hollywood cop Mike Verdugo [pictured], fired after word spread on the Internet that he was in a gay porn film, is now fighting to keep his Florida police certification.

On Tuesday, Verdugo’s lawyers held a news conference and rally in Wilton Manor seeking support for him.

Hollywood Police Department fired him for not disclosing previous employment — the porn film — on his job application, Verdugo’s lawyers said.

Verdugo, who also was a former Design Star contestant on HGTV, has sued to get his job back. The suit is scheduled to be heard in November in Broward Circuit Court.

Hollywood police spokesman Lt. Manny Marino said Tuesday his department would not comment on the Verdugo case.

Verdugo, 36, is appealing to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to allow him to remain a certified officer.

The FDLE tentatively agreed, but the city of Hollywood is fighting his request and wants him stripped of his certification, his lawyers said.

An FDLE hearing is scheduled Thursday in Tampa.

Hollywood has offered to drop its case against Verdugo if he “drops his case against them,” said Norm Kent, an attorney and longtime gay civil-rights activist.

Verdugo says he won’t: “I want my case to be an example of what happens in Florida.”

“I still want to be a cop,” he said. “My goal — not a practical one — is to go back to Hollywood.”

Regardless of how the FDLE hearing turns out, Verdugo says, he will continue to lobby for passage of a federal gay rights measure — the Employment Nondiscrimination Act — that would prevent gay and transgender people from being fired on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.

Hollywood police fired Verdugo after a 1996 video turned up online showing the future cop in a 15-minute bondage scene from a gay porn flick called Rope Rituals. HGTV’s Design Star also dumped Verdugo, who was known as Mikey V.

Verdugo, who grew up in Hialeah, says he made the film for $700 at age 22 as a way of exploring his sexuality. He performed nude in a bondage scene, but didn’t engage in hard-core sex, he said.

Three years later, he decided to become a police officer.

Verdugo said it never occurred to him to put the movie on his résumé when he first became a Lauderhill cop in 1999, or when he applied to the Hollywood department two years later.

Wilton Manors attorney George Castrataro said he and Kent are representing Verdugo for free and that if any money is won in the case it will be donated to a gay charity.

“The power of the masses is in front of me,” Castrataro told the crowd of about 100 people Tuesday. “We have to rely on you.”

from www.southfloridagaynews.com – Mikey Verdugo held a press conference to announce that he will continue a challenge to retain his certification to remain a law enforcement officer in the State of Florida.

An arbitrator had ruled the City of Hollywood lawfully terminated his tenure as a Hollywood cop. His crime? Omitting on his employment application that he once did a scene in a gay porn film, five years before even applying for a police job. Please!

Aided by the skill set of Wilton Manors attorney George Castrataro, and the team at his able law offices, Verdugo’s appeal comes down to invidious discrimination against a gay man. Had Verdugo omitted to put on his employment application that he played a role as Othello in a summerstock theater company, there would be no legal battle today. Mikey Verdugo would still be a Hollywood police officer.

The significance of this story cannot be underplayed either, because the City of Hollywood continues to seek its pound of flesh. Despite a decade on the department where he distinguished himself in the field, including during dangerous undercover operations, the City was not satisfied with just firing him. They are also seeking to strip him of his state certification to remain a police officer anywhere in the state. This is outrageous, not only because there are many agencies that would still employ him, but the nominal offense of omission, weighed against his years of service to the community, is inconsequential.

Indeed, that was the ruling of the State of Florida Criminal Justice Standards and Training Commission, who had negotiated a stipulation with George Castrataro, on behalf of Mikey Verdugo. Castrataro engineered a fair and just settlement, insuring that Verdugo could remain a licensed police officer in the state of Florida, with a supervisory probationary sanction that included an ethics course.

By all rhyme and reason, it was an appropriate disposition, which would leave only Verdugo’s challenge in Circuit Court to the arbitrator’s ruling. It is a tough case to be sure, hard to win, but one where he would get to make his arguments.

Amazingly, the City of Hollywood police department has chosen to snake the settlement agreement by filing a challenge with the Training Commission, and they are going to Tampa to argue their case tomorrow. Mind you, this is an agreement already signed off by the General Counsel for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. But that was not good enough for City of Hollywood attorney Joel Cantor and the city’s police chief, Chadwick Wagner. They have asked that Mikey’s right to be a police officer be terminated, unless he drops the arbitration case. It is their quid pro quo. But it is wrong, and Mikey has said “No, I will stand by ground.”