Former LAPD officer to face charges after colleague’s accusations of sex assault and blackmail

A former Los Angeles police officer will face criminal charges related to allegations that he sexually abused and beat another LAPD detective, according to a law enforcement official and the victim’s attorney.

Daniel Reedy, a veteran officer who retired last year, will face up to nine criminal charges related to accusations that he used blackmail to coerce Det. Ysabel Villegas into sex and later threatened to leak sexually explicit photos of her to her family, according to a law enforcement official familiar with the investigation.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they did not have authority to discuss the case, was unable to describe the exact criminal charges against Reedy. Villegas’ attorney, Lisa Bloom, also said Reedy would face criminal charges in a statement Tuesday.

“We are pleased that Mr. Reedy will at last face criminal accountability,” Bloom said. “It has been a long and painful process, but Ms. Villegas will continue to fully cooperate so that justice will be done.”

The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office declined to discuss the case. A spokesman for Bloom did not respond to questions seeking details about the charges. A spokeswoman for the LAPD confirmed Reedy retired in 2019 but declined to comment further.

The Los Angeles Times normally does not name victims of alleged sexual assaults, but Villegas has spoken out publicly about her case on numerous occasions.

Reedy has not responded to The Times’ previous attempts to contact him. He does not have an attorney, according to the law enforcement official.

Reedy and Villegas had been involved in an extramarital affair since 2013, according to an application for a restraining order the detective filed in November 2018. Villegas said Reedy first became violent toward her in 2016 and began threatening to leak sexually explicit photos of her to other police officers and her family if she did not continue the relationship, court records show.

In a lawsuit she filed against the LAPD in March of last year, Villegas accused Reedy of using the threat of blackmail to coerce her into sex in a Pomona motel in 2017.

“With these photos, he emotionally terrorized me. He controlled and manipulated me,” Villegas said during a March 2019 news conference.

Glendora police also investigated an allegation that Reedy physically attacked Villegas at a diner there in the summer of 2018. A case was presented to the district attorney’s office, but it remains unclear if prosecutors filed charges in that matter.

The status of Villegas’ civil suit against the department was not immediately clear. In the suit, Villegas said she reported Reedy’s behavior to several “senior LAPD officers” — including her supervisor in the Robbery-Homicide Division as well as her husband, former Assistant Chief Jorge Villegas — who failed to take action.

An LAPD spokesman previously said the department launched an investigation into Reedy in November 2018, after Ysabel Villegas first filed for a restraining order.

Jorge Villegas retired from the LAPD in October 2018 amid allegations he was having an improper sexual relationship with a female subordinate officer, sources previously told The Times. An LAPD surveillance unit later caught Villegas and the subordinate apparently engaged in a sex act in a parking lot, the sources said at the time.