spills

After LAPD recruitment officers were accused of making racist, sexist and homophobic comments — some of which were caught on tape — department leaders promised to look into whether they improperly disqualified any police applicants.

More than a year and a half later, the city is still waiting on the report.

But the contents of a separate LAPD internal affairs file reviewed by The Times has shed new light on the unit at the center of the scandal and how its officers responded to investigators who were looking into the matter.

No clear explanation has been given for the delay in publicly addressing the scandal’s effect on recruitment efforts.

In response to a records request from The Times, the city’s personnel department, which is conducting the inquiry, said it had not yet finished its review and had no timeline for doing so.

Last month, Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman charged Daniel Flores, the LAPD whistleblower who secretly recorded his colleagues, with 16 felonies, alleging he violated a state eavesdropping law. But, after criticism from Mayor Karen Bass and others, the district attorney downgraded the counts to misdemeanors with a diversion agreement that will probably allow Flores to avoid any time behind bars.

Flores’ recordings captured Los Angeles Police Department recruitment officers referring to Black people as “monkeys,” describing a female job applicant as “rapeable,” and saying “F—ing deport them, call ICE” during a conversation about Latinos, among a long list of other offensive remarks.

Asked about the pending LAPD report into the fallout from the tapes, Bass said in a statement that the review “has gone on too long.” The mayor said she had directed the personnel department to “complete the report and release it without further delay.”

Flores alleged in a complaint he filed with the LAPD in January 2025 that some recruits had been improperly rejected, adding to ongoing concerns about the department’s struggle to replenish its ranks.

As of last week, the LAPD had 8,507 sworn personnel — its lowest total since October 1995.

Even after efforts under Bass to streamline hiring and boost recruitment, Chief Jim McDonnell has warned that the department may not be adequately staffed in time for the 2028 Olympics.

McDonnell said after Flores’ allegations were made public in early 2025 that the personnel department would conduct a “biopsy” to examine “any adverse impacts” of the scandal on recruitment.

In a brief statement, the department said that it wouldn’t comment on what discipline, if any, had been meted out to the officers involved, citing state privacy law.

“The Department takes allegations of discriminatory or biased conduct seriously,” the statement read. “We are committed to ensuring the workplace is professional, respectful and free from misconduct.”

The Police Commission said in a statement that it is still waiting on the report, adding that “fair and equitable hiring of sworn and civilian employees remains a priority.”

The LAPD internal affairs investigative file reviewed by The Times described a frat-like office atmosphere in the Hiring and Evaluation Section in which Flores worked.

According to the internal affairs report, Flores claimed that at least one colleague, Shirley Burgos, had inappropriately disqualified candidates based on their appearance.

The report said that Burgos was captured in several recordings making fun of overweight candidates who were “ugly, creepy” people.

Another officer, Ayron McKay, told internal affairs investigators about an instance in which the unit’s officers were discussing a candidate who they believed was overweight.

Burgos then looked up the woman’s driver’s license picture on the DMV database, which several officers told internal affairs probably violated department policy, according to the report.

Burgos and McKay did not respond to inquiries to their work email accounts.

The internal affairs file said Flores recorded another officer saying he wanted to go to Big Bear, a popular winter sports destination in the San Bernardino National Forest, and roll the candidate down the ski slope. Meanwhile, according to the report, McKay asked the others how much they would pay to sleep with the woman, and referred to her as “Jabba the Hut.”

When asked about the conversation by internal affairs, the report said, McKay told investigators that the conversation started with Burgos venting about an applicant, but acknowledged that it should not have been allowed to continue.

In one recording made on Nov. 13, 2024, the report said, Burgos told her colleagues that she had released information about disqualified candidates to a friend of hers at the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department, which is against LAPD policy.

The officers were all required to sign a confidentiality agreement that barred them from discussing candidates’ personal information with anyone outside the office.

During her internal affairs interviews, Burgos denied providing information to other agencies, saying it was clear from her laughter on the recording that she was joking.

Burgos told investigators that the only time she’d ever discussed a candidate with someone outside the department was during a conversation with an unnamed background investigator with the Sheriff’s Department or Santa Monica police — and said that was only to confirm that the candidate had in fact applied to the LAPD, according to the report.

The LAPD investigation noted that she and the other involved officers all denied that their office conversations had ever caused them to inappropriately disqualify a candidate.

The internal affairs report quoted the unit’s supervisor, Sgt. Denny Jong, a 20-year-department veteran, as describing his relationship with the officers under his command as friendly and professional; none of them had ever expressed discomfort about their work environment, he reportedly said.

Jong did not respond to emailed questions from The Times.

Several officers told investigators that they used gallows humor as a way to deal with the stress of working long hours in a small, windowless basement office.

According to the report, some officers, including Jong and McKay, acknowledged that the office banter sometimes crossed the line, but they denied that there was anything malicious about their comments. They also contended that the unit had little authority about which applicants advanced in the recruitment process — decisions, they said, that had to go through several layers of review.

During his internal affairs interviews, Jong often told investigators that he didn’t recall making certain inappropriate comments. The report said he also denied ever making any of the inappropriate comments that were contained in Flores’ complaint.

When he was confronted with audio of comments in which he referred to a candidate of Chinese descent as a terrorist, Jong said he was joking.

“He explained that this was based on current news stories at the time, which involved concerns over Chinese nationals attempting to infiltrate the country,” the internal affairs report said. “Jong was not serious and did not believe the candidate was a terrorist, but admitted the remark was an off-color joke and inappropriate for the workplace.”

IT has been branded “offensive” and its host was once pelted with rotten fruit, but the Miss World contest will be watched by two billion when the 75th anniversary final takes place this week.

And representing England at the 2026 showpiece in Vietnam will be Grace Richardson, who has already won the contest’s talent round and has sailed through to the final event.

One woman who knows what it takes to triumph at the Miss World is former title holder Ann Sidney, who won the 1964 contest representing the United Kingdom.

Now 82, and one of only five Brits to have held the title, she defends the contest against the usual criticisms that it is sexist and out of date.

Ann, who was a 20-year-old hairdresser from Poole in Dorset before entering the competition, tells The Sun: “Miss World was a soft target for protesters. I think people working in TV are more anti-Miss World than the general public.

“When I won, I was in the swimsuit. Now there is an evening gown.

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“I didn’t think twice about wearing a swimsuit. I never felt embarrassed by being in a swimsuit.”

When Ann was named Miss World in 1964, the show’s British TV audience was an extraordinary 27million, which was around half the population at the time.

It catapulted Ann on to the international stage, and she starred in a movie with Mick Jagger, appeared in TV secret agent series The Avengers, entertained US troops in Vietnam with Bob Hope, auditioned for a James Bond film, had a lead role in The Sound Of Music stage show in the West End and met Elvis Presley in Las Vegas.

Miss World, which began as a bikini contest at the Festival of Britain in 1951, provided a jet-set life of five-star hotels, limousines and having the likes of Frank Sinatra fix Ann a drink.

But holding on to that crown required sacrifices and hard work.

The Miss World organisation signed a lucrative deal with a trade body for the wool industry, which meant Ann would be the Ambassadress for Wool for a year.

Her contract had a “morality clause”, which meant she could not have boyfriends and had to be Miss Perfect in terms of her behaviour.

And that was a strain for Ann, as she was in an on-off relationship with a married Bruce Forsyth.

The presenter, who died in 2017 aged 89, was a household name, compering the Sunday Night At The London Palladium variety show, decades before he became known for hosting Strictly Come Dancing.

Ann says: “The situation with Bruce kind of broke my heart. I couldn’t get any bad publicity, I would lose the contract basically and certainly lose any money. They paid me very well.

“It was a very difficult thing for me because I had this man in the background that was wanting to go out with me and to see me, and I knew I had to focus on what I was doing.

“You have to be that perfect woman. I had to be completely single and above and beyond suspicion. No dating whatsoever.”

And that is tricky when lots of men want to boast they have slept with Miss World. Once a footballer even pretended to be from room service just so he could tell his team-mates he had been in Ann’s bedroom.

When other men were too persistent, Ann put them firmly in their place.

She says: “I’m not knocking men, but you’re always going to be a trophy, something a man can boast about.

“You can’t take it seriously. Back then, if somebody got naughty, you said, ‘Stop it, you dirty old man’, you know, ‘Give me a break’. Usually men will go, ‘I’m sorry’. You dealt with those things yourself. I think today we’ve become very offended.”

There were other potential pitfalls. Playboy tycoon Hugh Hefner offered Ann $10,000 — around £140,000 in today’s money — to pose naked in his magazine.

Even though he plied her with drink, she turned him down, knowing she would be stripped of her Miss World title if she accepted his offer.

Once her year was up, Ann pursued an acting career, going into repertory theatre to learn the trade in the traditional manner.

She recalls having to overcome the widespread idea that beauty contest winners were “bubble-headed”, with people asking questions about her such as, “Can she learn lines?”.

But she went on to secure a broad range of roles, from the cult 1970 crime film Performance, starring Mick Jagger, to the cosy Seventies sitcom Are You Being Served?.

Since the death in 2019 of her fifth husband, theatre producer Duncan Weldon, she has continued living and working in California.

For other queens over the years, the price of fame was too much.

Britain’s first Miss World, Rosemarie Frankland, had a tragic end. An 18-year-old Marks & Spencer shop worker when she won in 1961, Rosemarie died aged just 57 from a drug overdose in 2000 in a shabby Los Angeles flat.

A 20-year affair with Bob Hope, two broken marriages and a short-lived acting career, which included appearing in The Beatles’ 1964 movie A Hard Day’s Night, is said to have left her depressed.

Our third winner, Leslie Langley in 1965, appeared in Bond film Goldfinger and Doctor Who, then quit showbusiness to be a dental nurse.

Welsh beauty queen Helen Morgan held the title for just four days in 1974, stepping down when it was revealed she was an unmarried mother with an 18-month-old son — somewhat more scandalous in the 1970s — and that a woman intended to name her in a divorce case.

The previous year’s winner, American Marjorie Wallace, was stripped of her title after a fling with singer Tom Jones.

In 1980, German Gabriella Brum quit after 18 hours when adult images emerged.

The last Brit to win was Sarah-Jane Hutt in 1983. Since then attitudes have softened over the years. Miss UK Nicola Willoughby was allowed to stay in the competition in 1999, even though topless photos were published.

Last year Miss England, Milla Magee, quit the show because she felt it treated her “like a prostitute”.

Now this year’s Miss England, 21-year-old Grace — a performing arts graduate from Leicestershire — is in a strong position to take the crown and sash in Vietnam.

The first openly gay Miss England, who has revealed that she was cruelly bullied over her appearance at school, was set to perform a ballet dance in the talent round, but broke her foot just a week after entering the event.

Luckily she had a back-up talent and secured her place among the Top 40 quarter-finalists by wowing judges with her rendition of the song Never Enough, from the 2017 film The Greatest Showman.

These days, it seems, talent and brains are as important as looks in the Miss World contest, and you will find biochemists and world-class dancers among the women strutting their stuff at the finals.

Since contest founder Eric Morley died in 2000 it has been run by his widow Julia, 86, who has introduced the concept of Beauty With A Purpose — an ideal which means the pageant has raised more than a billion pounds for charity.

It could be seen as a response to critics, who have blasted the pageant on feminist grounds.

One such protest against it came in 1970 when Women’s Liberation activists threw flour bombs at host Bob Hope. BBC One controller Michael Grade removed Miss World from the channel in 1984, claiming it was “verging on the offensive”. It is now available on YouTube.

But former winner Ann thinks it is time to bring back the show, which is still broadcast in more than 180 countries, to British terrestrial television.

Ann, who is still working in Hollywood, says: “Miss World has its critics, but I would do it again tomorrow.

“It was a great stepping stone for me. I travelled the world five times in a year. I met incredible people.”

WINNING WAS JUST THE BEST

By Jamie Pyatt, The Sun’s former Miss World Correspondent

FROM judges storming out of press conferences to the countries who have won it back-to-back, here are ten facts about Miss World . . . 

• Soccer legend George Best was said to have bedded seven Miss World winners, including the US’s Marjorie Wallace in 1973 and Swede Mary Stavin in 1977. But he said in his autobiography: “It was only four. I didn’t turn up for the other three!”
• More than a million women apply every year to take part in the hope of becoming one of the 108 contestants and winning the $1million first prize.
• Miss World is the most watched annual TV event, with more than two billion viewers in 180 countries. In the UK it fell out of favour in the 1980s as feminists claimed it degraded women. Indeed, guests arriving for the 2002 event at London’s Alexandra Palace, including this correspondent, were pelted with human poo.
• The 11 Miss World finalists who have appeared in James Bond movies include the US’s Halle Berry (Die Another Day), Malaysia’s Michelle Yeoh (Tomorrow Never Dies) and the UK’s Carolyn Seaward (Octopussy).
• The UK is one of only three countries to have won Miss World back-to-back – with Sweden in 1951 and 1952, English roses Ann Sidney and Lesley Langley in 1964 and 1965 and India in 1999 and 2000. The last UK contestant to win was Sarah-Jane Hutt in 1983.
• Judges for Miss World have included Sir Bruce Forsyth, Sir Richard Branson, Shirley Bassey, Piers Morgan and Jerry Hall, who famously stormed out of a press conference at Sun City resort in South Africa in 1992. It happened when I asked if she had any comment on her then husband Mick Jagger allegedly being caught cheating on her, after she had warned such a question was “out of bounds”. But it gave me a front-page story and Miss World a great publicity boost!
•  The Miss World crown is the fourth since the contest began and is worth £100,000. It belongs to the Miss World Organisation but each winner gets a replica when she passes her crown to the following year’s winner.
• In 2002 The Sun helped to evacuate more than 80 beauty queens from Nigeria to the UK as riots over the “offensive” contest led to more than 250 deaths. The contest was rescheduled for London.
• The current Miss World is Miss Thailand, Suchata Chuangsri, 22, who is the first Thai to win the contest.
• Final word to George Best, who famously said: “If you’d given me the choice of beating four men and smashing a goal in from 30 yards or going to bed with Miss World, it would have been a difficult choice. Luckily, I had both!”

SYDNEY Sweeney spilled out of an incredibly sexy Syrn bra while licking cake off her fingers – ahead of her 29th birthday.

The Housemaid star is never one to shy away from displaying her body and now she’s shown off her raciest look yet.

Sydney, who is turning 29 on September 12, showcased a black bra, thong and garters that she designed for her lingerie brand.

The SYRN by Sydney Sweeney Instagram page shared these racy photos on its account.

One person commented: “I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU.”

Another added: “Prettiest girl and most beautiful lingerie.”

Read more on Sydney Sweeney

TAKES THE CAKE

Sydney Sweeney slaps her butt and strips topless before slipping off thong

While a third wrote: “Keep breaking the internet while you already demolished it.”

It comes after Sydney featured in another sexy SYRN ad where she went topless in a pink thong before slipping into black lingerie.

In the clip, Sydney is seen opening up a refrigerator while wearing a light blue ruffled lingerie set, complete with sexy stockings.

She showed off her toned and tanned body as she displays plenty of cleavage in the sexy set.

Sydney then sports a pink flowery number with a bow around her neck as she bakes a cake.

In one particularly raunchy scene, she slapped flour onto her backside and leaves hand prints all over before pulling her panties down.

The business owner then slipped back into the blue number as she places a cake onto the table.

Sydney captioned the post: “celebrate my birthday month with my newest @syrn collection. coming september 1st.”