Five women are suing the city of Chula Vista and a former city employee they were acquainted with through their work with law enforcement, a man they allege manipulated photos taken from social media and elsewhere to create sexually explicit material using artificial intelligence. The suit, filed in San Diego Superior Court last week, alleges the employee “generated or otherwise created highly sexualized images” of the women without their knowledge. According to the suit and a city spokesperson, the employee was a cybersecurity and/or network specialist and was assigned to the federal San Diego Law Enforcement Coordination Center. He came into contact with the five women through their work with those teams. Attorney Morgan Stewart, who is representing the women, alleged the employee obtained photos in a few ways, including scraping the women’s social media accounts. Morgan alleged the altered images were found on the man’s electronic devices, and at least one physical copy of an altered image was located in his desk. “We think that the city was certainly negligent in failing to protect these five women,” Morgan said Tuesday. The city of Chula Vista is a participant in the coordination center, along with several other local, state and federal agencies. Chula Vista had employed the man on behalf of the center, a city spokesperson said. The city processed his payroll, but did not assign or oversee his work, nor did the city participate in the man’s recruitment or selection, the spokesperson said. The city said in a statement that the alleged actions did not occur on city-owned or city-controlled property. “The former employee did not have any substantive role in the City’s business and only had access to SD-LECC property,” it states. The former staffer named in the suit could not be located for comment, and it was not immediately clear if he had representation or had been served with the lawsuit. The complaint accuses the city and the staffer of negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress, and additionally accuses the staffer of stalking and distributing sexually explicit materials without the women’s consent. The lawsuit is not clear regarding how or where the images may have been distributed. It alleges that the man “took unusual interest in female employees” and that “pornographic images” were found on his electronic devices or physically found “in various locations” of the work site. ...read more read less