At least four Santa Fe police detectives improperly displayed nude pictures of a woman that were seized under a search warrant during an investigation of her husband, according to two eyewitnesses and legal documents.

The woman's attorneys advised the city a year and a half ago that she planned to sue over the display of the photos at the Police Department, yet no lawsuit has been filed. Lawyer John Day said Tuesday that his firm has been waiting for the Santa Fe Police Department to finish an internal-affairs investigation into the incidents before filing the suit.

Santa Fe Police Chief Aric Wheeler said Tuesday that the investigation into the allegations is not yet finished. He declined to comment further, citing rules against releasing personnel information.

Sources who requested anonymity said three officers, including two detectives, are being investigated in connection with the photos.

Police seized the photos in the spring of 2006 following an incident of domestic violence at the home of the woman depicted in the photos, according to a tort claim filed July 16, 2008, by Day and lawyer Mark Donatelli. The then-28-year-old woman told police she found evidence on her computer showing that her husband viewed a Web site that displayed "sex acts involving 12-year-old girls," the claim says.

The woman became upset and confronted her husband, who became violent and began to attack her, the claim states. The woman called 911, told officers about finding the pornography, and that she was worried about protecting her 12-year-old daughter. Police arrested the woman's husband for battery on a household member, then obtained a search warrant for the computers at the home, the tort claim says.

Police seized computers as well as photographs of the woman "which had been kept high on a closet shelf," the claim states.

"These photos depicted (the woman) naked, and had been taken by her husband," the claim says.

Officers returned the photos the next day, saying they did not need them because they didn't feature child pornography, the claim states.

The woman's husband was eventually convicted of domestic violence, but the woman never heard anything about the child-pornography case, the claim says. She asked then-Sgt. Aric Wheeler about the case in March 2007, and Wheeler told detectives to review the case, the claim says. The Santa Fe County Sheriff's Department examined the computers and concluded in July 2007 that evidence of child pornography was inconclusive, the claim says.

However, on April 22, 2008, "a source within the Santa Fe Police Department" told the woman's lawyers that "detectives and other police officers of the Santa Fe Police Department were displaying nude photographs of (the woman) which they had taken directly from the computers' hard drives, or from the hard copies of the photos taken from (the woman's) bedroom closet," the claim states.

The displays were "conducted in a lewd and lascivious manner" and were "solely for the purposes of demeaning, slandering, defaming and ridiculing (the woman) with the goal of sexual gratification of these police officers and others," the claim says.

According to an officer at the department who requested anonymity Tuesday, the officer saw two detectives and a crime-scene tech looking at the photos at about the same time the woman's lawyers say they heard about the incident. The officer said the crime tech was looking at the pictures professionally and "impassionately."

However, one of the detectives held up a naked picture of the woman and asked the other detective, "What do you think about this?" the officer said. The second detective then made a lewd comment about the photo, the officer said.

The officer complained to a police administrator and was later interviewed in the course of the internal-affairs investigation, the officer said.

Another officer said Tuesday that two detectives showed the former officer the nude pictures at the police station at one point. The officer immediately reported the incident to an administrator, who forwarded it to internal affairs. The officer said the detectives spread the photos "all over the department."

"(The woman) sought protection from one pervert who liked child pornography," the tort claim notice states. "Instead of receiving protection, however, she was once again victimized, this time by other apparent perverts at the Santa Fe Police Department."

Day said he is concerned about why the internal-affairs investigation has taken so long. He said the arrest of the head of the internal affairs division on drunken driving charges in June likely set the case back a bit, although he pointed out it's been seven months since that occurred.

Contact Jason Auslander at 986-3076 or :jauslander@sfnewmexican.com.