Ex-Police Chief Took Workers' Comp, But Worked As Pinup Model

OLYMPIA, WA — The former police chief of a small Grant County town has been charged with worker's comp fraud, after investigators say they found she had been working full time as a pinup model and philanthropist.

The State Department of Labor and Industries says Brenda Lynn Cavoretto claimed workers comp for four years while illegally moonlighting at a variety of pinup modeling ventures.

In 2012, Cavoretto was the police chief of Coulee City, a small town in Grant County. In February of that year, a domestic violence suspect hanged himself in a barn. Cavoretto was charged with removing the body, but the 285-pound corpse ended up falling and crushing her. She would later claim that it caused numerous back, shoulder, and abdominal injuries and severe psychological trauma.

Cavoretto eventually transferred to work as a police officer in Soap Lake, which she did until May 2013, when she started taking L&I workers' comp and vocational services, claiming that the falling corpse had left lingering physical and psychological damages. In 2015, she began to see a psychologist. Charging papers show she told the psychologist she was having nightmares about the corpse and had been unable to leave the house, and Cavoretto was diagnosed with depression and PTSD.

However, in 2019, after four years of drawing workers' comp and no signs of improvement, Cavoretto's case manager called for an investigation, which found that Cavoretto had been busy working after all.

L&I says their investigators found that, between 2015 and early 2020, Cavoretto had been working as a pinup model, organizing pinup pageants and fundraisers, and photographing other models. Investigators say she shared her photos under names like "Tuff As Nailz" and "The Black Widow Bettie". In one 2015 social media post excavated by investigators, Cavoratto claimed she had appeared as a model in 52 publications.

For those not in the know, L&I describes pinup models as "people who are photographed in sexy clothes and poses in the style of actresses Betty Grable and Rita Hayworth during World War II."

Cavoretto also reportedly ran a modeling, event, and photography business called Annabella Derringer, which she had licensed through the state Department of Revenue. She also worked with her husband's magazine, Electric Pinup Magazine, and ran a nonprofit group, Electric Pinup Dolls, which raised money for first responders and veterans. L&I says that, in October of 2019 she told a crowd at a Sultan bar that her work with Electric Pinup Dolls was a "full-time job."

Ultimately, L&I found that Cavoretto had stolen more than $67,000 in workers' compensation over the years. She faces two charges of making false or misleading statements, and is scheduled to be arraigned on Monday, Oct 19 in the Thurston County District Court in Olympia. Her case will be prosecuted by the Washington Attorney General’s Office using the findings from the L&I investigation.