California Lottery officials 'showed poor judgement and risked embarrassing agency' by visiting rowdy piano bar where one manager was pictured with his head up a drunken woman's shirt, investigation finds

California State Lottery managers exhibited poor judgement and ran the risk of discrediting their employer by taking part in alcohol-fueled high jinks during work trips to a rowdy piano bar, a state agency's year-long investigation has concluded.

The California Department of Justice has recently issued the findings of an investigation into a 2018 whistleblower complaint alleging misconduct by some members of the Lottery's sales team. 

The linchpin of the anonymous complaint that was sent to then-Governor Jerry Brown was a cache of photos showing a senior Lottery manager putting his head up a woman's shirt during a raucous visit to the PianoPiano bar in Claremont back in 2016. 

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This photo showing a California State Lottery manager with his head up a woman's shirt in a piano bar in 2016 sparked a year-long investigation, which has concluded that senior Lottery managers showed poor judgement during work trips 

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Another image showed that Hugo Lopez, director of California State Lottery, was at the bar at the time. The lottery leaders had been in Claremont, California for a sales conference in 2016

Hugo Lopez, director of California State Lottery since 2015, resigned last June over revelations of his team's drunken antics during business trips and after an audit uncovered $300,000 of improper or questionable spending. 

State investigators have concluded that top Lottery officials violated a law enacted to protect the reputations of public agencies by acting inappropriately on sales conference trips, as The Sacramento Bee first reported. 

The report released by the state DOJ did not recommend filing criminal charges against the carousing Lottery staffers.

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The compromising images were sent by a whistleblower to then-Governor Jerry Brown in 2018 

'Lottery managers showed poor judgment in visiting the bar and participating in the off-color comedic entertainment,' the document stated. 'The lottery employees were traveling on state business and should have made sure that their conduct did not discredit their job positions and the lottery.'

The unnamed person who raised the alarm about the Lottery managers' shenanigans accused the man seen in the photo with his head under a laughing woman's red shirt of sexual harassment and misconduct, but the investigation has cleared him of wrongdoing, having determined that he was not the aggressor in that situation.

According to the report, the manager and witnesses testified that the woman in red was drunk, and that she 'caught him unawares and placed her shirt over his head.'

The male manager in question was let go from his position at the State Lottery in March 2019.

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In June 2019, Lopez resigned his post over his team's drunken antics during business trips and after an audit uncovered $300,000 worth of improper or questionable spending

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The California Department of Justice has found that Lottery officials violated a law enacted to protect the reputations of public agencies by acting inappropriately on sales conference trips (above photo from PianoPiano's Facebook page shows a random group of patrons) 

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Investigators found that managers showed poor judgment in visiting the rowdy PianoPiano bar in Claremont and participating in its off-color entertainment 

Still, state investigators have found that repeated trips to the piano bar between 2016 and 2017 by Lottery staff 'created the risk that they would be placed in embarrassing situations if they participated in the entertainment or interacted with intoxicated customers.'

Lottery spokesman Jorge De La Cruz said in a statement that the agency is taking steps to address the allegations in the report, including requiring employees to undergo training covering multiple areas.

'The California State Lottery is committed to ensuring a healthy and safe workplace for all employees,' De La Cruz stated.