San Antonio detective suspended over claim he told ex-girlfriend to kill herself

A San Antonio police detective received a 30-day suspension over allegations that he secured help from another law enforcement agency using false pretenses and sent an online message to an ex-girlfriend urging her to kill herself, city records show.

The San Antonio Police Department suspended Detective Arthur F. Lopez in June following an internal affairs investigation into his conduct, according to a disciplinary filing. The probe unfolded after Schertz police issued a criminal trespass warning to the 17-year force veteran.

Lopez called the Schertz Police Department on Dec. 13 and asked officers to come to his former girlfriend’s home for a “civil standby,” according to SAPD’s records. He told officers he wanted them there while he told the woman to stop calling and harassing him, the filling states.

However, the officers on the call interviewed the woman, who told them that she’d been in an extramarital affair with Lopez, adding that he was the one who’d harassed her and her husband, according to disciplinary documents. The woman accused Lopez of calling her multiple times that day and sending profane online messages.

The woman also told Schertz police she feared for her safety and showed them a message in which Lopez told her, “Just do yourself a favor and kill yourself” and described him using vulgarities, according to the report.

Schertz officers gave Lopez a criminal trespass warning and told him stay clear of the woman’s residence, filing details show.

“Based on the body-worn camera video footage, Detective Lopez’s motivations for requesting police assistance was not for the stated purpose, but rather may have been to learn of [his ex-girlfreind]’s whereabouts, discover whether [her husband] knew of the affair, and/or to elicit communication from either [the ex-girlfriend] or [her husband],” the disciplinary documents state.

Lopez’s actions “brought reproach and discredit on himself and the San Antonio Police Department,” according to the filing.

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This article appears in Best of San Antonio 2024.