SAN ANTONIO – A San Antonio police detective who was fired in June after he sent threatening voicemails to his mistress is now fighting to get his job back.
Det. Emanuel Keith, a 23-year veteran with SAPD, will argue for his job in an arbitration hearing on Thursday and Friday.
Keith was fired following an internal affairs investigation into his conduct months ago, but records recently obtained by KSAT-12 revealed the extent of the contentious relationship between Keith and his mistress.
FIRST REPORT: 'Choke the life out of you': SAPD detective fired after threatening ex
The two first began having an affair in 2006, when the woman and Emanuel — who are both married — met while waiting for dry cleaning, according to the records.
In 2014, Keith and the woman decided to live together. The woman left her husband, but Keith stayed with his wife, she told investigators, leading to a strain in their relationship.
“Keith was the (dominant) one in the relationship and he controlled me for several years,” she told investigators. “I would have to let him know what I was doing or he would get upset, which would lead to forceful consensual sex.”
Keith’s girlfriend eventually notified Keith’s wife of the affair in 2014, according to the records.
The revelation led Keith and the mistress to break up for about a year, but the two started seeing each other again in 2015.
After another breakup in May 2018, things grew more tense between the pair.
The woman told police that Keith called her about 10 times one morning that month and sent threatening text messages.
“Why are you harassing me and (redacted)? This is the end for you. You’re going to die b—ch,” one of the messages read, according to the records.
It was then that Keith also left two threatening voicemails.
“I’m sick and tired of you,” Keith said. “I could choke the life out of you right now. Stop. This is the last warning.”
Keith did not deny leaving the threatening messages, according to the records.
“I was upset but I did not genuinely mean the words in the messages I left for her,” Keith wrote in a response to the allegations. “I was attempting to scare her to leave me alone. That was all.”
Keith told investigators the woman harassed him constantly.
Even after the woman filed a police report against Keith, she continued calling him, records show.
An internal affairs investigator called the woman to remind her not to contact Keith, according to one of the phone calls obtained by KSAT-12.
Later that month, the woman told police she did not want to pursue criminal charges against Keith.
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Detectives submitted the case to the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office in July 2018, but the case was rejected in April 2019.
Although criminal charges weren’t filed, it was deemed that Keith’s conduct warranted the indefinite suspension.
The arbitration hearing is expected to wrap up Friday, but it’s unclear when a ruling would be made.
The records were released to KSAT after the city attorney’s office forgot to appeal the records request to the Texas Attorney General’s office.