SAN ANTONIO – The San Antonio police officer fighting for his job back after a “prank” involving feces took the stand Tuesday in his arbitration hearing.
According to city documents, Matthew Luckhurst and another officer defecated in a woman’s restroom at the downtown bike patrol office in June 2016.
Arbitration underway for SAPD officer who gave homeless man feces sandwich
Luckhurst’s termination paperwork claims that neither officer flushed the toilet and that Luckhurst then covered the seat with a brown food substance to give the appearance there was fecal matter on it.
Yet under questioning by the city attorney, Luckhurst took total responsibility Tuesday for what he called a joke and also said that the second officer didn’t participate in it.
“In hindsight, it was immature”, he added.
Luckhurst also maintained that he did not smear what he said was a coffee product on the commode seat, but that he had placed small balls of the product on the surface and that they must have melted later on.
This is Luckhurst’s second indefinite suspension.
His first stemmed from an infamous incident that also happened in 2016 where Luckhurst gave a homeless man a sandwich made of dog feces. He was subsequently fired but won reinstatement last year.
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In the first day of hearings on Monday, a city attorney said Luckhurst harassed, intimidated and degraded female officers with the prank.
SAPD Officer Jessica Medrano testified about finding the feces and becoming nauseous. She was eight-and-a-half months pregnant at the time.
“I had a lot of nausea during my pregnancy. As soon as I smelt it I wanted to vomit. I was gagging,” said Medrano.
She testified that she was “mad and disgusted" over the incident and said she would never work with Luckhurst again.
“It’s led to mistrust between the citizens of San Antonio and our department, that our officers have had to answer for his actions,” said Medrano.
Arbitration for Luckhurst is tentatively scheduled to run through Thursday.