SAN ANTONIO – A San Antonio police officer once charged in a 2019 family violence case was suspended from the department late last year after violating a direct order barring her from having contact with her estranged boyfriend, a fired officer.
The police department disciplinary records for November and December were obtained by the KSAT 12 Defenders this week, months after they were initially requested. Officer Nicolette Muniz agreed to the 15-day suspension in mid-December and served it earlier this month, the records showed.
Recommended Videos
The family violence charge against Muniz, who was arrested in April 2019, was dropped last summer due to insufficient evidence. However, as a result of the disturbance calls investigated by the police department, Muniz was ordered not to have any contact with former officer Kenneth Moreno in September 2019.
In June 2020, Muniz told a fellow SAPD officer that Moreno grabbed and twisted her arm and pushed her to the ground, injuring her shoulder. Muniz’s contact with Moreno violated the order she received from her superiors, the records show.
Initially, SAPD investigators accused Muniz of assaulting Moreno’s girlfriend. A police report for the incident states that Muniz FaceTimed Moreno. When his girlfriend saw Muniz calling, she picked up the phone instead.
The woman told authorities that she argued with Muniz over the phone and that Muniz said, “I bet you won’t say that to my face,” prompting the woman to give Muniz her home address.
After Muniz confronted the woman outside of the home in the 300 block of Sprucewood Lane around 3 a.m., another person living at the residence let them inside, SAPD records show.
Muniz was accused of then elbow checking the woman in the stomach, then bumping her right leg, according to an incident report.
The pair was unable to find Moreno, the report states, and when they got to the front door, Muniz got aggressive, telling the woman to hit her.
According to the police report, Muniz antagonized the woman, punching her in the face and neck, while trying to get the woman to hit her back, but the woman instead called for the other person at the home to call the police, which that person did, records show.
Moreno was later found hiding in the backyard before running away through a back alleyway, according to the incident report.
Muniz was placed on administrative leave after her arrest, but SAPD officials this week declined to say whether she was ever indefinitely suspended or when she was returned to active duty.
Moreno was first arrested weeks after the Sprucewood Lane incident, in May 2019, and charged with felony stalking.
Investigators said he threatened to “do something stupid” and kill his ex-girlfriend.
Besides the criminal charges he is facing, Moreno already received three indefinite suspensions from SAPD, records show.
Court records show Moreno is scheduled to go to trial in March and now faces a charge of continuous violence against a family member.
His trial date is likely to be postponed due to ongoing COVID-19 restrictions at Texas courthouses.