SAN ANTONIO – A San Antonio police officer assigned to Chief William McManus’ security detail has been suspended 30 days after sending sexually explicit text messages to a woman while on the clock, city discipline records obtained by KSAT Investigates show.
Ofc. Mark Castillo began serving his suspension Oct. 1 and will remain on suspension through Oct. 30.
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He was originally handed a proposed 45-day suspension, which was shortened to 30 days after meeting with McManus, records show.
Castillo, who was assigned to the executive protection detail, has since been moved to the department’s vehicle crimes unit, records show.
Allegations against Castillo first surfaced in late May, after the woman’s husband discovered the explicit texts and called 911 to report the affair.
Arturo Cisneros told KSAT earlier this year he was at his East Side home with his wife on May 22 when he picked up her phone to review some appraisal documents.
The phone opened up to a text message thread between his wife and Castillo.
“I asked her, ‘Hey, who is this Mark Castillo guy?’ And immediately she jumps up. And I knew something was wrong, so I ran into the bedroom, locked the door,” said Cisneros.
Cisneros said as he read a month’s worth of messages, which appeared to intensify sexually in the days before they were discovered, his wife banged on the door demanding her phone back.
Cisneros told KSAT he eventually called members of his family to tell them he found disturbing material on his wife’s phone and then he called 911.
Pressed by KSAT on why he would call 911 instead of an SAPD non-emergency number, Cisneros said, “I was in shock. I just wanted police to show up. It doesn’t matter which number.”
Cisneros knew that Castillo was an acquaintance of his wife and had met him on several occasions while accompanying his wife to City Council meetings and a North Side Las Palapas. Castillo would often visit the restaurant while McManus worked out at a nearby Gold’s Gym.
Cisneros said his wife eventually left the home without her phone and that his brother and sister-in-law arrived shortly before the officers.
An SAPD incident report states that Cisneros called police to report the affair but makes no mention of Castillo, and differs significantly from what Cisneros, his brother, his sister-in-law and even his wife have all said they told police that night.
The report states that Cisneros told dispatchers his wife fled from the location after hitting herself and later returned to the scene and asked police to look at her injured face.
According to the report, the woman, who KSAT is not identifying, told police that Cisneros “reached behind himself” and punched her once in the eye and once in the forehead.
Reached for comment, the woman told KSAT she had not asked police to look at her face and that the report was “wrong” and “inaccurate.”
Both she and Cisneros told KSAT that no physical altercation took place and at no point had Cisneros hit her.
Cisneros’ sister-in-law, Patricia Cisneros, described the report as “vague” and said it is not an accurate account of what took place at the home that night.
“The report itself, it lacks so many details. So many details,” Patricia Cisneros told KSAT earlier this year.
Despite SAPD failing to take pictures of the woman’s injuries, officers arrested Arturo Cisneros for misdemeanor assault causing bodily injury-married.
A pretrial conference is scheduled for his case on Oct. 30, the same day Castillo’s suspension ends.
A review of the messages by KSAT Investigates shows many of them were sent during Castillo’s assigned working hours and while the officer wrote he was in close proximity to McManus.
In the same thread in which Castillo described a specific sex act with the woman, he wrote her, “Ok, make sure to erase you messages. Ttyl.” Castillo in the same thread then wrote, “Think Chief about to walk out.”
The messages on Wednesday, May 22 included Castillo and the woman graphically describing having sex with one another.
In another thread, Castillo wrote, “Damn, wanted to touch your legs.”
The woman texted back, “You still can. I’m headed over there now.”
Castillo then replied, “I’m still with Chief but he might be done soon.”
The woman told KSAT she and Castillo did not have sexual intercourse but that they had kissed in a vehicle. She said she has since ended the relationship.
Read more reporting on the KSAT Investigates page.