A 27-year-old police officer accused last year of assaulting a former girlfriend at a bar has essentially been terminated from the department, officials said.
Rory Rogers, who at the time of the Dec. 27 incident had been a member of the force for five years, was charged with assault after the ex-girlfriend and several witnesses told police that Rogers, while off-duty, went to a Stone Oak bar and pushed the 21-year-old woman, authorities said.
The woman cut herself on glass when she fell, authorities said at the time, and as she got up, Rogers was accused of pushing her down again before leaving the bar.
Sandy Gutierrez, a spokeswoman for the San Antonio Police Department, said Rogers was placed on indefinite suspension June 19, a disciplinary action tantamount to firing. The decision was based on the criminal charge of assault bodily injury, she said.
Rogers, who did not a return a message left at a phone number listed for him, has 10 days to appeal the decision.
If he appeals, the outcome could be based on the final findings in the criminal case, said San Antonio Police Officers Association President Mike Helle.
“The opportunity will be there for an arbitrator to rule whether (the indefinite suspension) was appropriate or not,” Helle said. “He's got a criminal case that is still out there that he has to take care of first. If that case gets dismissed or if it goes to trial and he's acquitted, it helps his [internal] case.”
First Assistant District Attorney Cliff Herberg said the criminal case against Rogers, which also includes a deadly conduct charge, remains under investigation by the district attorney's office.
Rogers surrendered to police one day after the woman filed the complaint. Although he admitted nothing, police arrested him because of a tighter domestic violence policy adopted in January 2007 requiring officers to secure arrest warrants immediately for most family violence suspects.
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