Officer Gilbert Anthony Lorenzo Arrested for Domestic Violence

A San Diego police officer who was arrested last month on accusations he beat his wife has been arrested a second time on similar charges.

A San Diego police officer who was arrested last month on accusations he beat his wife has been arrested a second time on similar charges.

Thirty-one-year-old Gilbert Anthony Lorenzo was taken into custody late Monday night and booked into the San Diego Jail just before 11:30 p.m. on charges of inflicting corporal injury on spouse/cohabitant. His bail was set at $50,000. The circumstances of the arrest were not confirmed.

Lorenzo was initially arrested April 23 at his Le Mesa home on suspicion of felony domestic battery. He was immediately suspended without pay by San Diego Police Chief Shelley Zimmerman.

At the time, his wife, Tanya Lorenzo, told 10News that the incident was blown out of proportion. She said the police department "mutilated my husband in public."

"It was a situation that got out of control," she said last month. "It was just an argument that got a little bit more out of control than it should have."

Now, she is no longer defending her husband. She told 10News she was dropping their children off at the Spring Valley home where Lorenzo is staying when he attacked her.

She said her husband was drunk when he "went off." She claims the suspended San Diego police officer bit her and tried to strangle her.

"I could feel my neck cracking," she recounted, saying it was the first time she had ever felt that he was putting her life in danger. "I think if someone didn't come forward to pull him off me I would have been dead."

It is a totally different story than the one her twin sister, Jody Klemme, told 10News. Klemme said she spoke to Officer Lorenzo after he bailed out of jail. She said he claimed his wife was the aggressor who forced her way into his house attacking his groin area.

"I've been around their arguments when they've fought," said Klemme. "My sister, she is the type of person that you get in an argument with her, she will keep pushing and pushing the limit. So I don't personally think that he would lay his hands on her. He is not that type of person. He's a good guy."

Tanya Lorenzo said her sister is a liar, who does not know what really happened.

She also admitted that she did not tell the truth when she claimed her husband did not beat her in April, when he was arrested for domestic violence. She now says the bruise mark on her cheek was the result of that incident.

"I lied to save my family and help him keep his job," Mrs. Lorenzo said. "That's over now."

Lorenzo posted bail and was released just before 6 a.m. When asked for comment on the charges, he only responded, "The system sucks."

Lorenzo is a seven-year veteran of the police department. His first court hearing on the new charges is scheduled for May 13 in San Diego County Superior Court in El Cajon.