SAN ANTONIO – Emails and audio from an internal affairs investigation have revealed that the suspension of a well-known San Antonio police captain was related to the police killing of an unarmed black man in February.
San Antonio Police Department administration alleged Capt. Laura Andersen engaged in a conflict of interest with her husband — now retired SAPD Capt. Cris Andersen.
The allegation centered on emails sent between the Andersens, using their city email accounts, which contained information about the contemplated indefinite suspension of Officer John Lee, who was under Laura Andersen’s command.
SAPD Chief William McManus issued Lee the indefinite suspension after he shot and killed Antronie Scott in February.
Lee, who was tasked with serving two felony arrest warrants to Scott at the time, said he thought Scott was armed and feared for his life. It turned out Scott was holding a cellphone, not a gun, when Lee fatally shot him.
Capt. Laura Andersen requested a copy of Lee’s indefinite suspension via email and forwarded that information to Cris Andersen in March, who also worked for Texas Law Shield.
According to the agency’s website, TLS provides legal representation to someone who fires a legal weapon. The city argues the Andersens had something to gain if TLS took on Lee as a client.
It’s an allegation Laura Andersen denies.
“The simple fact of the matter is I was trying to help out John Lee, because I felt like he was getting screwed over by the chief,” Andersen said during an SAPD internal affairs interview recorded in July.
Internal emails obtained by The Defenders show Cris Andersen messaged a member of TLS, writing, "John Lee ... is being fired to appear politically correct."
Andersen went on to write, “This may be a way to garner huge support for TLS in San Antonio."
At the time, Lee already had legal representation through the San Antonio Police Officers Association.
In an email Cris Andersen sent to Laura Andersen, he told her that an attorney from TLS "wants a piece of McManus."
In a written statement, City Manager Sheryl Sculley said, in part, "Captain Laura Andersen improperly released confidential information about an ongoing investigation to her husband in an effort to further his next career."
The Andersens did not provide comment for this story at the request of their attorneys.
“There was no financial benefit to Cris or to me for my conversation with John Lee,” Laura Andersen told the investigator during her internal affairs interview.
Andersen believes the internal affairs investigation was retaliation for a grievance she filed in December 2015.
She and her husband were upset after she was denied a request to work in her husband's absence, so that he did not have to use his own personal leave.
Andersen made the request under the department’s Substitute Employment System, or SASE. Her grievance was denied as well.
Laura Andersen had been vying for a position as deputy chief.
“The chief is retaliating against me,” she said in the recorded internal affairs interview. “He's imposing you to have this investigation so he can tell the city manager, 'I can't promote her. She's under investigation.’”
Andersen filed a complaint of gender discrimination with the city’s Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
“Captain Laura Andersen's complaint of gender discrimination by Chief McManus was thoroughly investigated the City's Equal Employment Opportunity Office and was unfounded,” Sculley wrote in a statement to The Defenders. “It was Chief McManus who promoted Laura Andersen to Captain in 2010. Furthermore, during my tenure as City Manager, the number of women on the SAPD force has grown by 40%.”
Laura Andersen also filed a federal EEOC complaint, which is still pending. She was suspended for 20 days after the review and recommendation by a review board consisting of citizens and her police department peers, said Sculley, but is now back on the job.
Lee was issued a contemplated indefinite suspension, but it was decided that Lee would undergo additional training instead of receiving other disciplinary action for killing Antronie Scott. His case is still being reviewed by the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office.