SAN ANTONIO – A Bexar County sheriff detention officer’s failure to keep inmates in his care properly segregated led to one inmate being forced to perform sex acts with another inmate, suspension records released by the agency confirm.
The records provide details of disciplinary actions taken against detention officers and law enforcement deputies the past several months.
Deputy Jose Perez
Deputy Jose Perez was handed a four-day suspension in April, nearly 11 months after a May 2021 incident inside the Bexar County Jail.
BCSO investigators said that Perez escorted four inmates to a recreation unit without properly verifying their custody levels and whether the inmates were compatible with one another.
Due to Perez’s failure to verify the inmates were off of administrative segregation, an inmate was improperly allowed into the jail’s recreation area and later forced one of the inmates to perform sexual acts with another inmate, the suspension paperwork states.
Perez was originally served with a proposed 30-day suspension, which was shortened after a formal hearing to seven days and then four days.
Deputy Hayley Perales
Deputy Hayley Perales was suspended five days in April after falsely telling her supervisor that her grandfather had passed away.
A BCSO investigation determined it was actually the grandfather of Perales’ boyfriend who had passed away.
Perales’ boyfriend is also a BCSO deputy and had called a supervisor minutes after Perales to request a bereavement day, the paperwork states.
Perales was suspended for rules violations that included having an absence without leave, insubordination, dishonesty and poor job performance.
Deputy Leah Alaniz
Deputy Leah Alaniz was suspended four days in May after an internal investigation determined she worked an off-duty job despite being out for COVID-19 protocols.
The violations took place over a nearly two-week period in January, BCSO records show.
The agency’s investigation also determined Alaniz worked a shift at the HEB store on Jan. 1 after calling BCSO and asking for a personal day.
Alaniz was originally served with a proposed 10-day suspension, which was shortened to four days after a hearing.
Deputy Armando Villanueva
Deputy Armando Villanueva was given an eight-day suspension in March after leaving work despite being told he would need to stay and work a forced mandatory overtime shift.
Villanueva disobeyed orders and left approximately 64 inmates unsupervised.
He was originally served with a proposed 10-day suspension, which was shortened after a hearing.
Deputy Manuel Villarreal
Deputy Manuel Villarreal was suspended two days in May after a fellow county employee found him asleep in his county-issued vehicle while parked on Red Forest Lane in south Bexar County.
Villarreal continued to sleep even after the employee honked her horn at him several times, knocked on the window and screamed at the sleeping law enforcement deputy.
Villarreal was ordered to return to his substation and was sent home for the rest of the day, the paperwork states.
He later admitted that he had dozed off for a few minutes while watching videos.
Villarreal was originally given a proposed 20-day suspension, which was drastically reduced after a hearing.