San Jose police officer charged with masturbating on duty was previously accused of off-duty sex assault

A San Jose police officer being prosecuted on allegations he masturbated in front of a family while responding to a call last month was the subject of a sexual-assault investigation last year after he was accused of drunkenly groping a woman at a party at the home of another police officer, according to authorities and the woman.

Officer Matthew Dominguez, 32, was arrested last week after being accused of exposing himself to a family, including a mother and daughter, while responding to a domestic disturbance call in April. He is out of custody and is scheduled to be arraigned June 22 for a count of misdemeanor indecent exposure.

Dominguez, who has been a San Jose police officer for four years, could face a year in jail and be required to register as a sex offender if he is convicted of the charge. He is currently on paid administrative leave from the police department after being physically walked off the job by Chief Anthony Mata. Dominguez does not have a listed attorney and attempts to reach him Thursday were not successful.

After Dominguez’s arrest, a Bay Area woman came forward publicly about her claim that Dominguez sexually harassed and assaulted her at a Memorial Day party in the backyard of the Campbell home of another San Jose police officer. Her allegation was investigated, but no charges were ever filed in the case.

Menlo Park resident Jennifer Rodrigues, 25, said that during the May 2021 party, Dominguez allegedly touched her breasts and thigh and kept trying to touch her even after she rebuffed his advances. Rodrigues said she and her boyfriend, 30-year-old Andrew Pouliot, reported the alleged sexual assault last June to San Jose’s Office of the Independent Police Auditor, which in turn alerted the SJPD Internal Affairs Unit. The account was then shared with the Campbell Police Department, according to authorities and documents provided to this news organization.

In her initial June 2021 complaint filed with the police auditor, Rodrigues said she and Pouliot were talking with friends around 10 p.m. as the party was starting to wind down, when a visibly intoxicated Dominguez sat next to Rodrigues and allegedly started to touch her hair and her breasts. She added that when she tried to move away, he started touching her thigh and tried to “play footsie” with her.

“First he went on my boobs and it was just the upper part and I thought he was just touching my hair, but he kept doing it and after I leaned to the right, he goes for my thigh,” Rodrigues said in an interview.

Rodrigues said she then attempted to get Pouliot’s attention and got him to come over by texting him about was happening.

Pouliot said he then contacted his friend, the owner of the home who is also an SJPD officer, according to the complaint. Two of Pouliot’s other friends joined them and they discussed what happened between Dominguez and Rodrigues. Pouliot claimed that the second officer told him that Dominguez had made advances towards his own girlfriend that night and was “cornering her in the kitchen.”

Pouliot said he decided against confronting Dominguez because of Dominguez’s intoxication level and the presence of other police officers at the party. Later that night, Pouliot said Dominguez allegedly made “inappropriate remarks” about Rodrigues’ breasts and started “heavily leaning” on her, according to the complaint.

Rodrigues said she later detailed her account to Campbell police detectives and told them she wanted to press charges. Campbell police Capt. Ian White told this news organization that an investigation was conducted and that the findings were sent to the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office, but that prosecutors declined to file any criminal charges based on the case as presented.

San Jose police said in a statement that an administrative investigation into Dominguez’s conduct at the party is ongoing.

Rodrigues said the outcome of the investigation was never shared with her. It wasn’t until earlier this month, when news broke about Dominguez being accused of masturbating at a family’s home, that the she and Pouliot heard from SJPD again — nearly 11 months after their first correspondence. On May 6, after the sexual misconduct allegations against Dominguez publicly surfaced, San Jose police investigators asked Pouliot to provide screenshots of the texts he and Rodrigues exchanged the night of the Memorial Day party.

Pouliot and Rodrigues said they were disappointed they hadn’t heard from law enforcement for nearly a year after their complaint, and learned about the conclusion of the investigation from this news organization.

“It’s just super disappointing that they don’t want to do anything about it,” Rodrigues said. “The fact that they throw my case aside and don’t even have the heart to call and discuss it… it makes me feel like they don’t care about women going through this. I deserve compassion and respect as any other victim.”

In the wake of Dominguez’s charges — and a string of other officer misconduct scandals that have surfaced over the past month —  Mata pledged to improve the San Jose Police Department’s backgrounding and hiring processes, and increase the responsibility of supervisors to identify and address problem behaviors in the rank and file.

The couple wonders whether a different response to their complaint against Dominguez could have prevented others from being victimized.

“They hadn’t really asked any other follow-up questions or updated us and now unfortunately, there are more victims,” Rodrigues said. “It just made me mad because those people didn’t have to go through that.”

“This situation with that family was avoidable and it happened anyway,” Pouliot added. “There is a pattern of abuse.”