El Paso Police Officer Guadalupe Sosa appears in a mugshot from July 7, 2023. (El Paso Police Department)
A Texas police officer raped his then-girlfriend for merely looking at another man, the department he'll soon be fired from says.
According to El Paso County Court docket records reviewed by Law&Crime, Guadalupe Sosa, 44, is accused of one count each of sexual assault and breach of computer security, according to El Paso County Court docket records reviewed by Law&Crime.
The charges are related to the same alleged female victim, according to a criminal complaint affidavit obtained by the El Paso Times. And each of those alleged incidents occurred when Sosa was a member of the El Paso Police Department.
The rape allegedly occurred during the early morning hours on April 29, 2018, after Sosa and his then-girlfriend left a bar where they were celebrating a mutual friend's birthday.
At some point during that celebratory night out, however, Sosa allegedly became jealous and accused his then-girlfriend of looking at another man. The alleged victim's roommate would later tell police that the man she was looking at was playing in a band in the bar that night, the newspaper reported.
The two reportedly continued fighting over Sosa's jealousy and eventually left at around 1 a.m. to stop further quarreling – and headed back to the woman's home on the east side of El Paso.
As the two got into bed, the woman wanted to sleep, the affidavit alleges – but the police officer wanted sex. The woman told Sosa she did not want to have sex, but he did not accept that, the document reportedly says. Next, he got on top of her, pinned her down, and began to sexually assault her as she cried out in pain.
"Stop, it hurts," the woman told police she yelled – multiple times over.
As Sosa allegedly continued to rape his victim, he fashioned the assault as a form of punishment for his perception of her behavior at the bar, saying: "That's what you get for looking at another man."
The next morning, the woman allegedly told her roommate about the incident. The woman's roommate would later corroborate that recollection to law enforcement, the affidavit says, telling police that the alleged victim was distraught and confused because she and Sosa were in a relationship at the time. The roommate allegedly told the woman the length and status of their relationship didn't matter and that, without consent, what happened was sexual assault.
For years, the memory haunted the woman – before it came back in a pressing digital waking nightmare of sorts when she got a Snapchat memory of the supposed-to-be-fun night out on April 28, 2022, according to the affidavit.
The woman then texted Sosa the following message: "4 years ago today you raped me…maybe you forgot about it. Maybe u thought I forgot about it. But I will never forget. How I begged u and cried for you to stop. U held me down so I could feel the pain on purpose…I was in disbelief."
Sosa allegedly replied: "I remember I was drunk but not that drunk and no I will never forget. Im not that same person…I sin… and I beg for forgiveness…I am sorry, I will pray for u to heal…I don't expect I to forget."
Eventually, the woman told her story to Sosa's employers.
In the interim, the two broke up.
But Sosa was allegedly not quite ready to let things go.
After seeing his ex-girlfriend with a male friend at a "country bar" called Whiskey Dicks, near Marty Robbins Park, Sosa allegedly followed his ex back to her friend's house and later used an EPPD database to look up information about her and the man, according to court documents obtained by local Fox affiliate KFOX.
Those unauthorized searches occurred on at least two occasions, police allege, in February 2022 and May 2022.
When quizzed by investigators about those alleged searches, the defendant initially denied or denied remembering having done so, police say. He later allegedly said: "If I did, I did."
Sosa was charged with the computer crime on June 17, court records show.
Two days before that, on June 15, his ex-girlfriend's roommate had her interview with police, according to the affidavit obtained by the Times. She reportedly recalled the fight between the couple at the bar and the phone call about the rape allegation the next morning.
"It's been on the back of my head," the defendant said when told by fellow police officers that his ex had accused him of rape. "I know she has made those allegations or statements back then.
Sosa would claim that what happened was "rough sex" and that his girlfriend should have tapped out if she felt it was going too far, the affidavit reportedly says. The woman would tell police that she was too scared at the time to try and get out of the situation.
Confronted with those alleged text messages acknowledging that he had, in fact, sexually assaulted the woman, the defendant allegedly told police he didn't want to fight with her about the incident and "was trying to work on getting back together," according to the affidavit.
A 15-year veteran of the police force, his employment is currently in the process of being terminated, and he was "relieved of duty and placed on administrative leave for the remainder of the termination process," the EPPD said in a press release earlier this month.
"The El Paso Police Department takes all misconduct allegations seriously and will work diligently to investigate all claims against its personnel," the EPD said in a statement at the time of Sosa's arrest. "The department remains committed to upholding the highest standards of professionalism and integrity in performing its duties."
