A one-time KSBY reporter filed a citizen’s complaint against Pismo Beach Police Department Sgt. Adrian Souza (who’s since resigned) about his conduct during their personal relationship that spanned between July 2020 and January 2022.
In a letter to Police Chief Jeff Smith dated Feb. 15, the woman mentioned that her interaction with Souza began after a traffic stop because she wasn’t wearing a seat belt. Weeks later, she said, they started dating before breaking up in June 2021—but they continued to see each other.
“While on duty, Sgt. Souza would send me explicit pictures and videos, like the ones I have included below, and talked about how much he could ‘use a release’ because of how stressed he was at work,” her letter read. “With hopes of our reconciliation, I would encourage him to visit me at my apartment on [redacted]. On Nov. 16 [2021], while on day shift, after groping and kissing on this visit, he asked me to perform fellatio on him, so I did.”
She added that each time she met Souza while he was on duty, he would remove his ear or microphone cord and would double check that his camera was off. Her allegations and the attached explicit video, photograph, and undated text exchange set off an Internal Affairs investigation.
The day after receiving the letter, the Police Department said it notified Souza about potential policy violations and future interviews about the allegations. He was placed on paid administrative leave. Souza resigned on June 10, before completing the disciplinary process. Following his resignation, Pismo Beach city staff made available redacted records pertaining to the investigation.
One of these documents included a nearly 50-page transcript of a phone interview between the woman and Greg Palmer, the Police Department’s attorney. There, she stated that Souza sometimes met with her at Judkins Middle School and the Shell Beach tennis courts—locations she said he frequently brought past girlfriends to. That transcript also noted her reason for filing the complaint: The news reporter wanted to eventually become a police officer herself.
“The more and more oral boards I did, and I knew I had one coming up, I was like I gotta say somethin’, ’cause that’s, that’s not a good officer … I have to come forward with this and let them take care of that,” she said in the phone interview. “Like, one, that makes me not fit to be an officer, two, that makes me a bad [redacted], and three, that just makes me a bad person, so I knew I had to tell someone about his conduct, ’cause I don’t know what else was possible.” Δ
This article appears in 55 Fiction 2022.
