SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — A San Diego Police officer who has been under investigation since last year was arrested Wednesday on charges related to stalking an ex-girlfriend.
Police said SDPD Sergeant Mariusz Czas was taken into custody Wednesday and charged with felony counts of stalking, extortion, and false imprisonment, as well as misdemeanor counts of making harassing calls and violation of a restraining order.
On June 29, 2020, a woman contacted a local law enforcement agency to report her ex-boyfriend was harassing her, according to police. The next day, SDPD detectives met with the woman to look into her allegations.
Sgt. Czas was "immediately relieved of his police duties and placed in an assignment that required no contact with the public," according to the department.
Over the following seven months, police conducted interviews and met with the county's District Attorney's Office, before executing a search warrant on Czas' home.
"SDPD has zero-tolerance for domestic abuse in any form. All of our personnel will continue to be held to a high standard that our community deserves," a release from the department read.
SDPD says Czas has been with the department for more than 18 years.
A criminal complaint in the case says, "on or about and between April 29, 2020 and July 1, 2020, Mariusz Czas did unlawfully, willfully, maliciously and repeatedly follow and harass [sic] another, and did make a credible threat with the intent to place that person in reasonable fear for her safety."
The complaint added that Czas, "with the intent to extort money and property from another, did unlawfully send and deliver to another a letter and other writing expressing and implying, and adapted to imply, a threat to expose or to impute to her a disgrace."
Czas was booked into San Diego Central Jail late Wednesday morning. A District Attorney's Office spokeswoman said late Wednesday that Czas posted $100,000 bail, and his arraignment is scheduled for June 22.
