![\"Former](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1780091850_25_.webp\"\/)
<\/p>\nLieutenant Arturo Gonzalez, who led the Fort Myers Police Department\u2019s special enforcement division, abruptly retired this week after allegations he was caught on city surveillance video in an affectionate moment with a human resources employee earlier this month, the Florida Trident confirmed.<\/p>\n
Gonzalez made a quick and quiet exit from the department after nearly 30 years of service just days after a formal complaint was lodged by former detective Emelia Lock, who alleged the lawman\u2019s \u201cinappropriate romantic relationship\u201d with HR employee Amber Colon represents a conflict of interest in her recent discrimination case.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Fort Myers Police Department\/Florida Trident<\/p>\n
Former Lt. Arturo \u201cArt\u201d Gonzalez<\/p>\n
In the May 21 complaint, Lock describes how the alleged romance between Colon and Gonzalez, who is married to another FMPD administrative employee, was discovered.<\/p>\n
\u201cTheir relationship was observed publicly while Lt. Gonzalez was working overtime,\u201d wrote Lock, who spent ten years with the department before resigning last October, \u201cand surveillance footage confirming this encounter has already been viewed by individuals within the City.\u201d<\/p>\n
When reached by phone at the city, Colon, who is also married, refused to comment on whether she had a romantic relationship with Gonzalez.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know there is surveillance all around city hall and it\u2019s not uncommon for an employee to be seen with another employee,\u201d said Colon. \u201cI think I need to consult with the director of HR. I\u2019m not gonna deny or confirm anything until I know I\u2019m allowed to have a conversation with you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Efforts to contact Gonzalez were not successful and the police department had not responded to a request for an interview or statement from Chief Jason Fields prior to press time. The Trident\u2019s public information requests for the lieutenant\u2019s resignation letter and a copy of the alleged surveillance video remain outstanding as well.<\/p>\n
It was Colon who was assigned last year to investigate Lock\u2019s discrimination and retaliation complaint against her former supervisor, Sgt. Scott Newbury. Lock contends Gonzalez was Newbury\u2019s \u201cclosest personal friend,\u201d making the outgoing lieutenant\u2019s alleged relationship with Colon \u201ca serious and undeniable conflict of interest.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Amber](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1780091850_72_.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
Fort Myers Police Department\/Florida Trident<\/p>\n
Amber Colon <\/p>\n
\u201cThe HR employee [Colon] responsible for investigating my complaint was romantically involved with someone closely connected to the primary subject of my allegations,\u201d Lock wrote in her May 21 complaint to Human Resources Director Marvlyn Scott. \u201cNo reasonable standard of HR practice would permit an investigator with such a conflict to oversee a case involving individuals tied to their romantic partner.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lock alleged Colon failed to interview witnesses and broke confidences in her investigation, which ended with a finding of \u201cunsubstantiated.\u201d Evidence of a hidden romantic relationship between Colon and Gonzalez, she contended, \u201ccalls into question the fairness, objectivity, and legitimacy of the entire process.\u201d<\/p>\n
Colon, after refusing to discuss the allegations of an affair, defended her investigation. To back up her contention there was no conflict of interest, she specified there was no romantic relationship with Gonzalez \u201clast year.\u201d When asked if that was an admission she had such a relationship with Gonzalez this year, Colon responded that again she wouldn\u2019t \u201centertain\u201d questions on the topic. \u201cYou\u2019re saying there\u2019s video footage of me so what can I say?\u201d she said. \u201cI haven\u2019t seen a copy of the video.\u201d<\/p>\n
She insisted her investigation of Lock\u2019s discrimination and retaliation complaint last year was unbiased.<\/p>\n
\u201cI stand behind my work ethic,\u201d she said. \u201cI shared my response with [Lock], I interviewed many people in her department, and I would never put myself out like that, especially regarding another woman of color or someone that\u2019s marginalized. There\u2019s no way I would not bring to light anything that needed to be brought to light.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lock alleged in her discrimination complaint that Newbury, who retired last year, harassed her following her taking family leave for the birth of her child in 2021, creating a hostile work environment that ultimately led to her removal as the city\u2019s representative in the Metro Drug Unit task force. She was transferred to the narcotics division where she served until her resignation in 2025.<\/p>\n
![\"Lock](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1780091850_443_.webp\"\/)
<\/p>\n
Special to the Florida Trident<\/p>\n
Lock holds a commendation awarded to her in 2019. <\/p>\n
\u201cI described how I was singled out, scrutinized, and repeatedly questioned about my ability to perform my job duties solely because I had a child, a treatment my male colleagues did not experience,\u201d she wrote in the May 21 complaint. \u201cSergeant Newbury even joked that my FMLA leave was a \u2018vacation.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Lock said she specifically asked Colon not to notify Capt. Michael Walsh \u2013 Newbury\u2019s supervisor and \u201cclose personal friend\u201d \u2013 of the investigation, in part because Walsh was also a subject of the complaint along with Newbury.<\/p>\n
\u201cDuring my HR meeting, I explicitly requested confidentiality due to fear of retaliation,\u201d Lock wrote. \u201cWithin a week, I learned that Captain Walsh had already been informed of my complaint and had discussed it [with others].\u201d<\/p>\n
Colon admitted she notified Walsh of the investigation.<\/p>\n
\u201cI did have that conversation with Captain Walsh,\u201d she told the Trident. \u201cI needed to have conversations with him because he was the person who was supervising that division at that time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lock, who was a finalist for Officer of the Year in 2018, requested in her May 21 complaint that the entire matter be re-investigated in light of the circumstances of Gonzalez\u2019s departure. On Thursday, she met with Scott, Fort Myers\u2019 human resources director, and said Scott informed her a new investigation into the matter was indeed being undertaken by the city.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll I want is accountability,\u201d said Lock. \u201cThey may not be able to do anything for me, but I think the public deserves to know what is going on in that department. I don\u2019t want things to be hush-hush anymore because that\u2019s the reason why they\u2019ve gotten away with so much.\u201d<\/p>\n
About the Author:\u00a0Bob Norman\u00a0is a senior editor for the Florida Trident. His work as an investigative reporter has won dozens of awards and led to criminal charges and the removal of several corrupt public officials. He can be reached at\u00a0norman@flcga.org. The Florida Trident is an investigative news outlet focusing on government accountability and transparency across Florida. The\u00a0Trident was created and first published in 2022 by the Florida Center for Government Accountability, a non-profit organization that facilitates local investigative reporting across the state. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lieutenant Arturo Gonzalez, who led the Fort Myers Police Department\u2019s special enforcement division, abruptly retired this week after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":289418,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210],"class_list":["post-289417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=289417"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289417\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/289418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}