‘You can kiss your career goodbye’: Salazar responds to two off-duty deputies’ arrests

SAN ANTONIO — Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar said Monday that two off-duty deputies who resigned following separate arrests early Sunday will not be eligible for rehire at his agency, though another law enforcement agency could choose to employ them.

In an interview with us Salazar discussed the arrests, the agency’s response and its hiring standards.

San Antonio police arrested Damian Villegas, 19, for reckless driving and Damien Trevino, 25, for driving while intoxicated on Oct. 4.

According to information provided by SAPD, an officer stopped Villegas near Northwest Loop 410 and Culebra Road at approximately 2:13 a.m. after observing him traveling at a high rate of speed.

About 50 minutes later, at approximately 3:05 a.m., an officer stopped Trevino in the 7200 block of Culebra Road. Police said the officer found him intoxicated and arrested him for DWI.

Salazar said the incidents were unrelated. Both deputies worked in the jail and were driving personal vehicles, he said. Neither had an agency-issued weapon, and no one was injured, according to the sheriff.

Villegas had worked for BCSO for one year and Trevino for four years, according to the agency.

Salazar said the assistant chief overseeing the jail contacted both deputies and notified them that the agency intended to terminate their employment. Both resigned in lieu of termination.

Neither was a probationary deputy, Salazar said, so terminating their employment would have required a process.

“And so if and when you do find yourself on that side of the law for something like DWI, you can kiss your career goodbye,” Salazar said.

He said the agency’s zero-tolerance stance also applied to the reckless-driving arrest.

BCSO previously said both deputies’ separations would be reported to the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement under dishonorable conditions, effective immediately. That designation concerns their separation from the agency; it is not a criminal conviction.

San Antonio police are handling the criminal investigation. Salazar said BCSO is not conducting an internal investigation because the two no longer work for the agency.

The arrests follow other cases involving BCSO deputies. A San Antonio Express-News analysis identified 13 sheriff’s deputies arrested on criminal charges in 2025. That figure represents arrests, not convictions.

Asked how many BCSO employees have been arrested in 2026, Salazar said he did not have the number available.

“But what I can tell you is that for us, our goal is to get to zero in any given year,” he said. “There is no acceptable number.”

Asked about prior discipline, Salazar said he believed Trevino had faced disciplinary action for relatively minor infractions, but nothing like the conduct alleged in Sunday’s arrest.

Salazar also said previous deputy arrests prompted him to tighten hiring standards. He said the agency previously disqualified applicants based on DWI convictions, but he changed the standard to disqualify applicants with a DWI arrest, even without a conviction.

While neither former deputy will be eligible for rehire at BCSO, Salazar said he cannot determine whether another agency will hire them.

“We’ve had instances where we part ways with a deputy under very similar circumstances and then before we know it, they’re working somewhere else,” Salazar said. “I have no control over that.”

He said BCSO will provide truthful background information about why the deputies left if another agency inquires about hiring them.

Joey Ramirez, an English teacher who has lived in San Antonio his entire life, said public service carries responsibilities beyond the job.

“So hearing that we have public officials that are making poor decisions concerns me as a citizen because they take on the responsibility to protect and guide us,” Ramirez said.

Asked what he would say to people whose trust in the agency had been shaken, Salazar said removing employees demonstrates accountability.

“But the fact that we’re willing to show people the door immediately upon being arrested, that should give them every reason in the world to trust this agency,” he said.