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Three officers from the Floresville Police Department are defendants in a federal lawsuit that also names the city of Floresville.
Christopher Perez, who was terminated from the police department in March after working there for just four months, filed suit in the U.S. District Court, Western District of Texas, in San Antonio. Perez is suing the city, along with Chief Lorenzo Herrera, Lt. Billy Herrera, and Sgt. Thomas Silvas, charging them with retaliation for his reporting sex and gender discrimination and hostile work environment.
According to the suit, in December 2022, Perez was a rookie officer whom Silvas was training. Perez details several incidents, alleging Silvas used racial slurs and threatened to drop Perez from field training after the rookie followed through on arresting an individual who allegedly possessed heroin, despite pressure from Silvas not to make the arrest. When Perez reported the incident, he was reportedly told by the chief, “We’re not going to do anything about this. This is how we do things here.”
According to Perez’s complaint, he filed three separate workplace grievances and personally informed Chief Herrera and Lt. Herrera of Silvas’ actions. Perez alleges that when he was called into the chief’s office March 2 for a meeting, Chief Herrera fired him.
Perez — who during his eight years in law enforcement worked for agencies including sheriff’s offices in Bexar and Wilson counties — is seeking monetary damages, along with attorney fees and court costs.
Chief Herrera also is the subject of a private investigation ordered by the Floresville City Council. An open records request filed by the Wilson County News to seek documents related to that issue has been referred to the Texas Attorney General for review.
