San Jose: Officer from indecent exposure scandal arrested again after hit and run

SAN JOSE — A San Jose police officer infamously put on leave last year after he was allegedly caught masturbating while working a call, then was subsequently accused and charged separately with groping women, is in trouble again after a hit-and-run arrest over the weekend.

Matthew Dominguez, who joined the San Jose Police Department in 2018, was arrested late Friday and was booked into the Santa Clara County Main Jail the next morning, records show. He was still in custody Monday morning in lieu of $105,000 bail pending an arraignment scheduled Wednesday.

The jail confirmed that Dominguez was arrested by SJPD and booked on suspicion of three counts of assault, one count of hit and run, and a count of driving with willful disregard of safety while avoiding a peace officer. Whether those alleged offenses were registered as felonies or misdemeanors was not immediately clear Monday.

Additional details about the arrest were also not immediately available. After an inquiry from this news organization Monday morning, the police department said it was researching the arrest before providing a response.

Dominguez gained widespread notoriety in May 2022 after he was arrested and charged with misdemeanor indecent exposure. Prosecutors allege that while he was responding to a domestic-disturbance call the previous April, members of the family who called police saw Dominguez masturbating with his penis visible outside his pants.

Police Chief Anthony Mata personally escorted Dominguez out of department headquarters after internal-affairs investigators determined there was a basis for criminal charges.

In the wake of that initial arrest, a 25-year-old Menlo Park woman told this news organization that she was groped by Dominguez at a 2021 Memorial Day party at the home of another San Jose police officer. Prosecutors initially declined to charge Dominguez, but changed course after she went public, and added a misdemeanor sexual battery count against the officer.

Also in the fallout of the indecent-exposure arrest, a woman arrested on suspicion of DUI by Dominguez in December 2021 came forward to claim that while transporting her, the officer squeezed her breast under the guise of undoing her seat belt. That claim led to another misdemeanor sexual battery charge for Dominguez.

The woman’s attorney further contested a claim in Dominguez’s arrest report that his body camera was not activated because its battery had died, and suggested to prosecutors that the officer purposefully turned it off.

In July, the state Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training, which licenses California law enforcement, suspended Dominguez’s certification — and therefore his ability to serve as a police officer — with the official reason listed as “Criminal Proceedings Pending – Sexual Assault, Acts that Violate the Law.”

This is a developing report. Check back for updates.