Camden Metro Police Officer Benito Gonzalez.
A police officer was caught masturbating at a table in a local Starbucks. The Camden Metro Police officer is accused of performing the act inside a Camden County Starbucks in the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania area.
The incident occurred last year but Lt. Benito Gonzalez pleaded guilty to lewdness charges Monday.
Lt. Gonzalez is accused of pulling down his shorts last May, and masturbating at a table inside the store. He was off-duty at the time, and no one at the Starbucks knew that he was a police officer until after the fact.
Camden Metro Police Chief Scott Thompson said that the decorated lieutenant was suspended without pay. He called the allegations “deeply troubling.”
“We are deeply troubled by the allegations of this off-duty conduct,” Thomson said in a statement sent to local NBC 10. “A swift and thorough investigation is being conducted. We are working to ascertain all of the facts in this matter with Cherry Hill Police Department and the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office.”
After the Monday plea, Gonzalez is now set to appear at an administrative hearing. The police hearing will decide whether or not he will be fired from his job at the department.