Ex-Yuma cop investigated for having sex with multiple subordinates

For former Yuma cop Andres Angulo, sleeping with one police department employee was not enough. Nor was sleeping with a second.

This borderland Don Juan and erstwhile Yuma police sergeant allegedly kissed at least three employees, had sex with two of them and grabbed one’s breasts and butt while on the job. Ultimately, Angulo’s horniness triggered his downfall.

On Wednesday, the Arizona Peace Officer Standards and Training Board opened an investigation into Angulo that could result in the revocation of his peace officer certification. Known as AZPOST, the board licenses all law enforcement officers in the state and is one of the few agencies in Arizona with the power to discipline police.

The 12-member board includes Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, two rural sheriffs, Phoenix City Councilmember Kevin Robinson and Ryan Thornell, director of the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry. Tim Shay, an AZPOST compliance specialist, relayed the allegations against Angulo to the board.

Shay said that between November 2020 and January 2024, Angulo had a sexual relationship with a civilian employee who worked for him, whose responsibilities included preparing reports. Shay did not name the woman. An investigation later revealed that Angulo and the employee “engaged in kissing and touching of the breasts and buttocks” while on duty, Shay said. He added that the employee would clock out of work to go have sex with Angulo when he was off duty, a small bit of consideration for Yuma taxpayers.

The lovers were parted when Angulo was reassigned to another division. However, the unnamed employee requested a transfer to Angulo’s new division, which put Angulo in the position of influencing her hire. He didn’t disclose their relationship, Shay said.

Their cover broke in January 2024, when the employee showed up twice at Angulo’s house to accuse him of seeing other women. The second time, she stayed for six or seven hours and refused to leave. When she left, Shay said, she was bruised.

Speaking to police, both Angulo and the woman accused each other of choking, property damage and sexual assault. They also told cops that they had consensual sex amid the rancor, Shay said. A criminal investigation — though it was unclear from the meeting who conducted it — ended in assault, sexual assault and disorderly charges for both Angulo and the woman.

The Yuma County Attorney’s Office declined to prosecute the sexual assault charges, but referred the other two charges to Yuma’s city prosecutor. The county attorney’s report said that “Angulo used unreasonable physical force given the circumstances, and engaged in gratuitous violence,” according to Shay. The Arizona Attorney General’s Office declined to prosecute. Shay did not say whether the city attorney prosecuted Angulo.

Meanwhile, Yuma police started an internal investigation. It found that Angulo had kissed a separate subordinate employee while off duty and had sex with yet another, completing a problematic office hat trick.

Angulo was fired in May 2024.

Other investigations

The board’s agenda was light apart from the new investigation into Angulo.

It opened an investigation into Ricky Garcia Diaz, who applied to work for the Scottsdale Police Department but was rejected when he wasn’t initially forthcoming about receiving oral sex at a brothel in Japan. Diaz did disclose that he paid for a sex act in South Korea, but didn’t mention his time in Japan until a polygraph test. Scottsdale passed on hiring Diaz in May 2022, but he applied to the Pima County Sheriff’s Department in 2024 and was accepted. Though he doesn’t currently have a peace officer’s certificate, the board hinted it may deny him one after the investigation.

The board also issued a 60-day suspension for Bullhead City Police Department’s Estrellita Sandoval, who over a few days in 2023 made 1,200 phone calls and text messages to her spouse, who was also a law enforcement officer.

In addition, the board voted against rehearing the case of former Peoria police officer Alice Balandis. In October, it revoked Balandis’ certification after she lied to investigators about a romantic relationship with a colleague who was investigating her conduct. Balandis flew in from Chicago for the hearing, to no avail.

So far this year, the board has punished five current and former law enforcement officers from across Arizona. It has opened investigations into seven, including three former Gila River cops for allegedly drunk driving an ATV recklessly around a park with children around, stealing a gun from a traffic fatality scene and pointing their firearms at each other as a joke.

In 2024, AZPOST opened 48 investigations into officers and punished 43 cops, including for putting the muzzle of a gun to a woman’s head, asking two high school girls when they lost their virginity, driving while under the influence, lying to superiors or investigators and needlessly handcuffing an 82-year-old lady.