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SAN ANTONIO – A former San Antonio police officer accused of assaulting his girlfriend, a fellow officer, tries to win his job back three years later after going through her phone.

Philip Ortiz Jr. was given an indefinite suspension – tantamount to dismissal – after doing so arrested on November 7, 2021 on felony charges.

Ortiz’s then-girlfriend, officer Martha Martinez, was also imposed an indefinite suspension after investigators found cellphone video of a separate incident in April 2021 in which she pointed an unloaded gun at Ortiz and pulled the trigger several times.

“I I think you will also hear that this was a toxic relationship. There was abuse on both sides,” Erica Matlock, an attorney representing the city, said at the start of Tuesday’s hearing. ‘There is no innocent victim here.“

Although the criminal case against Ortiz was dismissed in November 2022 due to insufficient evidence, Matlock believes there is still sufficient grounds to uphold his dismissal.

“If you are found to have credible allegations of domestic violence, you cannot hold a gun and a city badge,” Matlock said.

Ortiz and Martinez were driving back from a wedding when the city said he went through her phone while she slept. After Ortiz found a man on the phone who he thought was blocked, the city says he attacked Martinez in the truck, pushing her head against the window and pulling her hair.

Once they got to the house, Matlock said “things got even more physical” and Ortiz threatened to kill Martinez and himself before going into a bedroom, where Martinez said she knew he had a gun.

“I honestly don’t know if he would have done that, but at the same time I’m alone,” Martinez told investigators in a videotaped interview from that evening shown during the hearing. “I don’t have my phone. I don’t have my keys. What am I going to do? Let him shoot me? Let me die there?”

Martinez went to get her own gun from another room. Although Ortiz didn’t come back with a sidearm, they wrestled for hers, which fired twice during the fight.

While restraining her, Ortiz also began recording a video without Martinez’s knowledge. Ortiz can then be heard repeatedly denying Martinez’s accusations that he hit her. He also tells Martinez that he doesn’t want either of them to get into trouble.

“I’m all scratched up,” Ortiz can be heard saying. “You hit me, honey. That’s not true, no one will believe you.”

Ortiz also called 9-1-1 and restrained Martinez until fellow SAPD officers arrived at the home. He denies hitting Martinez or making any threats.

Ortiz’s attorney, Ricardo Garcia-Tagle, pointed to his client’s injuries — a busted lip and a mark near his eye — as evidence that Martinez was the primary aggressor, not Ortiz.

SAPD’s lead investigator on the case, Sgt. Zachary Oliva said “the totality of the circumstances surrounding this case” indicated otherwise.

Martinez had bruises that she said were from that night, Oliva said, and a red scalp that he said was consistent with her hair being pulled out.

Ironically, investigators viewed Ortiz’s secret video recording as evidence that he was the primary aggressor.

“It kind of struck us because, again, she’s not aware that she’s being recorded, and she just responds to his questions, you know, almost confused like, ‘Hey, why are you saying this?’ It didn’t happen this way. It happened this way.” So it made us believe that a lot of those questions were almost staged,” Oliva said.

Oliva said he also investigated allegations against Martinez for assaulting Ortiz in the past. Although Oliva said there were “several” altercations between the pair, investigators were unable to determine any wrongdoing based on what they had.

Although Oliva said he believes Martinez has engaged in domestic violence in the past, he also believes she was the victim “in this case.”

KSAT found no evidence of any criminal charges against Martinez. The appeal against her indefinite suspension is still pending.