SAN JOSE — A competency challenge has halted the criminal prosecution of a former San Jose police officer who was allegedly caught masturbating while working a call, and was later charged with multiple sexual battery counts and a violent road rage rampage.
The attorney for Matthew Dominguez declared doubt on his mental fitness to participate in his own defense at a May 13 court hearing in San Jose, records show. A Santa Clara County Superior Court judge then suspended the prosecution of a half-dozen felony and misdemeanor charges pending the results of a court-ordered psychological evaluation due June 21.
Dominguez’s attorney, Ronald Cabanayan, declined to comment to this news organization about what prompted him to question his client’s competency. The deputy district attorney assigned to the case similarly declined comment.
If a judge were to agree with Cabanayan and find that Dominguez was not competent to stand trial, the defendant would be transferred to the custody of a state mental health facility and his cases would resume only when a court assessment finds him competent again.
There are scant indications in the public record that signal mental health issues for Dominguez. But last October, a domestic-violence protective order obtained for his ex-girlfriend, who alleged Dominguez stalked, assaulted and verbally abused her, asserted that his mental health was declining.
Dominguez, 34, drew national embarrassment to the San Jose Police Department after an April 2022 allegation that while working a domestic disturbance call, residents who had called police saw him masturbating with his penis visible outside his pants. The following month, then-Police Chief Anthony Mata personally walked Dominguez out of SJPD headquarters after putting him on administrative leave. Three months later, Dominguez was severed from the department, and he is currently on a state decertification list that prohibits him from serving as a police officer in California again.
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After a misdemeanor indecent exposure charge was filed against Dominguez, 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.
Another woman, who was arrested on suspicion of DUI by Dominguez in December 2021, also came forward to claim that while transporting her, the officer squeezed her breast under the guise of undoing her seat belt. That led to a second misdemeanor sexual battery charge.
Last November, Dominguez was arrested by San Jose police after an hours-long sequence in which he is alleged to have accosted, rammed, then chased a car full of people he claims narrowly avoided colliding with him, according to a police report. That chase spanned from South San Jose to downtown before the reported victims lost his tail.
The police investigation states that Dominguez surfaced an hour later in North San Jose after officers were called to a report of a road rage encounter in which a motorist called 911 and described a driver in a car matching Dominguez’s yelling and throwing a bottle at the caller. Dominguez was subsequently charged with assault with a deadly weapon and reckless driving while eluding a police officer, both felonies, and a misdemeanor charge for the alleged bottle throw.
Dominguez is currently being held in the county Main Jail in lieu of $107,000 bail.
