Manteca Police Officer John Moody Fired For Falsely Reporting DUI Arrest
MANTECA (CBS13) – Former Manteca police officer John Moody was fired after lying about a DUI arrest last September. Investigators say his wrong moves landed one woman in a hospital bed with a needle in her arm.
Documents released by the Manteca Police Department detail egregious behavior from the 20-year veteran of the force, who's been in hot water before.
One Manteca family says Officer Moody is a household name.
"It feels like it just happened," says Gabriel Duenez, the younger brother of Ernesto Duenez Jr., who was shot 11 times by Officer Moody back in 2011.
The San Joaquin County District Attorney's Office previously concluded Officer Moody was justified in that shooting.
"We're still going through it. Ups and downs," Duenez said.
A decade later, Moody is now off the force. He was fired for lying.
"We're happy he's finally off the streets," Duenez said.
Documents shared with CBS13 by the Manteca Police Department show on September 18, 2020, Officer Moody arrested a woman on a DUI charge. She agreed to have a blood sample taken, but at Doctors Hospital of Manteca, the woman changed her mind, stating so directly to Officer Moody
"You know I'm not going to let you take a blood draw, right?" said the woman, who declined the blood sample several times.
Modesto police said she even used "physical action demonstrating her withdraw of consent." But the woman was held down and her blood was taken anyway.
The documents show Officer Moody falsely reported the incident to his watch commander. Moody stated he obtained a search warrant for the blood draw, which he did not, and that he wasn't in the room when the woman withdrew consent. But according to Manteca police, unreleased bodycam footage shows Moody was standing right there.
"He got charged for doing something he shouldn't have been doing," Duenez said.
Now, Moody's no longer a police officer, and for the people whose lives were impacted by his actions, the final words written by a Manteca police captain echo as their pain lingers.
Duenez read a quote in the documents from Cpt. Michael Aquilar, saying, "I have lost confidence in the ability of Officer Moody to be a police officer."
CBS13 did reach out to the San Joaquin County District Attorney's Office to ask if there will be any additional criminal investigation on a state or federal level. We have not heard back. The hospital also did not comment.
