Cop accused in bizarre sex case

Prosecutors say the officer helped a woman during a disturbance, then returned to have sex with her once her husband was gone.

The wife says when her husband returned and the officer was still there, the two men got into an argument, and that's when the officer arrested the husband and sent him to jail, charging him with retaliation. Now it is the officer who is in trouble. All of this took place at the Western Inn Motel -- a place where, according to workers, the officer was a common client.

Linda Gamboa says Officer Richard Butler is a frequent visitor to the Western Inn Motel, where Gamboa lived and worked. On January 2, Gamboa says her husband was drunk in their room, and Butler, who was hanging around the motel, offered to take him to a relative's house.

"My understanding was all he was going to do was remove him from the room, so I could get some rest because I work three jobs," Gamboa said. "If my husband was going to return here, he was going to arrest him with trespassing."

Butler soon returned and proceeded to put the moves on her.

She said, "He just came to see how I was doing. The next thing I know, he was going to make himself comfortable. He started taking off his boots."

Gamboa says Officer Butler then proceeded to have sex with her until her husband came back.

"It wasn't anything consensual," Gamboa said. "It wasn't anything I wanted. You know what I'm saying? I was getting tired of him just coming up here. I know they're all one, all police officers."

Donna Hawkins with the Harris County District Attorney's Office explained, "The officer, Richard Kevin Butler, actually took the witness away from the scene -- the male figure -- and brought him to a relative's house to separate him from his wife. The officer then went back to the motel room and engaged in a relationship with the wife."

When Linda's husband, Fredrico Gamboa, returned, the officer arrested him, eventually charging him with retaliation. But now we've learned the officer is the one in trouble. He's been charged with two counts of tampering with a government document.

Hawkins said, "The officer then arrested the witness for retaliation. The charges stem from that, as tampering with a governmental record, saying that the arrest was not lawful."

Butler, who is out on bond, wasn't home when we knocked on the door. But several workers at the motel tell us he has often rented rooms there. Gamboa says he's a frequent visitor.

"He was (having sex with) other women around the neighborhood, not just me," she said.

In fact, several women who work at the motel say they turned over records of Butler having rented rooms to the district attorney's office. The DA's office says the officer is scheduled to appear in court sometime Thursday. In the meantime, the officer has been relieved of duty with pay pending the outcome of this case and an internal affairs investigation.