A Texas police officer who was once fired over claims he gave a homeless man a sandwich stuffed with dog poop has landed a shocking new promotion.
Matthew Luckhurst, the former San Antonio cop at the center of the disturbing scandal, is now the police chief in Benavides, Texas, a small town of about 1,100 people roughly 150 miles south of San Antonio.
City records show Luckhurst officially took over the department’s top job on June 1 after the Benavides City Council voted to appoint him during an April 30 meeting, according to the San Antonio Current.
His new gig pays $28 an hour.
The promotion comes years after Luckhurst’s name became linked to one of the most bizarre police scandals in Texas.
Luckhurst was fired from the San Antonio Police Department in 2016 after another officer accused him of placing feces between two slices of bread, putting the sandwich in a Styrofoam container, and leaving it near a sleeping homeless man.
The man reportedly never ate the sandwich.
Luckhurst denied trying to get the man to consume it. He claimed he handed the feces-filled meal to the homeless man so he could throw it away.
But the accusation was not the only disturbing incident tied to him.
That same year, Luckhurst was also accused of defecating in a women’s restroom at the San Antonio Police Department and smearing a brown substance on a toilet seat, according to reports.
He reportedly did not deny being responsible for that bathroom incident.
Luckhurst fought his firing and won an appeal in 2019, briefly returning to the San Antonio force. However, a judge later upheld his dismissal in 2020.
Despite the controversy, Luckhurst returned to law enforcement in February 2022 when he was hired by the Floresville Police Department.
That job did not last long.
He worked there for about 10 months before he was fired again after his past came back into public view.
Then in 2023, Luckhurst was hired as a police officer in Benavides by then-Police Chief Andrew Hines.
At the time, Hines defended the decision and said the hire reflected the department’s commitment to “honesty and accountability.”
Now Luckhurst has gone from disgraced former San Antonio officer to the top cop in Benavides, leaving many stunned that a man with such a notorious history was able to climb back into a position of power.
Benavides officials have not yet commented publicly on the backlash surrounding his promotion.