Married Florida police chief allegedly caught on camera in steamy clinch with HR boss... before surveillance video is shown to his WIFE - and whistleblower makes slew of scandalous claims

Published: 21:26, 22 July 2026 | Updated: 21:27, 22 July 2026 In July last year, a beaming Arturo Gonzalez stood arm-in-arm with his wife Irma on a sundrenched Florida beach as they celebrated their youngest daughter Ashley's engagement. By all accounts, the 30-year police veteran was a devoted family man, pictured wrapping his newly engaged daughter in a tight embrace. But within a year, the Fort Myers lieutenant had resigned in disgrace, after an alleged secret he shared with another top city official was very publicly exposed.  Gonzalez, 51, had allegedly been carrying out a hidden office romance with Amber Colon, a city of Fort Myers HR employee, behind the back of his wife, who also worked for the department.  Allegations of their shocking affair exploded into public view after a whistleblower reported surveillance footage that allegedly captured the pair in a romantic embrace outside of Fort Myers City Hall on May 1, according to complaint records obtained by the Daily Mail.  'Their relationship was observed publicly while Lt. Gonzalez was working overtime, and surveillance footage confirming this encounter has already been viewed by individuals within the City,' the complaint stated.    Within days, a formal complaint was lodged alleging that Gonzalez's 'inappropriate romantic relationship' with Colon represented a direct conflict of interest in a separate police discrimination case.   The footage was shown to his wife Irma Gonzalez, who had worked for the police department as an administrative aide since 2007. Irma has since left the department.  Arturo Gonzalez spent 30 years as a police officer, leading the Fort Myers Special Enforcement Division before his abrupt resignation in May  Gonzalez, 51, seen in Facebook posts with his family Gonzalez abruptly quit the force just four days after the complaint was lodged, leaving after 30 years in the ranks, most recently leading the department's Special Enforcement Division. The whistleblower, former narcotics detective Emelia Lock, told the Daily Mail she reported the footage of Gonzalez's affair to expose what she described as an obvious conflict of interest.  A finalist for Officer of the Year in 2018, Lock spent four-and-a-half years on patrol before joining an elite narcotics unit investigating drug trafficking organizations and later a multi-agency task force that dismantled a major drug gang. Lock claimed that when she returned from maternity leave following the birth of her first son in late 2021, she was subjected to demeaning, sexist discrimination from bosses. In her complaint, Lock wrote that her supervisor Sergeant Scott Newbury had joked that she had taken a cushy 'vacation' while on maternity leave and repeatedly questioned whether motherhood had affected her ability to do her job – despite her working 16-hour days while caring for a newborn. Lock described Newbury as Gonzalez's 'best friend' within the department.  She then claimed her career quickly unraveled after she raised concerns with superiors, including Captain Michael Walsh, the head of the investigative services bureau.  She was subsequently thrown out of the unit, passed over for a promotion and only given low level narcotics work going forward, according to Lock's formal complaint.  Amber Colon, a Fort Myers HR employee, was allegedly seen on surveillance video kissing Gonzalez outside of City Hall, according to a former employee's complaint Whistleblower Emilia Lock, 43, told the Daily Mail she reported the alleged footage of Colon and Gonzalez to expose a conflict of interest  Lock filed the initial employment complaint in April 2025, which was assigned to Colon to investigate. Lock claimed that Colon failed to conduct a thorough probe of her claims, didn't interview the witnesses she had provided, and leaked word of the investigation to Walsh, who was also a subject of the complaint.  Colon ultimately decided that Lock's claims against Newbury and Walsh were 'unsubstantiated.'  Neither Newbury nor Walsh have publicly responded to Lock's claims.   Lock resigned in October 2025 after a decade with the department and now works in real estate. 'I loved my job,' Lock, 43, told the Daily Mail. 'I didn't care about the hours because I loved what I was doing.' 'I was very afraid of the repercussions of speaking out. This has affected me tremendously.'  Lock appeared to change her tune on speaking out after learning of the alleged damning video footage in May this year.  Lock promptly submitted another complaint to Marvlyn Scott, the city's human resources director, stating that the affair had 'fatally compromised' the earlier employment investigation. 'They expected me to leave quietly and not say anything, but that's not within me,' Lock said.   Lock's second complaint directly called out what she described as an obvious conflict of interest.  Colon was assigned to investigate Lock's initial claims of discrimination against an officer described as 'best friends' with Gonzalez Lock resigned from the department in 2025 after what she claimed was years of discrimination from her bosses 'No reasonable standard of HR practice would permit an investigator with such a conflict to oversee a case involving individuals tied to their romantic partner,' she wrote in the complaint. Days after lodging the second complaint, Gonzalez abruptly resigned.   Lock said she sympathized with Gonzalez's wife, who she said has since left the organization. 'I feel really sad for her,' Lock said. 'I don't care what people do in their personal lives. My issue is that the agency took overtime away from the entire department because of budget issues, yet you have a lieutenant getting paid overtime while conducting an affair.' The Daily Mail has attempted to contact Arturo and Irma Gonzalez for comment, and the couple has not publicly addressed claims about Arturo's alleged affair with Colon.  Colon, who is also married, did not respond to requests for comment. However, in an interview with the Florida Trident in May, she defended her investigation and denied any conflict of interest. 'There's no way I would not bring to light anything that needed to be brought to light,' she said. Asked whether she and Gonzalez were having an affair, she told the Trident there had been no romantic relationship 'last year.'  When pressed whether that was an admission she had been in a relationship with Gonzalez more recently, Colon responded that again she wouldn't 'entertain' questions on the subject and said she hadn't seen the video. Lock further stated that Newbury and Gonzalez had been allowed to retire with full benefits before disciplinary proceedings were completed. In an interview with the Florida Trident in May, Colon defended her investigation and denied any conflict of interest Arturo Gonzalez resigned days after Lock's second complaint about the footage of him and Colon allegedly embracing outside of City Hall Gonzalez has previously faced scrutiny during his policing career. In 2015, he was among officers involved in a controversial drug arrest in which a suspect alleged police planted narcotics on him, which Fort Myers police have denied. Four years later, Gonzalez was later named as one of several defendants in a federal excessive force lawsuit, though the claims were dismissed before trial. Gonzalez has not publicly addressed either incident.  The City of Fort Myers declined to comment on the alleged footage or Gonzalez's retirement, and Lock's latest complaint remains pending. The Daily Mail submitted a detailed public records request on Monday for information about Lock's claims, which is still pending. In a statement, a spokeswoman for the City of Fort Myers said: 'Processing the request requires review and coordination with the appropriate departments. 'As advised by the City Attorney's Office, the city cannot comment separately on matters involving current or former employees.'