Detective sent menacing anonymous texts to stepson's girlfriend

Detective Adonis Topacio admitted to sending threatening text messages to his stepson’s girlfriend from a second number unknown to any of his family members, according to a disciplinary report released earlier this month.

The girlfriend filed a complaint with the OPA, reporting that she received a threatening message from an unknown number with a photo of the world exploding and the text “Your world very soon.” When she and Topacio’s stepson contacted the cell phone carrier, they discovered it belonged to Topacio.

Before the text, Topacio and his stepson were having a dispute. Topacio told investigators that the stepson had been causing problems with his mother. She had told Topacio that she believed it was due to her son's relationship.

Topacio attempted to sow distrust between his stepson and his girlfriend by texting him, “Don’t trust her. Check her other phone,” from the same number he used to threaten her.

When the girlfriend’s mother confronted Topacio’s wife about the threats, she covered for him, claiming not to know he sent them. But, in the end, she said, “... he should not have sent any messages, but we are human too.”

Topacio admitted that the phone number was his when the OPA interviewed him. He never explained the purpose of the second number—only that he had blocked the stepson and his girlfriend on his main line.

He said the texts were never meant to threaten the complainant’s safety, but he was exposing her lies to everyone. He claimed to be acting emotionally when he sent them because of the conflict between his stepson and his wife.

Topacio has been an officer for 26 years, and he created a fake number secretly to cause problems for his stepson’s relationship. He went so far as to send messages that made the girlfriend fear enough for her safety that she filed a police report.

Still, the OPA argued that while it does not “condone the content or manner” of the text message, it could not “find it constituted a crime.” The OPA found that the texts did not constitute a “true threat” as defined by Washington law and were more consistent with “a temporary sense of heightened anger than a serious expression of an intent to hurt the Complainant.”

Adonis received a training referral for acting unprofessionally off-duty. OPA found that he acted emotionally and used poor judgment when he sent the messages.

Topacio was hired in 1998 and has been investigated four times by OPA. He made $235,971 in 2023, including $103,010 in overtime.