José Ángel González, deputy director of Spain’s National Police, resigned Tuesday hours after a Madrid Court admitted a sexual assault complaint filed by a subordinate.
The Spanish outlet La Sexta reports that Madrid’s Court of First Instance admitted the complaint against González, in which yet-to-be publicly identified female police officer accuses the 66 year-old police chief of allegedly having committed sexual assault against her. She also accused him of having committed coercion, psychological injury, and embezzlement of public funds.
Court documents reviewed by the outlet indicate that the woman denounced that, while she was on duty in April 2025, she received orders to drive an unmarked car to a restaurant where González and another police commander were dining. González allegedly ordered her to take him to the official residence, property of the Spanish Interior Ministry.
González, “taking advantage of his authority, he sexually assaulted his subordinate with penetration, causing her injuries, until the victim was able to break free and flee the ministerial residence,” the complaint alleged. The complaint also reportedly states that the woman had previously had a “romantic relationship” with González characterized “by a clear asymmetry of institutional power.”
Antena 3, who also reviewed a copy of the complaint, detailed that González resigned shortly after the news broke out. A March 17 hearing was scheduled for the alleged victim’s statement.
Spanish state-owned broadcaster RTVE reported that the complaint lodged by the female officer includes an audio recording that highlights the agent’s “unequivocal, clear, and persistent refusals,” refers to “physical violence” and “environmental intimidation,” and denounces the “situation of isolation, physical superiority, and environmental authority” that she was allegedly subjected to.
“The defendant took advantage of a relationship of institutional subordination to exercise control, domination, and psychological submission over the victim, preventing her from ending the relationship through hierarchical pressure, fear of professional reprisals, and the use of institutional resources to maintain control,” the complaint reportedly read.
“After the plaintiff decided to end the relationship definitively, the defendant did not accept the separation and developed obsessive behavior involving harassment and unwanted contact, which led to the serious incidents reported,” the text continued.
The woman’s lawyer, Jorge Piedrafita, spoke to RTVE on Tuesday night and stated that she “recorded everything” on self-defense grounds.
The lawyer claimed during the interview that police Commissioner Óscar San Juan, one of González’s advisors, acted as the accused’s “enforcer” of a pressure campaign aiming to keep the woman “quiet.” Piedrafita asserted that the officers offered her client “any job she wanted in the police force so that she would forget about the matter.”
RTVE detailed that González joined the Spanish National Police in 1984 and had been the highest non-political ranking officer in the force since 2018. Despite having turned 65, the Spanish Interior Ministry annulled his retirement in November 2024 through reportedly questioned legal modification so that he could continue serving at his position.
“If the head of our country’s police force is accused of sexual abuse and the government confirmed him not long ago, what else can happen in our country?” lawmaker Alberto Núñez Feijóo, leader of the center-right People’s Party (PP) told reporters on Tuesday.
“This is what we are all asking ourselves. What else can happen when the person who has a duty to prosecute crimes commits crimes ‘in flagrante’ with female colleagues? (…) Spain is falling apart,” he continued.