Fired officer faced no charges after alleged vandalism and ‘threat’ t…

A Muscatine police officer faced no criminal charges related to allegations that he threatened to kill his wife, had the home of his wife’s boyfriend vandalized and lied to investigators, according to newly disclosed records.

While court records indicate Juan Daniel Lopez was never criminally charged in the 2011 case, he was fired by the Muscatine Police Department — a fact that he was accused of concealing from the City of Iowa City, which hired him in October 2021.

Lopez’s conduct in Muscatine came to light only recently after he was arrested in Johnson County on a charge of possession of cocaine with intent to deliver. That charge was dropped last month as part of a plea bargain that resulted in two years of probation for a violation of Iowa’s drug-tax law.

At the time of his December 2023 arrest, Lopez was working as a construction inspector for Iowa City. Within days of the arrest, Lopez was fired from that job, in part because he…