Bert Lopez was honored in the Capitol Rotunda in May 2010 as the New Mexico State Police District 1 Officer of the Year.

In July, he received a Challenge Coin, a select commendation his department bestows on officers identified as having gone above and beyond the call of duty.

Now, he's on paid administrative leave and facing possible disciplinary action for an incident that has caused embarrassment to the department. Images surfaced Monday — and were posted on websites across the country by Tuesday morning — showing him in uniform apparently having sex in broad daylight with an unidentified woman on the hood of her Honda outside the gate of a county-owned ranch south of Santa Fe.

New Mexico State Police Chief Robert Shilling would not release the identity of the officer in the images captured by a motion-sensor digital camera that the county had installed in an effort to record vandals and other trespassers entering the vacant property.

No one has been charged with a crime in connection with the incident, which apparently was only witnessed by a Chihuahua at the scene before a county employee spotted the images of the officer and the woman, and then showed them to the Santa Fe County sheriff in an effort to figure out which agency's uniform the officer was wearing.

The New Mexican has confirmed from multiple sources that the officer is Lopez. Attempts to reach Lopez for comment Tuesday were unsuccessful.

Police confirmed that an internal investigation has been completed and that the officer has been on paid leave for the past several weeks.

Lopez, who often worked the night shift as a patrol officer, was involved in making numerous DWI arrests around Santa Fe County.

Sources familiar with the incident, who asked not be identified, have said there is no indication the sexual encounter was related to Lopez's law-enforcement activities.

State police have not said whether Lopez was on duty at the time of the incident.

News of the incident was first leaked to the media two weeks ago, around the time the Santa Fe County employee discovered the images. Sheriff Robert Garcia released the images Monday following public-records requests from several media outlets.

Sometime in late July or early August, the officer and the unidentified woman were captured on the camera at the property near La Cienega, which the county purchased a couple of years ago after a long debate over a proposed developement there. County officials still haven't decided what to do with the property.

In the images, the officer's duty belt, with gun still holstered and handcuffs attached, remains around his waist.

"I was asked to identify what agency the officer belonged to, and I was happy to say it wasn't one of my guys," Sheriff Garcia said. "Then, as a courtesy to state police, we took to the chief's office the images we had."

A state police code of conduct, among other things, calls on officers to "strive to maintain the highest level of ethical behavior" and "display our pride by demonstrating dignity and self-respect through personal attitudes, actions and appearance," according to department's "Core Values" posted online.

Lopez was the officer who arrested Daniel Martinez, a well-known Santa Fe criminal defendant, in May 2010. After Martinez was taken into custody on drug-related charges, Lopez was completing paperwork in the state police headquarters off Cerrillos Road in southwest Santa Fe when a video-surveillance camera captured images of Martinez picking the lock on his handcuffs and walking out of the building. He was later re-arrested in Albuquerque and charged with escaping custody. Police also alleged Martinez raped a woman while at large.

More recently, Lopez made news in June when he arrested a man on a DWI charge in downtown Santa Fe and also arrested local defense attorney Aaron Boland and charged him with obstructing an officer. Lopez wrote in a police document that Boland tried to interfere with the DWI stop, a claim Boland has denied.

Boland's case is still pending, and he has since filed notice with the state of New Mexico of his intent to file a lawsuit against Lopez and police.

"Considering how damaging false allegations can be," Boland said Tuesday night, "I hope the department conducts a thorough investigation before coming to any conclusions."

Regardless of the outcome of the internal-affairs investigation, any decisions about prosecution of pending cases that the officer has handled would rest with the District Attorney's Office.

Contact Geoff Grammer at 986-3076 or ggrammer@sfnewmexican.com. Read his blog at SantaFeCrime.com.