By DEANNA BOYD
STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER
Four men working with a reality TV show aimed at exposing infidelity were indicted Thursday on criminal charges stemming from the filmed confrontation of a woman outside an Arlington fitness center over her relationship with a Fort Worth police captain.
A Tarrant County grand jury indicted Joey Greco, the host of Cheaters, and Hunter Carson, the episode’s director, on charges of assault with bodily injury, unlawful restraint and hindering apprehension.
Walter Earl Woods, 36, and Thomas Daniel Gibbons, 19, security guards contracted by Cheaters, were indicted on charges of assault with bodily injury and unlawful restraint.
The four men did not return messages left through Bobby Goldstein, creator and executive producer of the Dallas-based show.
The charges stem from the May 4 encounter between Rafael Gutierrez Jr., 41, and his estranged wife, Maria Gutierrez, outside the Bally’s Fitness Center at 2306 Collins St., where she worked.
A private investigator hired by Rafael Gutierrez had filmed Maria Gutierrez and Capt. Duane Paul engaged in sexual conduct in an unmarked city vehicle at Vandergriff Park on three occasions. With a Cheaters TV crew of about a dozen employees in tow, Rafael Gutierrez confronted Maria Gutierrez about her alleged affair with Paul.
The indictments allege that all four men were a party to an assault on Maria Gutierrez when one of the security guards hit her in the leg with his own leg as he tried to restrain her.
In addition, the indictments charge that Greco, 45, and Carson, 29, hindered apprehension by providing Rafael Gutierrez with a means of leaving the scene before officers arrived, despite learning that he had a protective order against him.
Goldstein called the charges “just nuts” and joked, “I’m hiring Denny Crane from Boston Legal.”
“I’ve watched the tape from every angle, every camera, and it looks like someone there is trying to get their names in the paper,” he said.
Goldstein called the criminal charges a first for the television show, which airs on the WB Network.
“Only in Cowtown!” he said.
All the charges are Class A misdemeanors, punishable by up to a year in jail and a $4,000 fine.
Sean Colston, chief of the family violence unit of the Tarrant County district attorney’s office, said arrest warrants will be issued for the four men.
Excerpts of the confrontation and the private investigator’s footage from the park were shown to the media during a news conference by Cheaters in May.
In the footage, Maria Gutierrez can be seen talking on a cellphone when she is surprised by her husband and the TV crew. Arlington police have said she was talking with a Grand Prairie police investigator about repeated problems with Rafael Gutierrez.
With her husband hovering over her and yelling at her in English and Spanish, Maria Gutierrez tried to go back into the fitness center but was blocked by the Cheaters security guards.
A co-worker eventually helped her get back inside.
At the time, Rafael Gutierrez was awaiting trial on accusations that he had assaulted Maria Gutierrez twice in February in Grand Prairie, and a protective order prohibited him from going to his wife’s workplace.
He was later arrested for violating that protective order — a third-degree felony because he is also accused of assaulting her there. Court records show that Rafael Gutierrez was indicted Thursday.
The two previous assault charges are still pending.
Rafael Gutierrez did not return a phone call seeking comment.
Goldstein told reporters during the news conference in May that his crew members were unaware of the protective order against Gutierrez until they were filming the confrontation.
He has said the show did not feel that Gutierrez was a threat to his wife at any time.
Fort Worth police investigated Paul’s actions. In September, Paul was suspended for 90 days and demoted from captain to lieutenant.
Deanna Boyd, (817) 390-7655 dboyd@star-telegram.com