As Mark’s marriage to Melissa unraveled, he didn’t retreat into prayer, counseling, or accountability. He embedded himself into chaos—including a domestic violence incident involving a Lompoc police sergeant and his wife, with whom Mark had been secretly texting while still married himself.

Original Story can be viewed here:
https://lompocrecord.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/hearing-for-lompoc-police-officer-details-alleged-violence/article_48c17fd9-da15-5679-b51f-4a140fb88ef8.html?fbclid=IwY2xjawL2daxleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFiTDN5WjhWalUzYlVkdFVBAR5d2KNrooiwxFnA-8J5JDKzezVRcYemHbW7J8E5HXj8_yBn5AOSkNwoo0zcRA_aem_Wya6Q17GUHkFFO4GFEFyHw

In September 2014, at a preliminary hearing in Santa Maria Superior Court, shocking details were revealed:

• A Lompoc Police sergeant, Joseph Stetz, was arrested after allegedly vandalizing the family car and threatening to slit the throat of his wife’s alleged boyfriend.
• That “boyfriend”? Mark.
• Testimony revealed that Stetz had found messages between his wife, Claudia, and Mark, whom she described as a “high school friend” she had been venting to about her marriage.
• Claudia told the court she gave her husband “permission” to destroy the car after he discovered the messages to Mark and smashed her phone.

Law enforcement testimony painted a darker picture:

• Claudia reportedly wanted a protective order and was visibly upset when deputies arrived.
• Sergeant Stetz, allegedly intoxicated, had to be coaxed out of a bathroom and was recorded in both jail calls and police interviews making threats toward “Mark.”
• In those calls, he described his wife’s plan to “go away for the weekend and see Mark in Big Sur.”

Let’s pause here:
While Melissa and Mark were separated—but not yet divorced—Mark was actively pursuing or emotionally entangled with another married woman, fueling an altercation so volatile it ended with felony charges, smashed cars, and bloodied glass.

🚫 The Moral High Ground? Mark Wasn’t Even on the Hill.

This is who Mark was while accusing Melissa of being unfaithful:

• Texting another man’s wife
• Fueling a domestic violence incident
• Lying low when law enforcement and the courts had to clean up the fallout

If he were truly a spiritual leader or victim of betrayal, we wouldn’t be reading about bricks, blood, broken windshields, and Big Sur rendezvous. We’d be reading about therapy, accountability, and repentance.

Instead, we’re reading court transcripts.

🧨 Final Addition to the Bigger Picture

This incident further confirms the pattern:

• Mark thrives in conflict, not resolution.
• He creates triangles of emotional chaos and then pretends to be the victim.
• And when held accountable, he deflects blame onto others—women, courts, children, and now, miraculously, God’s calling on his life.

Let’s be clear:
You don’t get to spiritually indict your exes while being the off-stage character in a domestic violence case between a married woman and her police officer husband.

That’s not righteous indignation. That’s just reckless hypocrisy.