A police officer accused of trying to feed a homeless man a sandwich filled with dog poop has won an appeal against his firing.

Matthew Luckhurst, a police officer in San Antonio, Texas, was placed on indefinite suspension in October 2016 after fellow officers accused him of picking up a piece of dog poo, placing it on a slice of discarded bread, then putting it in the container of a ‘half-eaten meal’ provided by a local homeless advocacy group.

But Luckhurst’s termination has now been overturned on a technicality after it was determined that he was disciplined more than 180 days after the alleged incident could have occurred, which local government code forbids, KSAT reported.

Matthew Luckhurst won his appeal, overturning his suspension for allegedly feeding a homeless man a dog poop sandwich (Picture: San Antonio Police Department)

Luckhurst had been clearing vagrants out of a ‘no trespassing’ area in San Antonio when the alleged incident occurred. (Picture: Google maps)

Luckhurst reportedly left the container near a sleeping homeless man. When the man woke up, he picked up the ‘sandwich’ and smelled it, before dropping it in disgust.

The cop, along with other officers, had been clearing vagrants out of a ‘no trespassing’ area in May, 2016 at the time of the accusation.

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‘You can’t be doing that. You have to go pick that up,’ a fellow officer told Luckhurst, who allegedly bragged about the incident afterwards, according to arbitration documents.

‘This was a vile and disgusting act that violates our guiding principles of “treating all with integrity, compassion, fairness and respect”,’ said Police Chief William McManus in a press release at the time of the firing, which occurred after the accusation against Luckhurst sparked an internal investigation.

According to arbitration documents, Luckhurst had injured himself during a martial arts class at the time of the accusation and was on light duty from April 6, 2016 to June 14 of that year, which prevented him from being on bicycle patrol at the time his peers had testified.

Luckhurst was not wearing a bodycam during the alleged incident and authorities were not able to interview the homeless man because they could not locate him, documents stated.

On March 10, Luckhurst’s dismissal was overturned, but he still faces a second indefinite suspension for another grotesque accusation (Picture: San Antonio Police Department)

The arbitrator wrote that, even though the suspension was overturned, the punishment was ‘reasonable based on just cause for Luckhurst’s action whether intentionally or grossly inappropriate, regarding the fecal sandwich being placed in a container close to a homeless person.’

Although Luckhurst won the appeal, he still faces another review for a second poop-related firing stemming from accusations that Luckhurst and another officer defecated in the women’s restroom at a police office, and purposefully did not flush it in June 2016. The two officers are also accused of spreading a ‘brown substance with the consistency of tapioca’ all over the seat.

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‘Officer Luckhurst then boasted of these actions to fellow officers. This inappropriate behavior was done after a female officer requested the women’s restroom be kept clean,’ according to the incident report.

Luckhurst is reportedly appealing that suspension as well, although it is unclear when a ruling is scheduled.