Secrets & Scandals! Vicki Gunvalson's Shady Boyfriend's Past Exposed
Nov. 15 2018, Updated 1:29 p.m. ET
A history of alleged political manipulations. Repeated runs for office ending in failure. A past littered with fight and assault charges. It’s little wonder Vicki Gunvalson is about to kick her boyfriend Steve Lodge to the curb. As RadarOnline.com revealed, the Real Housewives of Orange County star has had enough of her boyfriend. Lodge, who met Gunvalson, 56, at a charity event in early 2016, was a paratrooper in the United States Army and then a police officer. He ran for the Anaheim City Council in 2012 and 2016, but his allegedly false claims cost him victories. Check out Lodge’s secrets and scandals in this RadarOnline.com gallery.
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Lodge is a former police officer for the City of Santa Ana. But RadarOnline.com obtained exclusive court dockets revealing Lodge was accused of assault and battery twice while working on the force.
A man named John Ellis accused the former officer of the crime in 1991. The case was transferred to the Municipal Court. The documents were eventually destroyed because of the age of the case.
Another man, Araceli Orozco, accused Lodge of the same charge in 1997. The alleged victim requested the case be dismissed with prejudice in 1998.
As RadarOnline.com readers know, Lodge has a history of alleged violence. Gunvalson’s boyfriend was hit with a restraining order on September 28, 2012 after a alleged physical fight at a hotel with a man who was sleeping with his then-wife.
"Mr. Lodge appeared at a hotel I was staying and checked in at the same hotel,” Michael Thomas claimed in documents obtained by RadarOnline.com. “He called my room from the lobby twice and attempted to identify my room number. Mr. Lodge assaulted me, including but not limited to punching me in the face multiple times.”
Thomas allegedly suffered a black eye, bruising and other injuries to his face.
After leaving the police force in 2009, Lodge became a city government consultant. That experience led to a pair of attempts at running for city councilman in 2012 and 2016.
In 2012, elector Cynthia Ward sued Lodge for changing his name to Steve “Chavez” Lodge on ballots while running for Anaheim City Council in August 2012.
“Lodge has requested that his name appear on the ballot as ‘Steve Chavez Lodge,'” the filing reads. “This is not his legal name. Nor is that the same under which he is registered to vote or the name under which he owns property. Rather, the use of the middle name ‘Chavez’ appears to have been adopted recently for political purposes.”
“Accordingly, Lodge’s proposed use of the name ‘Steve Chavez Lodge’ on the ballot is false and misleading,” read the documents.
Lodge would go on to lose the race for one of the two open seats on the Anaheim city council, finishing dead last in the ballot.
In 2016, during his second run for office, it was discovered that Lodge was renting an apartment in Anaheim, Calif. just to meet the requirement that “candidates must have a residence in the area they’re running in.”
According to property records, Lodge moved from Anaheim Hills after he lost City Council in 2012 and relocated to a home in Murrieta, about 50 miles away.
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When Lodge filed to run again for office, he “moved” to Azul Apartment Homes in West Anaheim. But neighbors say he doesn’t really live there.
“He moved in without any furniture,” a neighbor said. “We never see this guy — maybe five times at the most since he moved in.”
Gunvalson has had trouble with boyfriends before. RadarOnline.com readers will remember her ex, Brooks Ayers, allegedly lied about having cancer while starring alongside Gunvalson on RHOC several seasons ago.
Do you think Vicki should dump Steve and move on? Let us know in the comments section.
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