Julio Sanchez

Julio Sanchez
Name	Julio Sanchez
Spouse(s)	Maria Sanchez (wife, deceased)
Family	Ramona Sanchez (mother) Oscar Sanchez (brother, deceased) 6 Unnamed Siblings
Career Information
Affiliation	Los Angeles Police Department
Rank	Detective II
Series Information
First appearance	The Closer (Pilot)

Julio Sanchez is a Detective II in the Major Crimes Division of the LAPD on The Closer and Major Crimes.

Character Information

Before being assigned to the Priority Homicide Division (later Major Crimes Division), Sanchez worked for the LAPD's Gang Intelligence Unit. As such, he is the unit's go-to guy for information about local gangs. He is also an expert on weapons and is seen to be the division's designated marksman. As of the start of The Closer, he had been a widower for two years, but has never taken off his wedding ring. He had a brother, Oscar, who was killed in "Sudden Death" as collateral damage in a gang conflict.

Sanchez is known by the team as one of the most compassionate out of the group. He came back to work even after he was shot not too long before. He also has the tendency to interrogate suspects with physical force and anger, which has actually helped the unit solve crimes more often than not. Sanchez is well liked by his colleagues in spite of his aggressive interrogation tactics.

In "Risk Assessment", Rusty Beck asks him why he became a cop along with the rest of the squad. Julio explains that as a kid, his cat was murdered and he wanted to catch the guys who did it and send them to jail. He did eventually catch the guys for attempted murder and rape charges and as they were on their third strike, they went to prison for life. Julio is shown to be greatly pleased with this.

In "Personal Day", a man named Dante Gomez who Julio sent to prison for 20 years is paroled after 17 years. Dante approaches Julio after being paroled and shows no hard feelings towards Julio, actually being thankful for his actions instead. To Julio's surprise, Dante, who originally confessed to the murder, now insists that he's innocent and asks for Julio's help in catching the real killer, providing him with an alibi of committing an armed robbery 26 miles away at the time of the murder. Julio reluctantly informs Captain Raydor due to the rules and is unenthusiastic about investigating it. Dante is later murdered and Julio is left horrified when it turns out Dante was telling the truth about the robbery. He had taken a deal to protect his best friend and accomplice in the robbery who would have gone to jail for life if he'd confessed to the robbery instead of the murder. The squad is able to identify the witness in the first murder as the killer of both and Julio informs Dante's grandmother of her grandson's innocence as Dante's reason for coming forward with the truth was his grandmother was dying and he didn't want her to die thinking he was a murderer. Feeling remorse for putting an innocent man away for 17 years and not helping him when he was asked to, Julio re-opens the murder investigations into Dante's father and uncle on his own time to try to bring his grandmother closure on those cases as well.

During "Internal Affairs", Julio is framed for the murder of his mother's nurse who had been stealing from her. While he was ultimately cleared of all charges, he was forced to go to anger management courses as a result of his aggressive interrogation tactics being discovered by FID. He also moved back in with his mother so she would have the support she needed.

It was revealed during "A Rose is a Rose" that during the the summer break between Season 3 and Season 4 he had been suspended for five months without pay for his beating of Markos Christakis. After his return, Flynn is distant from him at first but Julio is shown to have a better reign on his temper. In "Snitch", Julio apparently loses his temper with a suspect and explodes at him, but then nods at the camera, showing it was an act to the pleasure of the rest of the squad.

At the end of "Sorry I Missed You", after sympathizing with a suspect who murdered a doctor he blamed for his daughter's suicide, he explains to the squad the source of his anger problems: years before he was married to a woman who had a seizure disorder. The doctors said it was safe for her to go off her medication and she got pregnant with their first child, a girl, and while driving to the grocery store, she had a seizure and a car accident. It took her four days to die in the hospital, and he lost both his wife and unborn child. Julio's comments to the suspect indicated he may have tried to sue the doctor for malpractice but was told that "these things just happen." The deaths of his wife and daughter due to what he believes to be doctor incompetence left him with a great anger that he can't get over and let go. His revelation elects great sympathy from the squad and he's fully accepted back. He had been considering leaving the division due to the distance of his co-workers, particularly Flynn who makes an overt gesture of acceptance after his story and they give him warm welcomes after which he shows no intention of wanting to leave anymore.

In "Hindsight, Part 4", he visited the doctor he blamed for his wife's death. During the visit he learned that his wife, Maria, was the one who decided to stop the medication against the advice from her doctor, which leaves Julio visibly distraught that she had lied to him about the medication, and that he held a grudge against a doctor who, unbeknownst to him, had done nothing wrong.

LAPD Medal of Valor

During the investigation into a gruesome murder during "Cashed Out", Julio's application to become a foster parent is jeopardized after the suspect, who was running from him and Lt. Provenza, took a hostage in a public park and Julio decided to confront him unarmed. This eventually resulted in the suspects peaceful apprehension and police commission inquiry whether Julio's actions in the situation qualified him to receive the LAPD's Medal for Valor.

• The Medal for Valor is the LAPD's highest law enforcement medal awarded to officers and it is usually awarded for acts of extraordinary bravery or heroism performed in the line of duty when the officer is in extreme and life-threatening personal risk. It was implied that he would be receiving the award, although it was not explicitly confirmed on-screen.

This incident also led the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) to start an inquiry whether Julio would be a unsuitable foster parent because of his temper and that he has been shot three times, raising concerns that he would have a death wish. He has also fired his weapon more than anyone else from the division.

In "Family Law", Julio was given an emergency placement of an 8-year-old Mark Jarvis by DCFS to give them time to locate his mother. This made Sanchez' application to become a foster parent go to approval to the county and it made him part of the program, making him eligible for long term placement. Mark's mother is later revealed to have been murdered by the Zyklon Brotherhood. While Mark had demonstrated strong bigoted behavior towards Hispanics (including calling immigration to try to report his foster father and Julio's mother as well as making very racist statements), Julio reports that he changes after his mother, actually an informant against the people he learned his attitudes from, was proven to have been killed by them. Mark is implied to have become a long-term placement, and Julio tries to get home to read to him at bedtime, something he indicates that they have both grown to enjoy. In "White Lies, Part 3", Mark and Julio are shown to have deeply bonded but DCFS locates his grandparents which means Mark will be removed from Julio's custody. Both Mark and Julio are devastated by the news and Mark, after apologizing for his previous racist statements to both Julio and Cynthia, leaves Julio his favorite book to remember him by while he takes a bike helmet Julio bought him to do the same.

Officer-involved shootings

• Norman Hall ("Citizen's Arrest")
• Slider (fired at) ("Jane Doe 38")
• Hart Coulson ("Dead Zone")

Notes

• When Julio was seen in uniform in "Repeat Offender", we see that his rank is Detective II, the same as David Gabriel.
  • Detective II is the first supervisory detective rank, comparable to Sergeant I.
    • Funnily enough, only David Gabriel is ever addressed as "Detective Sergeant" even though they share the same rank.
    • Based on years served, Julio would even be David's ranking officer, although this never becomes apparent on The Closer. Based on their service stripes when seen in uniform, Julio has served with the department for 15 to 19 years while David has served for 10 to 14 years. (Seen in "Repeat Offender")