HOUSTON -- A Houston police captain has been suspended five days without pay over his involvement in his own daughter's shoplifting ordeal, Local 2 Investigates reported Monday.

In June, surveillance video from the Sears store at Baybrook mall showed Captain Victor Rodriguez intervening after his 17-year-old daughter was caught with clothing she had swiped in the store's dressing room.

Security personnel involved in her capture told Local 2 Investigates that the captain kept pushing for higher-ranking store employees who could keep her from being taken to jail, even though store policy requires any shoplifter to be hauled to jail in a case like hers.

One security worker said, "Everything's wrong with this picture. He shows up, refuses to allow the responding officers to do their duty and their job and act as far as prosecuting and taking this individual to jail. Basically begging and pleading with everybody he can to keep from having his daughter taken to jail."

Minutes after the captain was allowed to leave with his daughter, another teenager was caught in the same store. Her mother said she begged with store personnel to try and avoid the trip to jail, but the teen was booked and hauled to a downtown lockup regardless.

The 14-year-old girl said, "It's just wrong. She deserves the same punishment as I did. She did the same thing."

In a letter suspending Captain Rodriguez, Police Chief Harold Hurtt wrote that the captain's involvement in the case was "extreme."

It also noted that numerous officers were kept off the streets for "an extended period of time" as he kept pushing for his daughter's release.

The chief wrote, "Captain Rodriguez' involvement resulted in more time and effort than should have been necessary to be committed to this case for all officers on the scene."

The letter accuses Captain Rodriguez of asserting his authority, even though he had no business being involved in the case.

The suspension letter said Rodriguez used "unsound judgment" when he "directed the responding officers on how the call was going to be resolved." The letter even said he "directed the outcome" of the entire incident.

The chief wrote, "Captain Rodriguez personal conduct came under scrutiny when the circumstances surrounding this incident were aired by the local news media -- Channel 2.

"Captain Rodriguez' actions brought his integrity into question, as well as the integrity of the Houston Police Department and his actions placed the department in a negative light by the media."

He was cited for four violations of departmental policy, involving personal conduct, sound judgment, obedience to laws and rules, and interfering with cases or operations assigned to other officers.

Captain Rodriguez said he had no comment on his suspension on Monday.

When the surveillance video was first broadcast in on June 9, he said, "This wasn't a police officer going up there. This was a concerned parent."

Rodriguez said, "I did what any parent would do, and I asked. And it's not a unique situation. If those parents (of the other girl) may have asked, they may have been able to do the same thing, I don't know. I don't feel like there was anything inappropriately done."

He has filed an appeal with the Houston Civil Service Commission in hopes that an arbitrator will overturn his punishment.

His daughter pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor theft charge one month after the initial broadcast. She was fined $100 and placed on probation for 30 days. As part of a deferred adjudication plea bargain, she finished her probation and her record will not include the final conviction.