My son had a similar experience (Mexico brief “detainment” by LEO) while in the USMC at San Diego.
I also think that Lochte’s story was embellished, as he told his mother. His mother, IIRC, is the one who reported it to officials. By then, he may have been reluctant to back out on his story and risk making his mother look bad.
What part was embellished?
My ship pulled into San Diego to do some repairs on a division of destroyers. Wow.. a chance to see Mexico, exciting for a 19 year old.
When I mentioned Tijuana a 1st Class Petty officer exploded at a buddy and myself. After a firm lecture and a good many “explitive deleteds”, we spent our liberties exploring beautiful downtown San Diego. No big deal, but several shipmates learned a very hard lesson.
And your son was in the wrong as he shouldn’t have been in Mexico to begin with. At least the time I was in Tijuana is 100% off limits to Marines (even though we still went there)