An Ohio officer is out of a job after an internal investigation revealed “an abuse of police authority” during a traffic stop involving his daughter and her Black boyfriend earlier this year.
The Lorian Police Department handed officer John Kovach, Jr. his walking papers in May after they said he pulled over his daughter’s boyfriend and detained him without cause before detaining his own daughter in the back of his squad car, The Chronicle-Telegram reported.
“These actions are not acceptable for members of our Police Department and we felt it warranted immediate dismissal,” Safety-Service Director Dan Given said in a statement.
The April 16 incident, part of which was captured on police dashcam from Kovach’s cruiser, unfolded around 6 p.m. when the officer initiated a traffic stop on his daughter’s boyfriend, 18-year-old Makai Coleman. Kovach tells the teen to step out of the car because ” … he’s going to jail.” When Coleman asks why he’s being locked up, the officer responds,” Have a seat in my car. We’ll make sh*t up as we go.”
The teen complies and takes a seat in Kovach’s cruiser.
Meanwhile, the officer starts talking with neighbor Gloria Morales, who walked out of her nearby home because her children were two of the three people riding in Coleman’s car. The other was Kovach’s daughter, Katlyn, 18, who he hadn’t noticed just yet.
The officer tells Morales his daughter’s laptop was inside her house and asks to search her home. Morales initially agrees, but then asks Kovach to return with a search warrant. This doesn’t sit well with the cop, however, so he threatens to give her daughter a $300 citation for not wearing a seat belt. An intense back and forth ensues, during which officer Kovach threatens to arrest Morales. He then tells her and her two kids, who he eventually released, to go inside the house.
That’s when he notices his own daughter in Coleman’s backseat — and all hell breaks loose. Kovach orders Coleman out of his cruiser before shoving his daughter into the back seat, despite her loudly contesting.
“Why! Why are you f***ing pushing me?!,” Katlyn shouts. “Why! You can’t arrest me for no reason.”
When the girl’s boyfriend tries to jump in to defend her, Kovach claims his daughter was suicidal and was taking her to the hospital. Kalyn denies this, however. He then rides off with her in the back of the cruiser.
During all this, Kovach is said to have ignored a call from dispatch about a road rage incident, according to the internal investigation. Documents related to Kovach’s firing includes claims that he called Coleman on the phone the week before and threatened to take out warrants against him, as well as go to his Army recruiter to stop his enlistment.
Kovach said he was worried for his daughter because he didn’t think Coleman was a good person because he had been arrested for marijuana possession. He said his daughter was living with Coleman against his wishes. His ex-wife told authorities she came home one day to find Katlyn and Coleman engaged in sexual conduct, and when she asked the young man to leave, he threatened her.
Kovach said when he talked to his daughter on the phone, she said,” If I can’t be with him, I don’t want to be here anymore,” which he took as a suicidal threat, the firing paperwork stated. Afraid for his daughter, Kovach admitted to using police resources to track Katlyn’s computer to Morales’ home, where he sat and waited for Coleman to arrive before pulling them over.
Kovach was a patrolman who’d been with the force since 1992.