Father off the force after pulling over his daughter’s boyfriend
A police officer of 26 years has lost his job after being caught on camera pulling over his daughter’s boyfriend and threatening to charge him for made-up offences.
John Kovach can be seen on his dash cam pulling over and threatening his 18-year-old daughter Katlyn’s boyfriend, Makai Coleman, also 18.
Kovach later told investigators that on the day of the incident in April, Katlyn wasn’t responding to his attempts to talk, so he tracked his daughter’s computer to a friend’s house in Lorain, Ohio. Then he sat in his patrol cruiser, waiting.
When Coleman’s silver Pontiac drove past, Kovach flipped on his flashing lights and initiated the traffic stop that would end his two decades with the Lorain Police Department.
The video shows him saying to Coleman: “You can get out. You’re going to jail.” When Coleman asked why, Kovach replied: “Have a seat in my car. We’ll make shit up as we go.”
When he realises his daughter is in the car, he makes her get out and go into his patrol car.
Lorain Police Chief Cel Rivera and Safety-Service Director Dan Given said those statements and several other things that happened during a nearly nine-minute stretch were violations of the department’s standards of conduct and policy procedures, according to the Elyria Chronicle-Telegram.
“These actions are not acceptable for members of our police department, and we felt it warranted immediate dismissal,” Given said.
Kovach has been fired after an internal investigation, but the case is not over.
The local district attorney is reviewing the case to see whether Kovach broke the law in his treatment of his daughter, her boyfriend and several other people that day.
The police union has appealed the case on his behalf.
The month-long internal investigation by police sought to untangle the mix of private and professional troubles that has unravelled Kovach’s life. Kovach told investigators that he didn’t believe Coleman was a good person and objected to him dating his daughter, who was staying with her boyfriend against her parents’ wishes, according to an internal affairs report obtained by the Chronicle-Telegram.
Kovach said that when he spoke with his daughter on the phone, she said, “If I can’t be with him, I don’t want to be here anymore.” He told investigators that he believed his daughter was threatening suicide.
But Katlyn Kovach’s boyfriend told investigators that her father had threatened in the past to use his authority to make the teen’s life difficult, solely because he didn’t want the couple to date.