An Ohio police officer has been fired after he pulled over a car being driven by his daughter's boyfriend and detained him without cause. An internal investigation by the Lorain Police Department found that John Kovach Jr. did not have proper cause to pull the vehicle over and abused his power during the traffic stop.
Dash camera video captured the entire encounter, which Kovach failed to report to dispatch. After pulling over the silver car, He approaches the driver, identified as 18-year-old Makai Coleman. Kovach's daughter Katlyn was also in the vehicle with another friend. Kovach ordered Coleman to step out of the car and told him that "he's going to jail."
When Coleman questioned why he was being ordered out of the car, Kovach told him "have a seat in my car. We’ll make s*** up as we go.”
Investigators said the Kovach did not realize his daughter was in the car when he initially pulled Coleman over, but once he saw her in the vehicle he ordered her to step outside of the vehicle as well. The two were heard arguing off camera about the stop. At one point, the mother of the other passenger in the car comes out of her house and starts to argue with Kovach. He threatens to arrest her when she said she will call 911.
Eventually, Kovach decided to Coleman go and put his daughter in the back seat of his patrol car and drove away.
Police said that Kovach lied to his supervisors about the stop and told them he did not approve of his daughter's relationship with Coleman and was worried that she was suicidal.
The more digging investigators did, the more holes they found in his story. Ultimately, they decided that his conduct during the bogus traffic stop and his lies to the investigators was enough to end his 26-year career.
Kovach said that he plans to appeal the decision to fire him.