FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) — A Fort Wayne police officer is on unpaid administrative leave after he allegedly punched his fiancé in the face and stomach after a night of dinner, drinks and pool.
Jordan Conn, 29, of the 6400 block of Wakopa Court, was charged Thursday with domestic battery. He appeared Friday at his initial hearing in Allen Superior Court.
The Allen County Sheriff’s Department responded to a call at 12:38 a.m. Feb. 5 when Conn’s fiancé called 911 to say she’d been punched in the face and thought she had a concussion, according to a probable cause affidavit written by sheriff’s deputy Jordan Hissong.
She told dispatch Conn was intoxicated and was taking off from their home address in his Fort Wayne patrol vehicle, the affidavit said.
Dispatch told Hissong Conn’s vehicle was a Ford Explorer squad car and included the vehicle’s number. When Hissong responded, the patrol vehicle was gone from outside the home and the fiancé was sitting in a Ford Expedition on the passenger side. Her face had some swelling under her left eye and she needed to take out her contacts, she said, according to the affidavit.
The fiancé said they’d gone to dinner at the Sapporo Steakhouse and then to the Break & Run bar to play pool, court documents said. When they got ready to leave, she suggested that she drive because “he seemed really intoxicated,” according to the affidavit.
As Conn drove in the area of Interstate 69 and Illinois Road, the woman said Conn took his right hand and punched her in the left eye with a closed fist, the affidavit said. The pain was a 10 on a scale of 1 to 10, she told the officer.
Then he threw her phone back at her and it hit her in the stomach. She tossed the phone back at him and he punched her in the stomach with a closed fist, court documents said.
The fiancé, who said she was a nurse, described that pain as a 4 out of a 5.
She told Conn she was going to call 9-11 to which he responded: “I dare you to call 9-11,” the affidavit detailed.
When the couple got to S.R. 14 and West Hamilton Road, she called 9-11. Once they got to their home, Conn tried to get into his own truck parked cross the street, but the truck was frozen over, so he got into his police vehicle instead and “peeled off,” court documents said.
The fiancé told Hissong that a month prior to this incident, there was another incident, one of two that were never reported, according to the affidavit. Conn told her it was useless to call 9-1-1.
“If you call 911, they would never believe you because you are a dumb b—- and I’m a cop,” Conn reportedly told his fiancé. The altercations typically happened when Conn drinks, she said, according to the affidavit.
The night of Feb. 5, she reported drinking five drinks between 6 p.m. and midnight and Conn, 6-feet tall and 195 lbs., had about the same amount or maybe one more in the same time frame. She was drinking tequila and he was drinking whiskey, she said, according to the affidavit.
The two have been together for about a year and got engaged to be married in August, she added.
During the interview, Aboite Fire/EMS personnel came to make a medical check. The fiancé said she was having face pain where she’d been punched, but because she was a nurse, she didn’t feel she needed to go to the hospital at that time, the affidavit said. She was icing the injury.
She went to stay with her parents and tried to call Conn’s mother in Van Wert, Ohio, the affidavit said.
“Why would you do this to him?” Conn’s mother reportedly asked her and hung up the phone.
Conn’s police vehicle was found at an unidentified hotel and was towed back to the police department, court documents said. Inside the vehicle, police found the department-issued rifle, shotgun and bean bag shotgun.
Court documents indicated Conn was released on his own recognizance Friday, the same day he was booked in to the Allen County Jail. He is subject to pretrial services.
Allen Superior Court magistrate, John Bohdan, authorized Conn to live with his parents in Van Wert subject to pretrial services reporting. A no contact order was issued.
Conn is due back in court on March 4, court documents indicate.
Conn came on to the Fort Wayne Police Department in August 2016 as a lateral transfer from the Lima, Ohio Police Department, according to FWPD records. He received a letter of reprimand in September 2021 for missing a training session.
“Unpaid administrative leave or unpaid relieved of duty can only be imposed by the Board of Public Safety if you have been charged with a crime,” Jeremy Webb, Fort Wayne Police Department public information officer said in an email.
A suspension is discipline imposed by the Police Department, Webb added. Conn will remain on unpaid administrative leave until the investigation has concluded.
