Unclear if fired Lorain cop will face criminal charges (VIDEO)

ELYRIA — More that two years after he was fired for abusing his authority by detaining his daughter's boyfriend at a traffic stop without cause or charges, questions remain whether former Lorain police officer John Kovach Jr. will be charged criminally over the incident. The FBI and U.S. Attorney's Office determined that Kovach's actions in April 2018 did not rise to the level of a federal civil rights violation, Cleveland FBI spokeswoman Vicki Anderson said this week. The incident was an "more of an internal matter," she said. As for further consideration of criminal charges, Lorain County Prosecutor Dennis Will said his office could not investigate Kovach for potential criminal charges because it presented a conflict of interest. That's why he handed the investigation to federal authorities, he said. Will said he forwarded the file to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Cleveland for consideration, but the it informed his office the case did not warrant federal charges, he said. Will said he would review the file again today, and consult with his staff on it. "We'll review our documentation," he said Wednesday. Former Lorain Safety/Service Director Dan Given fired Kovach on May 11, 2018, less than a month after the incident and after Kovach's case was considered by a disciplinary board made up of two captains and a lieutenant/acting captain. A Lorain police officer since 1992, Kovach was found to have violated Lorain Police Department policy and standards after dashboard camera video showed him detaining his daughter's boyfriend, Makai Coleman, during a traffic stop on April 16, 2018. Kovach is white and Coleman is black. In the video, Kovach threatened to jail Coleman, who asked why he was being arrested. "Have a seat in my car," Kovach said. "We'll make (expletive) up as we go." On the video, Kovach also threatened to jail a woman whose daughter was a passenger in the car when she confronted him over the stop. It was then that Kovach realized his own daughter was in Coleman's car, and he ordered her out and into his cruiser. She refused and became upset, but he later drove off with her in the patrol car. At the same time, Kovach ignored a call about a road rage incident happening nearby and requiring a police response, the video showed. An internal investigation by Lorain police revealed that Kovach lied to detectives, and claimed Coleman's vehicle almost hit his patrol car. The footage showed Coleman's car traveling at normal speed, and that Kovach did not alert dispatchers that he was conducting a traffic stop. Coleman also told investigators that Kovach called him the week before he stopped him and threatened both to take out a warrant against him and to meddle with Coleman's pending enlistment in the U.S. Army. Lorain FOP Lodge No. 3 appealed Kovach's termination based on alleged violations of the disciplinary process agreed to in its contract. In a letter dated June 22, 2018, lodge President Kyle Gelenius said the union was "just as disturbed as anyone else" by Kovach's actions, but stood by its duty to give him "fair and neutral representation such as John Kovach has requested." "To be very clear, (Kovach's) actions were egregious misconduct that are not acceptable from any officer," he wrote. Kovach went to court in October 2018 to appeal his denial of unemployment benefits through the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, benefits he had briefly received following his firing. The agency had canceled his benefits after the city appealed. Kovach sought to get the benefits back, but Lorain County Common Pleas Judge Christopher Rothgery ruled against him in June 2019, according to court records. On Wednesday, Gelenius said Kovach went to arbitration to get his job back. When that failed, he took the case to Common Pleas Court and lost. "When you appeal arbitration that's a high bar for an arbitrator's appeal to be overturned," he said. Contact Dave O'Brien at (440) 329-7129 or dobrien@chroniclet.com. Follow him at @daveobrienCT on Twitter.