Charges stem from 2012 domestic
violence incident
TheIndyChannel.com Staff
INDIANAPOLIS - An Indianapolis police
officer pleaded guilty Thursday to multiple charges stemming from a 2012
domestic violence incident.
Officer John Haggard entered a
guilty plea on charges of criminal recklessness, domestic battery and
intimidation, all class "D" felonies, for assaulting his wife and
then breaking into their neighbors' home once she headed there with their son.
Fourteen other counts against
Haggard were dropped.
According to court documents,
Haggard, his wife and their 4-month-old son were driving home on Dec. 23, 2012,
when Haggard and his wife got into an argument about his driving.
Haggard's wife, Mary Haggard,
said her husband had been drinking and the roads were icy, so she had asked him
to be careful, police said.
When they got home, John
Haggard told Mary Haggard to get out of the car without her infant son, and
when she refused, John Haggard punched her multiple times, the probable cause
affidavit said.
Court documents say once the
couple was inside their home, John Haggard tried to make his wife leave, and he
hit her again when she refused.
Mary Haggard sent text messages
to her neighbor, who is also married to an IMPD officer, asking her to come
over to the Haggards' home. Mary Haggard, her son and the neighbor then went to
the neighbor's home across the street.
According to the probable cause
affidavit, John Haggard then forced his way into the neighbor's home, pulled a
gun and said he was going to get his son.
The neighbors' 7- and
10-year-old children witnessed John Haggard's intrusion, police said.
John Haggard eventually left,
and police were called.
Haggard's sentencing hearing
was set for May 7.
