Jeff Wiehe
An Allen County Sheriff’s
officer has been suspended with pay following his arrest in Michigan.
Details are sparse, but Officer
Steven M. Perry was booked into Calhoun County Jail on a misdemeanor count of
domestic battery this past Sunday.
He was released shortly
thereafter, according to jail officials in Michigan.
The Journal Gazette does not
typically name people charged with misdemeanors, but is in this case is because
Perry is a sworn law enforcement officer, and his arrest is subject to review
by the sheriff’s department.
Calhoun County encompasses
Battle Creek, where Perry was arrested, which is about 100 miles from Fort
Wayne.
The Emmett Township Public
Safety Department took Perry into custody at some point during the early
morning hours of Sunday, according to officials.
What led to the arrest has not
been released.
Allen County Sheriff Ken Fries
said Perry, 42, will remain suspended pending the outcome of the charge against
him as well as an internal affairs investigation currently underway.
Perry has been an officer with
the department since 1998 and has one disciplinary action against him, which he
received earlier this year for failing to signal that he was on duty during a
security detail.
That disciplinary action,
though, is one the department deems as “temporary,” according to Fries, meaning
it will be wiped from Perry’s file at a later date.
Perry has spent time on the
department’s SWAT Team and has received several letters of commendation for his
service on the unit, Fries said.
If convicted of domestic
battery, Perry would lose his right to carry a firearm in Indiana and face
automatic termination from the police force.
