A Louisville Metro Police officer and a woman he was out with while off duty in July both told a grand jury last month they were attacked by a group of men in a parking lot when the officer was punched in the face while another man repeatedly jumped on his vehicle and smashed in the windshield.
Officer Joseph Pence and Veronica Zeigler both testified that Pence followed a group of men to an apartment complex - after one of the men threw something at his blue Mazda and cursed at a stoplight on Bardstown Road in the Hikes Point area - where the men surrounded the car and punched the officer through his window.
But Sgt. Rick Polin, who investigated the incident, told the grand jury on Feb. 20 that Pence and Zeigler initially lied to police, saying Zeigler was driving, and that the officer was intoxicated and, according to witnesses, drove his car at the men, intentionally striking Jason Taylor, rolling him onto the hood and into the windshield.
The grand jury indicted Pence on charges of wanton endangerment, official misconduct and driving under the influence. Evidence, including the statements to the grand jury, were released late last week. Pence has a Circuit Court hearing next week.
In his testimony, Pence told the grand jury he followed the men to the apartment complex to get the license plate of the vehicle and call 911.
Pence admitted that he had been drinking and initially lied to police officers when he said that Zeigler had been driving his car, but maintained that the men attacked him and he didn't drive over anybody. He showed pictures of his bruised face, according to the grand jury testimony.
Zeigler also admitted she initially lied about who was driving, saying, however that she believed the first officers on the scene wanted her to say she, not Pence, had been driving that night.
Zeigler told grand jurors that police told Pence to get in the passenger seat and for her to sit behind the wheel.
"They told me they wanted me in the driver's seat," she told the grand jury. Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Richard Elder said he could not comment on Zeigler's statement to the grand jury.
Zeigler did not immediately return a message seeking comment. A police spokeswoman said she could not comment on the investigation into the Pence case because it was still open.
Asked if prosecutors simply didn't believe Pence and Zeigler's story about being attacked, Elder would only say that the men involved were not charged.
Steve Schroering, an attorney for Pence, who has been placed on administrative leave, declined to comment on the evidence, saying, however, that his client "absolutely maintains his innocence and looks forward to having his case heard by a jury."
Pence's blood alcohol level, taken about five hours after the incident, was .14, according to grand jury testimony.
Taylor, 23, said he and his friends left a bar that and were walking into his apartment when one of his friends screamed someone was trying to run him over in the parking lot. Taylor said he went to help, yelled for the driver to leave when instead he "puts it in drive ... coming straight towards me," hitting Taylor in the hip, causing him to roll over the vehicle and hit the ground.
Pence then backed up out of the apartment complex, Taylor said, trying to leave, before other officers arrived. He said Pence had a woman with him in the passenger side of the vehicle and "she looked terrified."
One of the men involved, Richard Lasley, told police that after they left the bar, one of his friends was yelling out the window and listening to music when "this crazy guy" jumps out at a stoplight on Bardstown Road and throws a badge up saying they had messed "with the wrong police officer." Lasley said he believed the badge was fake, since the person sounded intoxicated and was slurring his words. Lasley said Pence tried to grab and hit the passenger so he took off trying.
"I felt he was a threat," he told investigators.
Christina Onan, who had been out drinking with the men that night, said both sides were intoxicated and at fault. She said the men were screaming at Pence, jumping on the vehicle in the apartment complex and trying to hit the officer, when Pence sped up and hit Taylor, who she said was not one of the men attacking the officer or climbing on his car.
She also said Pence kept backing his vehicle up and moving it forward toward the men and that he could have gotten away if he had wanted to.
"The guys provoked that off-duty cop, but that cop was in very much as the wrong as they were," Onan said in an August interview with police. "He had multiple opportunities to go away, and I feel that all of them should've been arrested. They all should've went to jail that night."
Taylor and another man with him that night have filed complaints with the police department, alleging they were handcuffed on the ground for several hours while officers laughed with Pence.