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Ex-Lowellville police chief indicted on charges of assault, theft in office
By Justin Wier
YOUNGSTOWN
A former Lowellville police chief assaulted his then-girlfriend multiple times and stole $2,500 from a home while picking up a body as a coroner’s investigator, according to an indictment.
Richard Jamrozik, 41, of Campbell faces three counts each of felonious assault and possession of criminal tools and two counts each of tampering with evidence and theft in office.
A Mahoning County grand jury secretly indicted Jamrozik on those charges Thursday.
The indictment accuses Jamrozik of striking his live-in girlfriend in the head with a golf club, splitting open her skull; hitting her in the face and head with a piece of furniture, causing her to lose a tooth; and striking her in the ear with a long lighter, causing hearing damage.
The alleged assaults took place between July 2015 and July 2016.
Jamrozik appeared Friday morning at the Mahoning County Courthouse with his attorney J. Gerald Ingram to post a $30,000, 10-percent bond and proceeded to the county jail where he was booked and released.
Jamrozik resigned as police chief in August 2016 after agreeing to a five-year civil-protection order filed by his live-in girlfriend Stacy Kello.
He was sworn in as Lowellville’s police chief in November 2015. Before that, he worked as a coroner’s investigator from 2002 to 2015.
A theft-in-office charge accuses Jamrozik of stealing $2,500 from a Youngstown home at which he picked up a body while working as a coroner’s investigator.
In September 2017, Kello filed a lawsuit claiming Jamrozik assaulted her on multiple occasions.
The lawsuit says Jamrozik “physically, emotionally and mentally abused” her.
Kello alleged that Jamrozik pushed her down the stairs in January 2015, locked her out of their Campbell home and took her cellphone so she would not be able to call 911. In July 2015, the lawsuit says, Jamrozik beat Kello with his fists and a golf club before forcing her out of a coroner’s office vehicle.
In October 2015, the lawsuit says, Jamrozik hit Kello in the face with a ceramic plate and again took her phone so she could not call for help. In November 2015, the lawsuit says, Jamrozik took her phone and car keys and beat her until she became unconscious.
Kello’s July 2015 claim aligns with one of the three felonious-assault charges in the indictment.
One of the tampering-with-evidence charges in the indictment accuses Jamrozik of taking a headrest from the coroner’s office vehicle in which that assault allegedly took place. The other accuses him of wiping data from a village-issued cellphone he used to have conversations with women.
The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation began investigating Jamrozik in May 2016.
The U.S. Marshals’ Task Force and county sheriff’s office assisted in the investigation. The county prosecutor’s office will handle the case with assistance from the Ohio Attorney General’s special prosecution section.