Iowa City Police: Apartment Party Turns Ugly, Officer Sprayed in the Face and Assaulted

An officer was injured Thursday morning and four roommates were charged with criminal charges, one of them a felony, after an officer was reportedly assaulted after responding to a report of a loud party at 313 S. Gilbert St. Apt. #2022.

According to Iowa City Police criminal complaints, a loud party complaint was received and an officer dispatched at 12:37 p.m. Thursday morning. Upon arriving, the officer could hear loud voices and throbbing bass coming from inside the apartment.

The officer reported knocking on the door to contact the tenants. When the door opened, things began to go bad.

First, the officer was allegedly sprayed in the face with a can of air wick air freshener by Garret Curry, 19, one of the residents of the apartment.

As the officer was attempting to arrest Curry, he began to resist until overpowered by the officer. As the officer and Curry were on the ground, another roommate, Morgan Robert Janssen, 20, allegedly attacked the officer, kicking the officer in the head when he was close to the ground and striking the officer with the corded microphone from his portable radio.

The officer suffered abraisions to his arms and a bruise to his cheek from the incident.

It was determined that there were ten people in the apartment during the party, many of whom were underaged. Many containers of alcohol were visible in the apartment according to the complaint.

The following charges were administered to the roomates of #2022.

• Morgan Jansen: inference with official acts with a dangerous weapon or firearm (Class D felony); assault on a peace officer with a weapon (Class D Felony) fourth degree criminal mischief (misdemeanor); providing alcohol to persons under 21 (misdemeanor), and obstruction of emergency communications.
• Garret Curry: assault causing injury to peace officer (aggravated misdemeanor), as well as disorderly house and fake ID charges.
• Ian Ruben Zelko, 20, whose birthday was August 29 was charged with possessing an ID that had him listed as being above 21, a misdemeanor. He was also charged with disorderly house and making alcohol available to minors.