Moon Police Officer Fired After Domestic Violence Arrest

A Moon Township police officer charged with assaulting his wife has been fired from his job.

Officer Jeffrey Klotz was fired July 29 as a Moon police officer. 

Moon Supervisors voted 3-0 Wednesday night to approve Klotz's termination subject to his right to appeal to the board. Supervisor Frank Sinatra abstained from the vote and Supervisor Andrew Gribben was absent.

Supervisors did not identify Klotz by name, referring only to his badge number, and would not comment for personnel reasons.

“Jeffrey Klotz was an off-duty Moon Township police officer at the time of this alleged incident…Like all defendants in a criminal case Klotz is cloaked in the presumption of innocence,” Moon Police Chief Leo McCarthy said in a statement.

Klotz, 45, had been with the Moon police department for 23 years. His firing stems from a July 8 domestic violence arrest on simple assault and false imprisonment charges.

According to a criminal complaint, Klotz, of Crosstree Road, flung his wife by  her shirt onto the concrete garage floor causing her to hit the back of her head. Klotz is also accused of pushing her, holding her down on the couch upstairs, and refusing to let her out of the house. 

The complaint states that he took the baby into the foyer and she fled the house to his parents home and asked them to intercede.

His father went and talked to him, then called a short while later to say Klotz had calmed down and she could return, the complaint states.

The following morning, his wife went to file a complaint at the station where she told officers there has been a history of violence in the house.

Klotz was previously charged with simple assault in 2003, according to court records. 

Because of a conflict of interest, a preliminary hearing for Klotz is scheduled on Thursday, Aug. 15 in Crafton. 

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