Former Indianapolis Colts lineman Joseph “Joe” Staysniak was arrested Tuesday following a domestic incident in which he was accused of assaulting his son and choking his son’s boyfriend, according to court documents.
The 6-foot-5 retired soccer star and radio personality, 56, was booked into jail at 1:43 a.m. Tuesday on strangulation and assault charges. He was released later the same day on her own recognizance, according to Hendricks County jail records.
The Hendricks County Sheriff’s Office responded to a report of a “delayed domestic” disturbance at Staysniak’s Brownsburg home just before midnight Monday.
According to the probable cause affidavit, Staysniak’s son told authorities a neighbor saw him sitting in a car in front of the property with his boyfriend.
Joe Staysniak then walked over, opened the rear passenger door and “grabbed [the boyfriend’s] hood and was choking him,” the affidavit reads.
The son informed officers that his father “then punched him, which caused his lip to bleed, and then he punched him.” [the boyfriend].” The officer who spoke with the son noted dried blood and cuts on his lower lip, according to the affidavit.
The son reported that his father displayed a firearm and told him and his boyfriend “that they were lucky they saw who it was,” the affidavit says.
The boyfriend in the vehicle said Joe Staysniak “discharged a gun” and “had it against the side of his face at one point during the incident,” the affidavit says.
Staysniak told the sheriff’s office that he had received a call from a neighbor that there was a suspicious car in his front yard and that he went to investigate. When he got closer, he saw who was inside and told the boyfriend that he could never return to his property, the affidavit says.
Staysniak denied hitting the boyfriend and said his son “chased him” and the father pushed the son back with an “open hand” and the son began bleeding from his mouth, according to the affidavit. He said he and his son “got into this” and that he “tried to attack him,” the document says.
Staysniak said he had to physically restrain his son at the time and his wife had to separate them, according to the affidavit.
Staysniak reported that “he had his gun on him” but “denied touching [the boyfriend] with it or pointing it at anyone,” the document says.
He was found to have committed the crimes of intimidation with a deadly weapon, strangulation, domestic battery and battery, according to the affidavit.
Staysniak was ultimately charged in Hendricks County Court with strangulation and two counts of assault resulting in bodily harm.
He appeared via video link for an initial hearing on Tuesday, where the court pleaded not guilty to the charges. As part of her pretrial release, she was ordered to have no contact with his son and his boyfriend.
A pretrial conference has been scheduled for April 10 and a jury trial date for April 25.
He was placed on enhanced pretrial supervision and released on parole.
Attorney Guy A. Relford, who is representing Joe Staysniak, stressed that the charges filed in Hendricks County do not include domestic violence or firearms violations. That firearm was ultimately secured by agents, according to the affidavit.
“The situation arose when a neighbor contacted Joe at the last minute to report two suspicious vehicles parked in the woods near Staysniak’s home and Joe went to investigate. He discovered his adult son and a friend in one of the vehicles,” Relford said. “Details of what happened next will come out in the courtroom, but we are completely confident that Joe’s actions will be determined conclusive as legal and justified under the circumstances.”
Relford said his client had never been charged with a crime before, describing him as a “long-standing pillar of the central Indiana and Hendricks County communities.”