Wife files PPO against arrested cop

PAW PAW, Mich. (WOOD) - After a Kalamazoo public safety officer was arrested for allegedly beating his wife, she filed for a personal protection order that details what happened.

Steven Luthy was arrested Sunday when police responded to his home on 40th Street in Bloomingdale, and Van Buren County sheriff's deputies found Luthy's wife had visible injuries.

He was taken to the Van Buren County Jail and later charged with domestic violence -- a misdemeanor -- Monday, police records show.

In the PPO, signed by Judge Paul Hamre Monday, Luthy's wife explains what happened.

He came home drunk, she wrote. "I asked if he had fun, he started following me, I called my sister. He hit the phone out of my hand, smashed the side of my face, pushed me down the stairs and we fought. He punched me in the face."

When asked if Luthy had ever threatened her specifically, and what his exact words were, she wrote: "Everyone in our family would be better off if you were dead. I get excited thinking of coming home and seeing your brains splattered anywhere."

And when asked how she would describe her emotions, she wrote, "Thank God they took the guns because if he loses his job because he was arrested, he'll hunt me down and kill me."

Luthy was released from custody and placed on administrative leave, as a KDPS internal investigation continues.