A Tacoma police officer accused of pointing a gun at his wife’s head and threatening to kill one of his colleagues pleaded not guilty Friday to two felonies.
Aaron James Joseph, 27, was allowed to remain free on the $15,000 bail he posted following his arrest Thursday by Puyallup police. Joseph is charged with second-degree assault and felony harassment.
The Tacoma Police Department put Joseph on paid administrative leave Aug. 5 after learning that he reportedly had committed an act of domestic violence against his wife and also had threatened a fellow officer, the department said in a statement released Friday afternoon.
The department launched an internal investigation and asked Puyallup police to investigate the case for possible criminal charges, according to the statement.
Joseph works as a night-shift patrol officer and has been on the force for nearly three years, Tacoma police spokesman Mark Fulghum said.
Puyallup police Lt. Dave McDonald said Friday his department established probable cause to arrest Joseph and took him into custody Thursday without incident.
“We got to a point where we needed to arrest him for the safety of all involved,” McDonald said.
Joseph’s wife has accused her husband of pointing a gun at her and threatening to kill her on June 16 during “an argument surrounding her alleged infidelity,” Puyallup police said in a news release.
McDonald said Joseph later threatened to kill the Tacoma police officer he suspects was having an affair with his wife.
Joseph’s wife, Lindsey Joseph, sought a protection order against her husband on Tuesday.
In it, she accuses him of putting a gun to her head “for no more than 5 seconds” and of threatening to kill her and then himself.
Her husband allegedly told her, “It will be like Braim (sic). I will do you and then me,” she wrote in her petition. A Superior Court commissioner granted her a temporary protection order based on her statements.
Tacoma police chief David Brame fatally shot his wife, Crystal, then himself in 2003.
Joseph is expected to hire an attorney and return to court Sept. 1 for a pre-trial hearing.
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