Hamilton police sergeant charged with OVI, vandalism after head-on crash

BUTLER COUNTY, Ohio (WXIX) - A veteran sergeant with the Hamilton Police Department faces charges of operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated and felony vandalism.

Casey Johnson, 40, was released on his own recognizance after a hearing Monday morning.

He was arrested early Saturday following a head-on crash on Cincinnati Brookville Road.

Hamilton police said they were notified Friday night that an off-duty officer, later identified as Johnson, was reportedly involved in an altercation in the parking lot of Ross High School during the football game.

The woman, whom police later identified as Johnson’s wife, called 911 to report domestic violence at 8:14 p.m. Friday.

Another caller reported “hearing subjects yelling and saw someone hitting a female in the face,” dispatchers say.

Johnson’s wife was reluctant to speak with that caller, according to the dispatch run.

Johnson left the school parking lot driving a vehicle involved in the crash a short time later, according to Hamilton police.

The crash was reported just before 11 p.m. when a vehicle went left of center and struck an oncoming vehicle head-on, Butler County dispatchers say.

The crash victim in the other vehicle called 911 and explained, “He was in my lane coming at me, and I slammed on my brakes and was laying on my horn and kept coming and hit me and shot me backward.”

Johnson appears to approach the crash victim while the victim was still on the phone with the 911 call taker. Johnson is overheard asking the victim if they are drunk. The call taker, overhearing the exchange, asks the caller if Johnson appears drunk, to which the caller responds, “Yeah, definitely.”

The victim complained of chest hip and knee pain and was taken to Kettering Health Hospital.

Johnson is on administrative leave pending the outcome of an administrative investigation, the department said.

He appeared in court on Sept. 22 and asked for a continuance which was granted.

Johnson has been with the Hamilton Police Department since 2004 and was just promoted to sergeant in July.

FOX19 NOW requested Johnson’s arrest report, OVI citation, incident report and the 911 call from the Butler County Sheriff’s Office.

We also asked Hamilton police for Johnson’s personnel file.

In 2010, the Butler County Prosecutor’s Office determined Johnson was justified in a fatal police-involved shooting.

Johnson killed 25-year-old Joshua Berkheimer on April 25, 2010, to stop him from continuing to brutally attack his girlfriend with a claw hammer inside a Hamilton apartment.

The prosecutor at the time, Robin Piper, called the shooting a “heroic action” that saved the woman’s life.

He said his independent investigation confirmed Hamilton police also determined: Had Johnson not killed Berkheimer with a single shot from his service weapon, the man would have proceeded to kill Jamie Belty.

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