An officer with the Westlake Police Department was indicted in federal court today, according to a news release by the U.S. Attorney’s office. 

Detective Robert Toth, 48, is accused of excessive force on an arrested person and then lying about it on the arrest report and then to a “federal law enforcement officer” who was investigating the arrest. Toth arrested the person — identified only as “T.A.” in the news release — on April 24, 2014, and then lied about what happened. 

Toth’s indictment is not yet entered into online court records, so we’re just going off what is in the news release. We will update this when we have more information. Here’s how the attorney’s office explains the charges:

Robert Toth, 48, of North Olmsted, was indicted on one count of excessive use of force and two counts of obstruction.

Count 1 charges Toth, in his capacity as a police officer, with causing bodily injury to someone identified as T.A. on or about April 24, 2014. In doing so, Toth deprived T.A. of his Constitutional right to be free from the unreasonable use of force by a law enforcement officer.

Count 2 charges that between April 25, 2014, and May 1, 2015, Toth knowingly falsified a document – specifically an official report concerning the arrest of T.A. – with the intent to impede, obstruct and influence the investigation and proper administration of that matter.

Count 3 charges that on May 3, 2015, Toth impeded an investigation by providing false information to a federal law enforcement officer surrounding the encounter with and arrest of T.A.

According to Toth’s Linked In page, he’s a narcotics detective at the Westlake Police Department since and also has worked with the FBI. 

This article appears in Jun 24-30, 2015.

Doug Brown is a staff writer at Scene with a passion for public records laws and investigative reporting. A native of Ann Arbor, Mich., he has an M.A. in journalism from the Kent State University School of Journalism and Mass Communication and a B.A. in political science from Hiram College. Prior to joining Scene, Doug was a contributing writer for Deadspin.com, reporting behind-the-scenes stories about college sports through public records and developing sources. Doug's work as an enterprise reporter for the Daily Kent Stater was recognized by the Cleveland Press Club (2013 Ohio Excellence in Journalism Awards), Society of Professional Journalists (regional and national Mark of Excellence Awards), and the Associated Collegiate Press. He spent the summer of 2012 working for the Metro desk of the Cleveland Plain Dealer and spent previous summers working for Outside Bozeman Magazine and Crain's Detroit Business. His website is dougbrown8.com.