Man who won settlement against police faces new charges

A Saline County man who won a $100,000 settlement in December in a lawsuit against Marshall police has been arrested and accused of domestic assault, drug and weapons charges.

Saline County deputies arrested Carl C. Roettgen on Saturday after a traffic stop that followed a call about a man making threats, according to a probable cause statement written by deputy Troy S. Johnston. Roettgen was also a suspect in a Feb. 19 domestic assault in which he was accused of threatening a woman with a gun and hitting her, according to a probable cause statement filed in a separate case.

A deputy pulled over Roettgen, who had a woman in the vehicle with him, and found a bag with a gun, ammunition, methamphetamine, marijuana and paraphernalia, the documents state. Roettgen is a felon and prohibited by law from having a gun.

Roettgen won his settlement in December in connection with a 2016 arrest in which he was accused of pointing a gun, which misfired, at an officer’s head and trying to run an officer over in a vehicle. Prosecutors later said video of the incident didn’t match law enforcement statements and dropped the charges against Roettgen, who subsequently sued.

Roettgen faces charges of unlawful possession and use of a weapon and third-degree domestic assault in connection with the February incident and drug delivery, unlawful gun possession, misdemeanor marijuana possession and drug paraphernalia possession in connection with the traffic stop.

Roettgen was jailed on an $80,000 total cash bond between the two cases. He is scheduled for a counsel status hearing Wednesday.

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