Former Ohio State Football Captain Joe Staysniak Arrested On Battery Charges

Former Ohio State Buckeyes offensive lineman Joe Staysniak was arrested on Tuesday.

Author:
Matt Galatzan
Feb 23, 2023 2:47 PM EST

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Ohio State Buckeyes

A former Ohio State Buckeyes and NFL offensive lineman, Joe Staysniak, was arrested on charges of strangulation and battery resulting in bodily injury on Monday in Brownsburg, Indiana, according to court records.

According to authorities, police were called to the location of the incident around 11:45 pm.

Staysniak was then booked into Hendricks County Jail at approximately 1:40 a.m., per jail records.

The 56-year-old allegedly pulled his son's boyfriend from a vehicle, brandished his firearm, and punched his son in the face during the incident, per the court affidavit.

Staysniak has since denied both brandishing the firearm and punching his son.

The charges against Staysniak were later amended to two counts of battery resulting in bodily injury, and strangulation.

Staysniak has entered an initial plea of not guilty and has been issued a no-contact order with his son and his son's boyfriend.

Staysniak's attorney, Guy A. Relford, released the following statement:

I am honored to represent Joe Staysniak. The criminal proceedings against Joe in Hendricks County, Indiana will be resolved in the courtroom and not in the media or on the internet. However, due to an excessive amount of inaceurate and sensationalized reporting and based exclusively on information contained in the public record, we feel compelled to issue the following clarifications regarding the incident.
First, the charges filed in Hendricks County do not include "domestic battery." Joe's lovely wife Pam had no involvement whatsoever in the incident in question. The situation arose when a neighbor contacted Joe at a late hour to report two suspicious vehicles parked in the woods near the Staysniak home and Joe went to investigate. He discovered his adult son and a friend in one of the vehicles. The details of what then transpired will come out in the courtroom, but we are completely confident that Joe's actions will be conclusively determined to be legal and justified under the circumstances.
Although Joe did arm himself with a handgun before investigating, he has not been charged with any crime involving the illegal use of a firearm. The criminal proceedings involve only three charges: two misdemeanor counts of "battery causing physical injury" (arising from a brief physical struggle) and one count of "strangulation." The strangulation charge, based on the probable cause affidavit filed in the case, appears to be based on the allegation that Joe grabbed the hoody worn by his son's friend during the struggle, which resulted in the neck of the hoody applying pressure to the young man's neck.
Joe Staysniak has never before been accused of a crime. He is a long-standing pillar of the Central Indiana and Hendricks County communities and I look forward to fully vindicating his actions in court. At this time, we do not plan to make any further public comment outside the courtroom.
Guy A. Relford
Attorney for Joseph A. Staysniak

Staysniak was a standout and a captain at Ohio State in the late 1980s and played six seasons in the NFL, the majority of which came with the Indianapolis Colts from 1992-1995.