Staff Report

Joshua Ryan Auer

WARSAW — A Warsaw man was recently arrested on four cases after violating a protective order on multiple occasions and battering a man.

In the first case, Joshua Ryan Auer, 28, 1873 E. 550S, Warsaw, is charged with invasion of privacy, a class A misdemeanor; and sentence enhancement invasion of privacy, a level 6 felony. He faces those same charges in two additional cases. He is also charged with domestic battery, a level 6 felony; and criminal mischief, a class B misdemeanor, in a fourth case.

On March 24, a protective order was issued by Kosciusko Superior Court Three, ordering Auer to refrain from directly or indirectly communicating with a woman. The protective order was served to Auer on March 26.

According to court documents, on March 28, a Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Office deputy received a report of a protective order violation in Warsaw. The woman said she received a phone call from Auer on March 26 and that he left her a voicemail. At that time, the woman blocked Auer’s phone number.

On March 27, the woman received a notification about Auer attempting to call her. The next day, the woman received an email from Auer asking her to reply. She also received six text messages that she recognized as being from Auer.

Three days later, the woman reported a protective order violation to a Warsaw Police officer. The woman said Auer sent her 11 text messages between March 29 and 30. In some of the messages, Auer appeared angry with the woman, while in others, he sounded desperate for the woman to speak with him. He allegedly attempted to arrange a meeting with the woman in-person and left her a voicemail.

The Warsaw officer called the phone number in which Auer left a voicemail from. When asked if he was aware of the active protective order preventing him from contacting the woman, Auer said he was aware of it. The officer ordered Auer to stop attempting contact with the woman and Auer said he would.

On April 4, a Warsaw Police officer received a report about a protective order violation from the woman. She told the officer she received multiple emails over the last two days from Auer.

Between April 2 and 3, the woman received eight emails from Auer. The woman reported another protective order violation to the officer on April 13. Between April 11 and 13, the woman received seven emails from Auer. She said she keeps blocking Auer’s email addresses but that he keeps creating new accounts. The woman told the officer she had received emails on both her personal and work email accounts from Auer.

The officer found the communications had the same context, tone, writing style and grammar of the other emails received.

On April 18, a Warsaw Police officer received a report from the woman about receiving three emails from Auer. A second officer spoke with the woman that same day about her receiving a notification from Facebook Messenger about a pending message request. The woman discovered the request dated back to March 24 and was from a new Facebook account that Auer created. The Facebook message chain contained messages and missed calls, as well as messages that Auer unsent; this chain totaled 24 attempts of contact by Auer, which started on March 24 and ended on April 18 when it was noticed by the woman.

A day later, the woman told officers she received more Facebook messages from Auer, who sent her 33 Facebook messages in the span of eight hours. He also sent the woman eight emails on April 20.

On April 22, a Warsaw Police officer spoke with a man about a domestic battery committed by Auer. Upon arrival at the scene, the officer met with the man, who had blood on his lip from a laceration on the outside of his mouth.

The man told the officer that Auer hit him in the face during an argument inside of his vehicle. Their vehicle was stopped for a train when Auer began throwing items in the vehicle and messing with the gear shifter. Auer allegedly got in the man’s face and hit him in the mouth. The man said Auer had been staying with him, but that he did not feel safe around Auer due to his violent behavior.

With the assistance of other Warsaw and Winona Lake police officers, a search began for Auer, who had multiple warrants for his arrest at the time.

Auer was found and said the man was accusing him of breaking the vehicle they were in. He said the man grabbed his wrist and scratched him. Auer told officers he reached up and put his hand over the man’s mouth, and that the man turned his head, causing the injury.

While sitting in a police vehicle, Auer slammed his forehead against a plexiglass window, causing it to break and resulting in injury to Auer’s forehead. Officers had to place a neoprene helmet on Auer’s head to prevent him from doing further damage to himself or the vehicle.

Auer was previously convicted of invasion of privacy in Kosciusko County in January 2018.

For all of these cases, he was booked in the Kosciusko County Jail on April 22.