Off-duty city police officer arrested for domestic altercation in Germantown

An off-duty Philadelphia police officer from Germantown was arrested on Monday and charged with various offenses stemming from an alleged physical altercation with his girlfriend.

John Mouzon, 37, was charged with simple assault and recklessly endangering another person after a police Internal Affairs and District Attorney’s Office investigation. The incident occurred in the 600 block of Harvey St.

Mouzon, who has been on the force for 16 years, was transferred to administrative duties pending the outcome of an ongoing investigation, according to a press release issued by the department.

He posted 10 percent of a $1,000 bail and was released later Monday. His girlfriend was treated at a nearby hospital.

Mouzon was highlighted in a February Daily News story about police-overtime arbitration. Specifically, it reported that Mouzon admitted to stealing 3.5 hours of overtime by lying about time spent in court.

He was caught for doing so, suspended for 10 days without pay and transferred from the Narcotics Field Unit to patrol. When he challenged the punishment, an arbitrator ordered the city to pay Mouzon $83,000 to cover “more than 2,000 hours in overtime estimated that he would have worked during the 2 1/2 years that he was transferred.” A furious Commissioner Charles Ramsey was quoted saying, “To reward someone for doing wrong makes no sense.”

Mouzon was also among eight city police officers that testified in the case of Officer Chris DiPasquale, who shot and killed an unarmed Donta Dawson in 1998. Mouzon was in the car that had its headlights trained on Dawson’s and said they called for backup because they believed the man was armed.

Manslaughter charges against DiPasquale were twice dismissed, but he lost his job for violating departmental policy.