Swoyersville PA man facing aggravated assault charges for breaking security officer’s jaw
WILKES-BARRE PA April 1 2018 — A Swoyersville man is facing aggravated assault charges after police say he broke a security guard’s jaw with a punch thrown at a downtown nightclub.
Edward Kane Jr., 31, of 250 Tripp St., allegedly laughed and said, “I had to drop him like it’s hot” after his former friend, Roger Jones, went to the floor and began spitting blood.
According to a police affidavit, the assault took place while Jones was working security at the Heat Bar & Night Club on North Main Street the night of March 9.
As the club was closing around 2:30 a.m. March 10, Jones was trying to clear out two remaining patrons when he got into a confrontation with them, police said. One person pushed him in the chest and then pushed him to the ground, and Kane punched him in the face when he got up, police said.
After being hit, Jones went to the floor again and began spitting up blood, according to police.
The bar manager later told police he had witnessed the punch and that afterward Kane, a former friend of Jones’s, was laughing as he said “I had to drop him like it’s hot” while leaving the club, the affidavit says.
Jones went to Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center in Plains Twp. the next day because of unbearable pain that prevented him from chewing food. X-rays there showed his jaw was broken and he had other broken bones on the left side of his face, police said.
Doctors had to perform surgery on Jones and wire his jaw shut, the complaint says.
Police charged Kane with aggravated assault, simple assault and harassment. Magisterial District Judge Thomas F. Malloy Sr. arraigned him on Thursday morning and released Kane on $25,000 unsecured bail.
A preliminary hearing was set for April 30.
