Police impersonator in bar assault indicted
May 14—CATLETTSBURG — A Boyd County grand jury returned two indictments against an Ashland man police said drove a man's face into a chair, and then told everyone at the bar he was a cop.
On Tuesday, a Boyd County grand jury indicted 27-year-old Dakota Gussler on charges of first-degree assault, impersonating a peace officer, simple possession of marijuana and public intoxication in connection with the April 29 assault.
The grand jury also issued a separate indictment in the case in which Gussler is accused of crashing his car into a house following the bar fracas on the same night and walking away from the scene, records show.
In that case, he's been charged with two counts of felony first-degree criminal mischief, simple possession of weed, leaving the scene of an accident and failure to carry insurance.
Gussler was already under indictment in Greenup County for allegedly pulling the old "I'll do work on your house but you got to pay me up front for the materials" swindle.
A separate civil suit shows in the fall of 2021, Gussler — under his company Tri-Cities Construction LLC — said he would renovate a house on Forest Hills Court and took more than $83,000 in advance from the home owner.
Per the suit, Gussler returned some of the materials to Lowe's and pocketed the return.
And it turns out, the April incident isn't the first time Gussler's been accused of impersonating a cop, either.
In September 2016, court records show Gussler approached the photo lab at the Cannonsburg Walmart while carrying a pistol on his side and told the employees he was an FBI agent and a detective from Greenup County.
Witness statements from that case show he shared personal details about two employees, creeping one woman out. He accused one employee of being a pedophile and threatened to have another employee locked up in jail, records show.
Gussler pleaded guilty in April 2017 to impersonating a peace officer, on which he was placed on a two-year diversion. That diversion almost got revoked when he was charged with fraud in Wayne County, West Virginia, records show.
The West Virginia charge was dismissed and the diversion continued on. Court records indicate he successfully completed it.
Gussler is being held at the Boyd County Detention Center.
(606) 326-2653 — henry@dailyindependent.com
