Police sergeant arrested (again) in alleged bar fight after someone turned off his country music

A Philadelphia police sergeant who was fired in 2011 for allegedly punching his estranged wife in the face — then reinstated through the FOP grievance process — has been arrested again, this time for allegedly hitting three people and hurling racial and homophobic slurs after someone turned off the country music he was listening to in a Roxborough bar.

Sgt. James Graber Jr. was charged last week with multiple counts of aggravated assault, making terroristic threats, simple assault, and recklessly endangering another person in connection with the bar fight at Maria’s Ristorante in November.

An Internal Affairs investigation found that Graber became enraged when someone switched the jukebox to R&B or hip-hop. He then moved closer to the group and used a racial epithet to describe their choice of music.

» READ MORE: Fired, then rehired: How the police arbitration system overturns the firings or discipline of more than 100 cops

Graber allegedly punched a detective several times, then spat in the face of a woman who was with the man and used a homophobic insult to describe her. He struck three people total while “swinging wildly with his fists,” according to the affidavit for his arrest.

The detective he allegedly punched required hospital treatment for fractures near his eye and sinuses.

Graber, 48, is a former Navy torpedoman who previously worked in the Police Department’s Bomb Disposal Unit. He could not immediately be reached for comment Wednesday.

Sgt. Eric Gripp, a police spokesperson, said Wednesday that when the charges were filed, Graber was suspended for 30 days with the intent to dismiss. The Police Department did not announce Graber’s arrest last week.

He has had previous legal and disciplinary problems, but the Philadelphia Fraternal Order of Police has succeeded at least twice in having his punishment reduced or overturned.

In 2011, then-Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey fired Graber after he was arrested for a violent incident in a Northeast Philly bar. Staff there had escorted Graber from the establishment, but he later returned and punched his wife in the face, according to police.

Graber completed a diversionary program and the FOP filed a grievance for him to get his job back. He returned to the department with full seniority, according to an arbitration settlement obtained in 2019 by The Inquirer.

Two years later, Graber was charged with abuse of authority, a violation of the department’s disciplinary code. He was suspended for five days and transferred out of the Bomb Disposal Unit. Again, the FOP filed a grievance on his behalf and was able to reverse the suspension. Under that settlement, Graber was transferred to another unit but “will be made whole for five days.”

An FOP spokesperson said Wednesday that the union would not be representing Graber in this case. It had no comment on his arrest.

Most recently, Graber surfaced in a viral TikTok video in February 2022, in which another officer had to hold him back after he began screaming at a woman during a criminal investigation.

He told her he was “matching your energy.”