In the wake of the recent tragedy surrounding the shooting of Officer Jason Lantych by Sgt. Ken Nagy (followed by Sgt. Nagy’s suicide), there have been repeated diatribes against the Essex County District Attorney for deferring the release of information pertaining to this case. The public wants the DA to acknowledge the obvious: this was a crime of passion.
I don’t need the Essex County DA, Jonathan Blodgett, to tell me what Sgt. Nagy’s motive was for shooting Officer Lantych in the groin and then taking his own life. Spousal infidelity was responsible for this cop-on-cop shooting which ended in suicide. Sgt. Nagy’s wife, Katie, was having an affair with Officer Lantych.
After my initial commentary on this case, I have received information from two additional sources, one with ties to the District Attorney’s office, confirming Officer Lantych and Katie Nagy were having an affair. Surprised? Of course not! You don’t have to be intimately tied to the parties involved to know what happened, and you don’t have to be a forensic specialist to understand what was written in Sgt. Nagy’s suicide note.
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Every action causes a reaction, some more predictable than others. However, the consequences for committing infidelity are truly unpredictable. When it comes to adultery, human behavior is not always consistent with the behavioral patters we are accustom with. You can never plan for what someone’s reaction will be (and the chaos which may ensue) if they are blindsided with disturbing, life-altering information.
Regardless of his morally corrupt choices, Officer Jason Lantych should never have been assaulted with a firearm. Being a participant in adultery does not warrant acts of violence. However, Jason’s extremely poor decisions produced a chain-reaction. His selfishness led to an outcome which caused Sgt. Nagy to seek violent revenge, and ultimately suicide. Then there’s Sgt. Nagy’s wife, Katie. Her egotistical actions produced (and will continue to produce) a sad sequence of inconceivable events. Katie Nagy never could have imagined that cheating on her husband would lead to her young sons growing up without their father.
I can’t even begin to comprehend the level of guilt Katie Nagy and Officer Lantych will have to live with for the rest of their lives. Several people I have spoke to about this case are saying they got what they deserved. I completely disagree. No one deserves to be exposed to this type of emotional or physical pain. Furthermore, death and violence is not the proper payback for committing adultery. I know that’s obvious, we live in a civilized society. However, what’s even more glaringly apparent is the fact that this was a preventable tragedy.
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How was this catastrophe preventable? One word: communication
If you are in a mutually agreed upon monogamous marriage or relationship, there is an inherent moral code that is attached to this commitment: fidelity. Faithfulness is the foundation of monogamy. If you know you can’t uphold this commitment, you need to talk to your partner immediately. There are a myriad of resources available to help couples cope with shifts in their relationship. Resolutions to repair or dissolve a relationship are possible through professional assistance. You don’t have to go down the pathway of adultery, violence, suicide, etc.
If you know of a friend, family member, or co-worker who is actively involved in an affair, talk to them; warn them of the severities of their selfish actions. (Schedule an in-person meeting. You don’t want to have this conversation over the phone.) When speaking with them, highlight the following facts: they will eventually get caught and their affair will become public knowledge, they will undoubtedly cause an immeasurable amount of pain and humiliation to their partner and their family, they will unequivocally destroy a piece of their self-worth, and finally, the affair they are having has built up a false sense of euphoria – these feelings are unsustainable.
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We all live by different standards. What feels right for me and my marriage may not be appropriate for you. That’s the beauty of individuality. Yet when it comes to moralities and goodness, some things are non-negotiable. For example: good men do not have sex with other men’s wives, and conversely, good women do not have sex with other women’s husbands. It’s that simple.
In fact, the concept is so innately simple we can feel it from within. When we are acting outside of our moral compass we feel an acute shift in our soul. And although we cannot operate from a position of pure goodness 100% of the time, we can recognize the internal red flags and make adjustments to our behavior, our decisions, and chiefly, our relationship.
Every relationship has its own set of principles. If you’re in a monogamous relationship, adultery is not an option. That’s a fundamental principle. Signing up for monogamy means you’ve signed up for fidelity, honesty, and accountability. If you are incapable of living up to these standards, please, talk to your partner. Moreover, if you’re starting to develop romantic feelings for another person’s spouse or life partner, and you can not redirect your feelings to a suitable standard, you have one honorable option: walk away.
Opinions expressed in articles are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Blast Magazine, its publisher, or its editors.
About Nicole Johnson
Are you, as a professional, actually inferring that one person’s actions cause another to kill?
Mental instability and control issues of the shooter are to blame.
I do not excuse the alleged actions of the others involved. However to say the wife’s alleged actions caused her children to grow up without a father is irresponsible and shows a complete lack of understanding of human psychological issues.
the woman in this case was a slut and should have been shot too.
in the face.
@ Shar 1 – Thank you for your comment. I am saying that every action causes a reaction. Certain actions, like adultery, can produce unpredictable / out-of-character reactions which can lead to a set of permanently altered circumstances.
I want people to understand that what happened in the Nagy / Lantych case is an example of what can happen when people cheat on their partners. Chaos (and out-of-character reactions) can ensue when someone is blindsided with disturbing, life-altering information.
Unfortunately, crimes of passion have become too common in our society. I believe everyone should be talking to each other about how to prevent these types of situations. Yes, it may be uncomfortable, but when we shine a spotlight on an issue like this, we are able to educate and inform people that there are ways of working through an unhappy marriage or relationship. People do not have to go down a road that includes adultery, violence, and suicide.
I could not agree with Shar1 more, it is very irresponsible of you to state that there was any reasonable explanation for Ken Nagy’s behavior, people make mistakes, all kinds of mistakes, but there is no excuse for violence, and the only reason Ken Nagy’s kids are growing up without a father is due to Ken Nagy, he could have left his wife, sued for custody, gone for counseling, seen his Priest, he had a million options open to him and those are the options that you should be focusing on, not blaming his wife, regardless of her actions…. Why not focus on how to get help when you find out some information that is deeply upsetting, for shame….
@ Anne + @ Shar 1 – The two of you are way off the mark and missed the author’s point about affairs.
In what way? Gee let’s think of all the difficult life situations where the solution is to go out and shoot the person who has deeply hurt you. Are you nuts too?
Ryan, I believe I understand the author’s point.
My issue is placing blame on anyone other than the murderer. If we follow the same logic, we can now once again rejoin archaic views such as: the woman had been sexually active in the past and was dressed like a slut. So she should be partially to blame for the rape.
As a society we need to ensure that there is no excuse for murder. No one contributed to the accused’s actions.
I am certainly no medical professional, but from being an observer of the news for a long time, it seems to me that those who kill others in these “crimes of passion” are those who feel they own their victim.
Obviously Anne and Shar1 have never had a spouse cheat on them or known someone who has had a cheating spouse. Otherwise they would know how devastating it is.
Of course everyone about to have an affair should think twice, finding out your spouse is having an affair is devastating but ken Nagy was mentally ill to chose the path he did and it is very important to portray it that way to understand it and prevent such occurences.
@ Anonymous – Wait a minute, are you Ken’s medical doctor or psychiatrist? I didn’t think so. How can you declare him mentally ill if you don’t know his medical or psychological history? Everything reported about him says he showed no history or signs of mental illness. Read up on the law. A temporary insanity defense is used in these cases.
Ryan, and temporary insanity is still severe mental illness, there is no way around it, let me put it another way, the next time a cop finds out his wife is having an affair, you think the right thing to do is shoot the guy? Also the wife has not told her story, my experience as below is that it is very possible there was abuse at home.
Yup, my husband of 16 years had an affair on me. I was angry, hurt & I left him.
Any more questions?
No questions. Like you said, why blame the other person. I’m sure if the wife hadn’t had an affair with the other cop, her husband would have still shot that cop. Why do people try so hard to associate such completely unrelated situations! The wife’s actions in the news story had no more to do with the kids growing up without a father than your husbands actions had to do with you leaving him. Er, what? Oh. Never mind.
Maybe there is something to this actions, reactions theory. So, if I do something that is very psychologically devastating to someone else maybe it will result in a variety of different reactions that I cannot control or even possibly have predicted. Will the reaction sometimes be equally or even more destructive than the action that triggered it? You bet! Does that make it right? No way! But does it still happen anyway? For sure!
I hope you have your facts right regarding the specifics of the relationships. If not, you are at risk of being sued for libel. The person suing would have to prove that your statement was false. Truth of the statement is a perfect defense to a claim of libel, so, if you are correct, you should be fine. However, you might need to present some evidence as to the truth of your statement to prevent that person from convincing a jury that your statement is false. You might want to ask yourself what evidence you have to defend your statement.
I would love to see a forensic psychiatrist take this theory Ken Nagy being “mentally ill” apart. Of course he/she would have to access to his medical and psych filed as well as interviews with people who worked with him and knew him best.
It’s interesting how people always have to toss “maybe there was abuse at home” theory into it.
Let’s look at some well known facts : Katie and Jason atteneded the same high school.
Here you go again, Nicole… How many article have you written now accusing the wife of a sexual relationship based on anonymous sources? You should talk to an attorney. What if this was a woman confiding to a friend that she was having problems in her marriage? And what if a controlling husband saw those emails and assumed it was an affair? I can’t wait to see the two weeks of articles you write when it comes out there was nothing improper going on. Its disgusting that you try and disguise yourself as a legitimate journalists. Youre a coward and so are the “anonymous” sources… Your articles are based on nothing more than small town gossip.
@ Geoff – Thank you for your comment. As I said to you on The Good Men Project comment thread, I have three legitimate sources that have confirmed the affair. I never would have written about this case if I didn’t have valid sources. Geoff, you know nothing about me; your aspersions are cruel and untrue.
Furthermore, the Publishers of The Good Men Project and Blast Magazine never would have published my articles if they did not trust me as a person and as a writer.
Everyone close to the situation knows they were having an affair but you won’t hear it in the press, the DA will bury the details of this case. Cheers to Nicole for talking about dark subject matter.
Nicole, I hope that after reading today’s documents released by the various official sources that you will seriously consider adding another addendum to your post. Clearly, Ken Nagy was suffering from mental illness, enough that a physician put him on an antidepressant. There was erratic behavior and a preplanned shooting, hardly a crime of passion. Police are some of the weakest recognizers of mental illness in those they serve and in themselves, They are often the last to get help, and there have been some terrible tragedies that have been the result of this, I just think it is lucky that Ken did not harm his wife or children… Kati if you are reading this, I am sorry you have suffered and please know that there are many that support you and your family. Nicole, instead of writing about the issues around affairs, how about writing a post on what to do when you see serious mental illness in your spouse or a colleague.
Quote from the Boston Herald’s article – Police: Beverly cop had ‘moment of weakness’ with
sergeant’s wife
In another report, Lantych tells a state police trooper he had “a relationship” with Nagy’s wife that first started as “confiding in each other and got out of hand.”
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view/20220315da_confirms_suspected_affair_prompted_beverly_shooting/srvc=home&position=0
And your point is?
Another article from the Boston Herald (http://bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1061117773) on this case. What 35 year old man / cop has his Mommy drive him to meet the man whose wife he’s having an affair with? Who does that? A pathetic, guilty man, that’s who.
The following few paragraphs from the Boston Herald sum it all up:
Lantych said he started a relationship with Katherine Nagy that he called “50/50,” but for which he took full responsibility for during a phone conversation with Nagy, a report states. Lantych, the report adds, said he had known Katherine Nagy since high school, but their recent relationship “got out of hand.”
Lantych told investigators Kenneth Nagy called him the morning of the shooting, saying, “You piece of (expletive), how could you do something like this to me.” Nagy wanted to meet in Hamilton, but Lantych insisted on a public place so he wouldn’t get shot while Nagy “just laughed it off,” according to the report.
Lantych’s mother drove him to meet Nagy at Starbucks, where the two men talked outside the coffee shop, according to police. Lantych told investigators he thought the conversation was over when Nagy walked to his car near the bank, so he called his mother for a ride, police reports state. Instead, Nagy backed up his SUV to a stop, and when Lantych walked over, Nagy shot him from inside the vehicle, according to reports.
Er well im going to get arranged married soon to keep the peace in my family. I dont even know her or anything about her. So if i happen to meet my soulmate and fall in live afterwords, shame on me?
It might be with considering ahead of time whether or not you are willing to make the commitment. Never get married in order to make someone else happy. If it isn’t what you want, it probably won’t just magically work out to be something that you don’t later regret. It isn’t fair to you or to the person you marry.
I think its best just to not marry psychopaths. That way you can cheat on your spouse all you want without becoming a murder victim. Seriously. And trust me, you don’t need a “rational” reason to do violence. Most people who succum to violence just do so for violence or cruelty’s sake. Was the victim wrong and a horrible person? Maybe. But I doubt she asked for death for it.