Found at the bottom of a steep embankment off Route 309 in September, West Penn Township Sgt. Melissa Ruch was believed to be a victim of violence against police.

A nearly four-month investigation led law enforcement officials to believe otherwise.Without one witness to corroborate Ruch's story and forensics to throw up one major red flag, trooper Edward J. Lizewski of the state police at Frackville, filed four misdemeanor charges against her Wednesday.They included filing a false report to law enforcement officials and creating a false alarm for agencies of public safety.Ruch has been employed by West Penn for around 10 years. She was previously the acting police chief in Coaldale Borough in 2004. Before that, she was employed by Coaldale as their warrants officer. She has also served as police chief in Mahanoy Township.West Penn Township Police Chief Brian Johnson said Ruch has been suspended without pay.A summons was issued Wednesday and, according to online court documents, Ruch has retained Pottsville-based attorney Frederick James Fanelli to represent her.A preliminary hearing is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Jan. 19 in front of Magisterial District Judge James Ferrier in Orwigsburg.HistoryRuch, 41, of New Ringgold, contacted Schuylkill County dispatchers at 4:53 p.m. on Sept. 2 to request a records check on a disabled Nissan Maxima along Route 309, south of Dove Lane, in West Penn Township.At 5:04 p.m., dispatchers told her they couldn't find a record for the individual, Jose Cruz Mendez, 33.Four minutes later, Ruch's officer-down alert alarm was triggered and officers began responding to the scene.Officers found Ruch at the bottom of a steep embankment off the east side of Route 309 at 5:09 p.m.First responders secured Ruch using a Stokes basket before carrying her up to the roadway.She was flown via helicopter to Lehigh Valley Hospital and treated for what were described as non life-threatening injuries.During an interview with Lizewski at the hospital, Ruch said the suspect got out of the passenger side of the Nissan and jumped over a guardrail.She described Mendez as a Hispanic male, 6 feet 2 inches to 6 feet 4 inches tall, 240-260 pounds with a tattoo beneath one of his eyes."(Ruch) said the male approached her and told her he wasn't going back to prison," Lizewski wrote in the affidavit.Ruch told police she used her Taser on the assailant before he attacked, a detail she repeated to police 10-12 times.According to her story, the man got up off the ground and came at her "with something silver in his hand."Ruch could not recall how she got to the bottom of the embankment.While at the hospital, Lizewski showed Ruch a picture of a Jose Luiz Mendez he received from the Schuylkill County Communications Center, but she said the man in the photograph was not the alleged assailant.Route 309 was closed for about seven hours while police launched a ground and aerial search for the suspect.No person matching the description from Ruch was ever located.InconsistenciesLizewski said 17 witnesses all told police they only observed Ruch and her vehicle at the scene."Several witnesses said they saw Ruch on the side of the road and she appeared to be talking on her cellphone or radio," he wrote in an affidavit of probable cause.Ruch's Taser was recovered at the scene and synced at the state police barracks in Frackville.The data revealed that Ruch activated her Taser at 4:31 p.m., 33 minutes before she claimed to have been assaulted.An analysis from Taser International confirmed the times were correct.At the scene, officers could not find the "Blast Door" covers from the Taser cartridge or the paper aphids, which are always deposited when a cartridge is deployed.On Nov. 18, the fired Taser cartridge and wires were sent to Darko Babic, an independent forensic examiner.The forensic examination confirmed the Taser was never fired into a human.Instead, Babic reported, the Taser had been fired into a hard object that did not conduct electricity."The upper portion of the probe had been physically pulled apart from the lower portion indicated by the damage to the lower portion," Lizewski added.At West Penn Township's Sept. 15 supervisors meeting, Johnson said the initial reports of Ruch being picked up by the assailant and thrown down the bank were inaccurate.He said nobody knows for sure what happened since Ruch was unable to recall some of the details because of the concussion.During the same meeting, and as a result of the incident, West Penn Township supervisors voted to buy new video cameras with audio for their police cruisers at a cost of $5,509.The cruisers had cameras at the time Ruch said she was attacked, but Johnson said they were outdated and had to be turned on manually to function.Rewarded for heroismNine days after the reported attack, Ruch was honored for her heroism in a ceremony attended by several state lawmakers."We're thrilled she's in one piece," said state Sen. David Argall, who organized the event.Reporters Chris Parker and Kathy Kunkel contributed to this report.