A former West Penn Township police officer, accused of making false reports in an incident during which she was injured, waived a preliminary hearing on those charges.

The hearing for Melissa Ruch was scheduled on Tuesday before District Judge James R. Ferrier of Orwigsburg.

Ruch was charged by state police at the Frackville barracks with one count of false alarms to agencies of public safety and three counts of false reports to law enforcement authorities. All the charges are misdemeanors.

Ruch attended the hearing.

Shortly after the hearing was scheduled to begin, Ruch’s attorney announced that she agreed to waive the charges to Schuylkill County Court.

John Fegley, first assistant district attorney in Schuylkill County, said a trial on the charges probably wouldn’t occur before late this year.

The charges stem from an incident reported at 5:08 p.m. on Sept. 2 along Route 309 south of Dove Lane in West Penn Township during which Ruch, an on-duty, full-time police officer at the time, was seriously injured.

Ruch was reported to have sustained a concussion which resulted in loss of memory and a knee injury.

She reported that she was attacked by a stopped motorist.

An emergency alert tone came from Ruch’s portable radio, resulting in other police officers rushing to the scene.

Ruch was found at the bottom of a steep embankment along Route 309 seriously injured.

Trooper Edward Lizewski of the state police, said he interviewed Ruch shortly after 7 p.m. at Lehigh Valley Hospital.

The affidavit by Lizewski says, “The defendant (Ruch) initially had advised that she didn’t know.

She then recalled that she was traveling northbound on Route 309 and was in a line of traffic. She observed a car in front of her which had pulled over onto the berm. She said the vehicle was dark in color.”

Ruch provided the license plate of the car, and the name of a suspect, Jose Cruz Mendez with a date of birth of Aug. 31, 1982.

Ruch told police she saw someone get out of the passenger side of the car and jump over the guardrail.

Ruch gave a description of the man, “saying he was wearing all dark clothing, but then changed the description to a T-shirt with a pocket and blue jean shorts that went down past his knees, 6-2 to 6-4 in height, 240-260 pounds with short dark hair approximately 1/2 (sic) in length,” the affidavit says.

She had the man had a tattoo of either a star or teardrop under his right eye and spoke with an Hispanic accent.

Ruch told the state police she shot the male with her Taser gun and that “the male cursed and fell to the ground on his side after she utilized the Taser on him.”

The affidavit says, “A search and examination conducted at the scene did not yield the Blast Door covers from the Taser cartridge or the paper aphids which are always deposited when a Taser cartridge is deployed. The defendant stated that she did not know how she got to the bottom of the embankment. The absence of the blast doors and aphids confirms the defendant did not deploy her Taser at the scene.”

Lizewski obtained a photo of someone named Jose Cruz Mendez, born August 31, 1982, but Ruch told him this was not the suspect from at the scene.

The affidavit said 17 witnesses stated they had passed the scene on the day of the incident and saw Ruch and her marked patrol unit. “There are no witnesses who stated they observed a second vehicle or operator as described by the defendant,” the trooper wrote.

Trooper Lizewski said a check on the Taser gun showed it was used for five second on Sept. 2 at 5:19 p.m. However, the internal time on the gun had a differential of 48 minutes and 31 second ahead of actual Eastern Standard Time. Therefore, the gun was activated 33 minutes prior to the actual time the initial contact with the County 911 Center occurred, said the trooper.

Testing of the gun indicates it was never fired into a human being. Testing revealed “it was fired into a hard object which did not conduct electricity.”

After Ruch was arrested by state police on December 23, she was suspended without pay by the West Penn Township Board of Supervisors.

A widespread search was conducted for potential suspects after Ruch was found injured by no suspects were ever located.