A Lawrence Township police officer has been charged with tampering with records and unsworn falsification for allegedly submitting a report that contained false and misleading information, Mercer County Prosecutor Angelo Onofri said.
Police Officer Andres Mejia was charged with the disorderly persons offenses and was also suspended from the Lawrence Township Police Department without pay on Sept. 17, the prosecutor’s office said later that day.
Mejia allegedly turned in an official arrest report to his supervisors at the Lawrence Township Police Department on Aug. 16 that contained false and misleading information about a fictitious witness in an incident he was investigating, according to the allegations.
The resultant charges grew out an internal affairs investigation conducted by the Lawrence Township Police Department. The falsification of records was discovered by the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office and the Lawrence Township Police Department during an unrelated criminal investigation in August.