Pocono News Section

I-Team Excusive: Weatherly Officer Suspended

I-Team Excusive: Weatherly Officer Suspended - Wednesday, December 2, 2009 at 11:25PM EST

Reported by: Andy Mehalshick
Wednesday, Dec 2, 2009 @ 11:25pm EST
WEATHERLY, CARBON COUNTY – A 20-year veteran Weatherly police officer has been suspended and is under investigation. It involves alleged inappropriate communication with a young girl.

The officer is the focus of a state police investigation. Eyewitness News is not identifying the officer since he has not been charged with any crime. But the I-Team has confirmed the probe centers around communications between that male officer and a teenage girl. Police got a tip from a relative of that girl that the officer was having inappropriate contact with the girl. That contact was made over the telephone and computer.

The I-Team has learned that state police investigators made two visits to the Weatherly Borough building in the last several weeks. In both cases they removed records from the police station including telephone bills.

In early November Weatherly Borough officials suspended that officer with pay pending the outcome of this state investigation. They would not comment on the case.

This is the second officer from the Weatherly Police Department suspended for questionable activity in just five years.

Former Weatherly Police Chief Brian Cara was suspended without pay in 2004. He later pleaded guilty to smoking marijuana while on duty.

The drugs had been seized as evidence. A judge sentenced Cara to jail time in 2005.