10/20/16
by News Department on 10/20/16Ruch pleads guilty...
Former West Penn Township police Sgt. Melissa M. Ruch, of New Ringgold, admitted Wednesday in Schuylkill County Court, that she falsely reported being assaulted in September 2015 on Route 309.
State police at Frackville filed the charges against Ruch as the result of what they said was an incident onSept. 2, 2015, on Route 309, near the top of the Blue Mountain, in West Penn Township.
Ruch was found at the bottom of an embankment but did not remember how she got there. She was treated at the scene and then flown to Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest for further treatment.
Police said Ruch falsely reported that she had been in an altercation with a motorist named Jose Cruz Mendez and had to fire her Taser at him.
Judge Jacqueline L. Russell, who had been scheduled to preside over Ruch’s jury trial, instead accepted her plea and sentenced her to spend 12 months on probation.
