Fawn police chief testifies officer altered report to include false accusation against supervisor

Fawn’s police chief testified Tuesday a now-suspended officer who is suing the township altered an incident report to say a supervisor threatened to assault his neighbor for having a fire at his home.

Fawn Supervisors wrapped up an employment hearing for suspended Officer Keith Lazaron II, but took no action. Police Chief Tim Mayberry had recommended firing Lazaron for insubordinate and disrespectful behavior and for violating departmental policy by giving an incident report to a news reporter.

Neither Lazaron nor his attorney, Craig Alexander, attended the hearing. Alexander had argued the township ran out of time to hold the hearing and asked supervisors to postpone the hearing until the issue is addressed in a federal lawsuit Lazaron filed against the township, three of its supervisors and Mayberry.

Alexander did not respond to a request for comment after the hearing Tuesday morning. Lazaron said he watched the hearing online.

The hearing was a continuation of one the township started July 27 but suspended after Alexander raised concerns Supervisor David Norris, participating by telephone from Florida, could not hear. That hearing had been held outdoors because of covid-19 restrictions.

Tuesday’s hearing, held with limited attendance indoors, was streamed on the online platform Zoom, but Norris again participated by speakerphone.

Township Solicitor Steve Yakopec said he emailed Alexander twice in August with dates to resume the hearing, but Alexander did not respond. Yakopec said Alexander’s request for the hearing to not be held did not come until 4:30 p.m. Monday.

Mayberry testified for about an hour about the interactions he had with Lazaron that led the chief to recommend Lazaron be fired. The only other witness was Melvin McNeal, Fawn’s road foreman, who testified he did not hear Supervisor David Montanari make a threat against one of his neighbors, which Lazaron put into a police report he gave to a reporter.

Mayberry and Lazaron are Fawn’s only police officers.

Mayberry testified he found Lazaron to have been insubordinate and disrespectful when Lazaron would not divulge how he learned Mayberry had checked with Allegheny County 911 on Lazaron’s response to a call for help in Tarentum in April.

Mayberry said his review found no problems, but he was concerned about how Lazaron had learned of his inquiry.

“It’s a chain of custody issue,” Mayberry said. “Had this been a more important incident or event, that chain of custody would have been compromised.”

Mayberry said Lazaron would not answer his questions on more than one occasion, and called him a “puppet” of Montanari.

Lazaron claims Mayberry recommended he be fired because he refused Montanari’s demand to cite one of his neighbors for an outdoor fire on the same date in April as the Tarentum call.

In his testimony, Mayberry claims Lazaron edited his report about that incident to add that Montanari threatened to physically harm his neighbor. Mayberry said Lazaron added the information a day after the chief gave Lazaron a warning he was facing disciplinary action for not answering his questions.

Mayberry said Lazaron violated the department’s policies by releasing the report about the fire incident to a news reporter. He further testified Lazaron’s report was not accurate.

Mayberry testified he investigated the alleged threat made by Montanari and concluded it was false after speaking with McNeal.

McNeal testified he was in the parking lot at the township building when Montanari and Lazaron were speaking, and that he did not hear Montanari make any threat against his neighbor.

Supervisors will make a decision after the hearing’s transcript and findings of fact are prepared.

Lazaron, who remains suspended without pay, said he has not been working and that looking for a job has been difficult because of the pandemic.

“I was forced to take money out of my retirement to stay afloat,” he said. “I am still behind on mortgage and utilities.”