Case proceeding against Arnold officer accused of lying about damage to patrol vehicle

An Arnold police officer accused of lying about how his patrol vehicle was damaged waived his right to a hearing Thursday.

Ryan Matthew Clark, 32, of Buffalo Township is charged by Westmoreland County detectives with making a false report and tampering with evidence, which are both misdemeanor offenses.

“We’re going to hopefully get it resolved,” said Clark’s attorney, Duke George, after waiving his client’s preliminary hearing before New Kensington District Judge Frank J. Pallone Jr.

George said the bar for having a case held for trial at a preliminary hearing is very low.

“There was no purpose in having a hearing today,” he said.

Clark, who was present in Pallone’s courtroom, declined to comment. He is suspended without pay pending the outcome of his case.

Detectives said Clark claimed his patrol SUV was damaged in a hit-and-run incident in the parking lot of a Sunoco 7-Eleven store on Freeport Road on June 21. According to a criminal complaint, Clark said he did not see it happen, and that an unknown person told him what had happened.

According to the complaint, Clark told a responding New Kensington police officer that the store’s surveillance cameras were not working.

Police said they learned a few days later that the cameras were working and had not recorded a hit-and-run.

Instead, video shows the Arnold police SUV coming into the parking lot from Union Cemetery and Clark going into the store, police said. When he comes out, Clark is seen taking out a piece of the vehicle’s damaged rocker panel from inside the car and placing it against the SUV, the complaint said.

Clark is scheduled for a formal arraignment Oct. 12. He is free without bail.

George said he hopes to resolve the matter to everyone’s satisfaction. He said Clark has worked as a police officer for 11 years with various departments after being honorably discharged from the Navy.

“He’s a good police officer,” George said.