Jeannette police officer accused of falsifying reports for 18 traffic stops

JEANNETTE, Pa. — A Jeannette police officer is accused of falsely reporting traffic incidents.

Matthew Painter, of Irwin, was charged with 18 misdemeanor counts of tampering with public records on Tuesday.

According to Westmoreland County District Attorney Nicole Ziccarelli, county detectives began investigating Painter in July. That’s because Jeannette Police Chief Derek Manley contacted them after conducting his monthly review of the department spreadsheet and noticed Painter’s traffic contacts appeared inconsistent with his prior traffic patterns.

Investigators found 18 inconsistent entries from June 18 to July 1, 2024. All of these reports are “believed to be fictitious and falsified,” Zicarelli said.

Detectives were able to identify the inconsistencies, in part, because Painter was assigned to a specific vehicle with GPS and a light-activated vehicle camera, as well as body cameras that activate when emergency lights are on. On many of the allegedly falsified traffic incidents, the timestamp showed Painter in another location that the reported stop, or the lights/cameras were never activated. In at least one incident, Painter’s body camera showed him inside the police station, not at the reported traffic stop.

In each of the 18 stops in question, Painter reported the vehicle, license plate and date/time of the stop. Zicarelli said detectives contacted some of victims, who all said they were never stopped by Painter on the date the report was made.

Channel 11′s Andrew Havranek reached out to some of the victims on Wednesday and spoke with Donald Blasioli.

According to Painter’s criminal complaint, Painter stopped Blasioli on June 9 at 1:26 a.m.

“I’m in bed at 9 for work so I knew it wasn’t me,” Blasioli said he told detectives.

Blasioli said he thought when detectives first called him about it, it was a scam.

“I was a little worried. I didn’t know what it was about,” Blasioli told Havranek.

“As police chief, I want to reassure the residents and visitors of Jeannette that this was an isolated issue and it is not a practice tolerated by this department. We will continue to uphold the law and answer every call to protect the citizens of Jeannette,” Chief Manley said in a statement.

Blasioli said he’s glad the chief caught it.

“Who knows what else he’s capable of doing if he arrested somebody and he falsified other charges and stuff on people. I don’t think you can trust somebody like that,” Blasioli said.

Painter is set to be arraigned on Oct. 21.

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