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Lawyer: Police Officer Lied Under Oath

POTTSVILLE — The question in Pottsville: did a police officer lie under oath at a hearing on Monday? A driver in Schuylkill County was in court to face ch...

POTTSVILLE -- The question in Pottsville: did a police officer lie under oath at a hearing on Monday?

A driver in Schuylkill County was in court to face charges of eluding police after they tried to pull him over for a broken brake light. Authorities say he drove off and darted into a home.

What happened after that is in dispute.

Lonny Hosler says he's been stopped by Pottsville police before, but this time he didn't want to pull over until he got to his own home.

Surveillance video captured what happened next.

Now Hosler says the officer who pulled him over lied in court.

The surveillance video is from the early morning of May 15. It shows Lonny Hosler of Pottsville running into his home after a traffic stop and police officers running in behind him. Hosler's lawyer said this video proves a Pottsville police officer lied under oath on Monday.

"The officer was not truthful on the affidavit of probable cause. He was not truthful when he testified at the preliminary hearing," said Joseph Nahas, Hosler's attorney.

According to court papers, it all started when Pottsville police officer Michael Messner tried to pull Hosler over for a broken brake light.

Hosler says he was just a few blocks from home and decided to not stop.

"I wanted my dad to finally see how bad I've been getting pulled over. We have video cameras there, so I drove there."

The cameras were rolling at the house. The video shows Hosler getting out of his car and running inside.

"At that point the cop started coming towards me. I saw that he had a taser and everything like that, so I panicked and ran in the house."

In court papers, Messner says he didn't know it was Hosler's home. The officer also said that Hosler ran inside, but left the door open.

Hosler's attorney questioned the officer about that in court.

"He stated that the door was ajar, open wide enough that he could maintain a visual of him," said Nahas.

But if you look at the video again, it shows Hosler shut the door and an officer then kicked it in.

The Hosler family says it's not fair that the officer lied both in paperwork and in court about the door being open.

They're taking their case against the police officer to the district attorney.

"I don't feel like they're ever going to be there to serve me," said Hosler.

Hosler says he thinks the whole thing was taken a little too far and he can't believe it was all over a brake light.

Pottsville Police Chief Richard Wojciechowsky said he couldn't comment on the case specifically because he didn't see the video, but gave this statement to Newswatch 16:

"I have the utmost confidence in the professionalism of all of the members of the Pottsville Bureau of Police and absolutely do not believe that any of our officers would intentionally provide false information at any time, including under oath. If a discrepancy occurred in an isolated incident we would be sure to immediately explore the reasons for it occurring and take any action needed to ensure the correct information is used at any time in the future concerning the matter."

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