A week after Orange Township Trustee Lisa Knapp said she planned to file a complaint about the township’s fiscal officer with the Delaware County Sheriff’s Office, no complaint had been filed as of Thursday.
Knapp contacted The Gazette last week, stating that she planned to file a complaint after fiscal officer Joel Spitzer summoned sheriff’s deputies to the township hall where Knapp was talking to a constituent in the parking lot after trustees’ June 20 meeting.
“I’m planning to file a report for a false police report,” Knapp told The Gazette June 29.
Contacted on Thursday, Knapp said she has not filed a complaint. But she said she still plans to file a report but wants investigate further.
Knapp explained that, after the trustees’ meeting June 20, she was standing on the sidewalk outside of the township hall, talking with an Orange Township resident.
Knapp said she requested a copy of the call that was placed to the Delaware County Sheriff’s Office. She identified the voice placing the call as Spitzer’s.
Spitzer did not deny making the call to the sheriff’s office. Spitzer told The Gazette he was out running late the night of June 20 when he saw two cars in the township hall’s parking lot that looked “suspicious” to him.
The Gazette obtained a recording of the call to the sheriff’s office. The caller did not identify himself nor did he want to meet with a deputy at the scene.
While talking on the sidewalk, Knapp said a car pulled into the drive of the parking lot but then turned around and left. “A car stopped and paused with its lights shining at us,” Knapp said.
According to Knapp, the same car pulled in again 20 minutes later, and its lights were on them again. The car then turned around and left again.
Knapp said that after the car left the second time, a deputy in a sheriff’s cruiser drove into the parking lot a few minutes later. Knapp said the deputy was there to investigate a call of suspicious activity.
Spitzer said he made the call to the sheriff’s office due to past vandalism in the park behind the township hall by juveniles.
A deputy responded to the call and talked to Knapp before he left at 10:45 p.m. No charges were filed.
