‘FAKE THINGS’

Police Chief Pleads Guilty After Threatening to Arrest Facebook Critic

A local poster quoted the police chief as saying “you like to post fake things and fake stories about me so, I could make up a fake arrest and put you in jail.”

The chief of West Hazleton, Pennsylvania’s police department has pleaded guilty to a federal civil-rights violation after he threatened to arrest a local resident who was being critical of him on social media. In March 2020, Chief Brian Buglio told a Facebook user that he’d be hit with felony charges for his social-media posts that criticized his policing. The man, identified as Paul DeLorenzo of East Stroudsburg, told WNEP that the police chief had said to him “you like to post fake things and fake stories about me so, I could make up a fake arrest and put you in jail.” After a handshake deal between the two at Buglio’s police station, DeLorenzo went to the FBI with the accusations. According to the plea agreement, 26-year-veteran Buglio could face as much as a year in prison and a $100,000 fine.