The co-executive director of a Monroe County wildlife rehabilitation center is charged with impersonating a public official during a traffic stop last month in Northampton County.
Slate Belt Regional Police filed charges alleging Janine Tancredi, co-executive director of Pocono Wildlife Rehabilitation and Education Center in Hamilton Township, claimed to be a member of the Pennsylvania Game Commission responding to an emergency call when she was pulled over May 3 in the area of East Moorestown Road and Route 33 in Plainfield Township, near Wind Gap. .
Tancredi, 46, of Hamilton Township, faces a misdemeanor charge of impersonating a public servant, as well as summary traffic offenses. She will be arraigned at her preliminary hearing, which is scheduled for later this month.
In a post on the center’s Facebook page, Tancredi denied the allegations. She said she got a call that night about an injured fox that was hit by a car in Bethlehem Township. She was heading there about 11:30 p.m. when she was pulled over by an officer for a tinted license plate cover and for failing to use a turn signal, according to the post.
Tancredi said she told the officer that she was a licensed wildlife rehabilitator and veterinary technician, and showed him her Pennsylvania Game Commission permits, capture and transport credentials and identification, she said. After pleading not guilty to the citations, she was told that they were withdrawn.
Weeks later, she got a letter stating she was facing new charges including impersonating a public servant.
“I want to be absolutely clear at no point did I ever represent myself as a police officer or claim to be law enforcement,” she said. “I identified myself exactly as what I am, a licensed wildlife rehabilitator, licensed veterinary technician, and permitted capture and transport personnel operating under Pennsylvania regulations.”
Tancredi said in her post that her credentials and permits have always reflected that and are always displayed on the vehicle’s dashboard.
Slate Belt Regional Police Chief Jonathan Hoadley, when asked for additional information, recommended reviewing the criminal complaint filed in the case, which he said would be the most accurate source of information.
The criminal complaint states Tancredi had a “law enforcement badge necklace” around her neck, and that she claimed to work for the game commission. She told the officer she was on a dispatch call, the complaint states. She told the responding officer that the tinted license plate cover was because she is “on the game commission,” and she’s never got in trouble for it before, police wrote in court documents.
“You obviously don’t know who I am, but you will know in the morning,” she allegedly told the officer.
“Tancredi threatened that if officers do not know who she is, that they will in the morning, in an attempt to use her position to influence the outcome of the traffic stop,” the department wrote Sunday in a post on its CrimeWatch page.
The responding officer contacted Northampton County Dispatch and the game commission and was told there was no record of a call about a fox or someone bit by a fox, according to charging documents. The game commission also said she had no affiliation with it, police said.
Tancredi’s attorney did not return requests for comment by Thursday afternoon.
“I am deeply saddened that my name is now being publicly associated with allegations that I know to be false,” Tancredi said in the Facebook post. “Anyone who knows me knows that my life revolves around helping injured and orphaned wildlife, often at all hours of the day and night, with little sleep and at significant personal expense.”
She said she would continue to cooperate with the legal process and is confident the facts will speak for themselves. As of Thursday afternoon, the post on the wildlife center’s Facebook page was no longer available.
The wildlife center rehabilitates thousands of animals every year and serves more than 10 counties in the northeastern Pennsylvania region, including Lehigh and Northampton counties, according to the center’s website.