PITTSBURGH — A Pittsburgh police officer is off the job after troubling allegations of an inappropriate relationship and questionable testimony under oath at a court hearing.
Chief Investigator Rick Earle uncovered the disturbing details.
According to court documents obtained by 11 Investigates, it all began last May at the Rivers Casino, when a couple got into a fight.
The woman eventually came to the Pittsburgh Police Station on the North Side and filed a complaint. She told police her boyfriend hit her in the face with the back of his hand.
According to court documents, Pittsburgh Police Officer Anthony Dilley took the report.
The next day, Dilley reached out to the woman, but according to court papers, he wasn’t calling about the case.
In a motion for dismissal, the defense claimed Dilley, “inappropriately formed a personal relationship with the alleged victim, including multiple personal visits, repeated physical intimacy and multiple personal phone conversations.”
During that same time, Dilley investigated the woman’s case, eventually filing simple assault and reckless endangerment charges against the boyfriend.
At a preliminary hearing two months later, Dilley under cross-examination, denied knowing the woman.
Attorney: Officer, you don’t know the alleged victim in this case. Right?”
Dilley: “No.”
Defense attorney Paul Ellis says he did deny having any type of relationship with the alleged victim in the case.
“I asked him that point blank under oath,” Ellis said, who represented the defendant in the case.
After learning about the alleged relationship, Ellis asked the District Attorney’s office to withdraw the charges, but they refused.
In a statement to 11 Investigates, the Allegheny County District Attorney’s office said ”...our office prosecuted the case in question on independent evidence that we believed was sufficient to support the charges filed. We did not present the testimony of the officer in question at the trial.”
Judge Eliot Howsie found the defendant not guilty.
Ellis believes the officer’s alleged relationship with the woman led to the acquittal.
“I think that his conduct compromised the Commonwealth’s case which begs the question why they’re not being more aggressive in pursuing charges against the officer,” Ellis said.
The officer, who was promoted to Sgt. in August, has now been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation by the Office of Municipal Investigations into the alleged inappropriate relationship.
“I think that an officer who’s willing to provide false testimony under oath is probably a danger to other officers and by extension, the public. I think that it poses a potential liability to the city of Pittsburgh and the police department, and it undermines public confidence,” Ellis said.
The city will only say the officer is on paid administrative leave, pending the outcome of the investigation conducted by the city’s Office of Municipal Investigation.
The Pittsburgh Citizen Police Review Board has also opened an inquiry into this case.
The police union told 11 Investigates that at this point they are not aware of any of the investigations.
Download the FREE WPXI News app for breaking news alerts.
Follow Channel 11 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch WPXI NOW
©2025 Cox Media Group
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/cmg/XCUXZC2XYZHCRGNNGKFEX6U3LQ.png)
