The Associated Press
COLUMBUS, Ohio — A woman who served as a drug informant for the FBI has pleaded guilty to charges that she lied to agents investigating an Ohio police officer whose charges of arranging cocaine deals were later dropped.
Amanda Novaria faces up to five years in prison when sentenced in U.S. District Court in Columbus. She pleaded guilty Thursday to making false statements.
Prosecutors say Novaria used a friend to pose as Zanesville officer Donald Peterson in recorded phone conversations about a drug deal.
Novaria also was accused of creating text messages that appeared to incriminate Peterson, who was arrested in December and fired a month later when he refused to resign from the police department.
Prosecutors later dropped charges against Peterson, his wife and three others.