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Port Authority police blatantly doctored an official report to hide the embarrassing truth about how one of their own lieutenants green-lighted a PATH train feared to have a bomb aboard, sources told The Post.
The altered PAPD report is rife with false and misleading information, providing a sanitized account of what actually took place on the evening of June 1 in Jersey City, when a suspicious package was found on a Red Line train that was allowed to continue under the Hudson River to the World Trade Center station without being checked out first, the sources said.
The original report, which contained a damning chronology of events, was mysteriously never made part of the record, the sources charged.
Instead, the second police report — suspiciously created after The Post published an exclusive June 6 story that highlighted the lieutenant’s role in the incident — was officially entered, a veteran PAPD source said.
“You only do one [police] report for a job — it’s that simple,” the source said. “You can’t change an original report. There are supposed to be strict protocols to be followed. And that clearly wasn’t done in this case.”
Sources said the new police report was designed to cover up how PAPD Lt. James O’Neil ignored angry warnings from fellow cops that the suspicious package should be checked out before the train was allowed to make the six-minute journey to the WTC station.
Passengers had been evacuated before the trip, but there were still six crew members on the train.
The package was eventually investigated — but not until after the train had arrived at the WTC. It turned out to be a remote-controlled toy helicopter in a box.
The Post obtained copies of both police reports prepared for the case.
Each bears the same case number: 1194.
The first report consists of an original, typed version prepared by Police Officer Jonathan Roche, and dated June 1. It offers a detailed timeline of what took place — including how the package wasn’t deemed safe until after the train’s trip to Manhattan.
By comparison, the second police report was handwritten, prepared by another cop, Officer Aaron T. Woody — and remarkably short on specifics, including when the package was ruled safe.
While the second report also is dated June 1, it was actually put together on the afternoon of June 6, the day The Post broke the story of the incident, sources said.
A PA spokesman declined comment.