TRENTON — A Toms River man allegedly impersonated a police officer this month by flashing a badge while attempting to pull over a woman on the Atlantic City Expressway, State Police said today.

Angelo Otchy, 39, was driving a blue 2013 Hyundai Elantra on Jan. 13 when he allegedly pulled up alongside the victim's vehicle and attempted to pull her over. The victim became fearful and called 911 to report the incident, State Police said.

The encounter lasted about four miles until the woman pulled over at the Pleasantville Toll Plaza and Otchy continued through the tolls, State Police said. Otchy was arrested Tuesday at his home and charged with impersonating a police officer and harassment

He was processed and released pending a court date.

In an email statement, Otchy said the encounter was a misunderstanding, and that he was trying to help other motorists by persuading the woman, who was swerving, to get off her phone. Contrary to the State Police statement, he said, he was not trying to pull her over.

"My heart was in the right place," he said.

Otchy was the subject of a 2010 Star-Ledger examination that found he had fabricated a story about serving three tours of duty in Iraq and about being injured when a bomb ripped through a Humvee, killing three of his friends. The revelation came after Otchy was awarded a distinguished service medal from Verona, where he lived, on Memorial Day.

The newspaper's report also cast doubt on claims Otchy made Sept. 11, 2001, when he was interviewed by reporters near a triage station in Lower Manhattan and said he was a New Jersey Army National Guard soldier who had been conducting search-and-rescue operations atop the ruins of the collapsed Twin Towers.

His comments, captured by television cameras and picked up in an Associated Press report, were carried in newspapers around the world, translated into German, Japanese and Afrikaans. But records showed Otchy wasn’t in the National Guard in 2001, and his uncle said his nephew told him he didn’t work on the pile at Ground Zero.

Christopher Baxter may be reached at cbaxter@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @cbaxter1. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.