Criminal Justice

The first hearing related to council’s lawsuit against the mayor was scheduled for 9:30 a.m. Thursday.

The city is being sued over claims it took no action to stop racial harassment by a sitting council member.

A 29-year-old Allentown man has entered a guilty plea for involuntary manslaughter, after allegedly leaving his loaded gun on a couch pillow.

Christopher Joel Colon, 32, and John Brace, 32, both of Allentown, are accused of attempted murder and related crimes after a shooting early Wednesday on North Jordan Street. The victim suffered multiple wounds and was hospitalized, police said.

Easton Police Chief Carl Scalzo reviewed the 2025 budget with city council on Nov. 26, highlighting a substantial total budget increase for the department.

An estimated 300 Lehigh University students tore down a football goalpost and paraded it through South Bethlehem streets before tossing it from a bridge into the Lehigh River. It was a classic college football moment. Now, is someone going to be charged with a crime?

Francis "Frank" Anonia, 43, is accused of secretly recording a student in 2021 in the boys’ changing room in Parking High School’s auditorium.

Within weeks of Bethlehem City Council approving the police department to join a state drug trafficking task course, Police Chief Michelle Kott said Tuesday there’s an illegal drug now overshadowing opioids here locally.

A group of about 300 Lehigh University students carried the goalpost more than four miles from Goodman Stadium into South Bethlehem after the Lehigh football team's defeat of rival Lafayette on Saturday. On Monday, Lehigh apologized for the incident.

The whistleblower lawsuit details an alleged theft at the center of recently filed felony charges against a former Allentown Vice officer.

Judge Steven Hippler ordered Bryan Kohberger to serve life in prison without parole for killing four University of Idaho students. Friends and relatives delivered powerful statements of love, anguish and condemnation at the sentencing hearing Wednesday.

Allentown police allege Adam Makowka, 27, used a fire escape to enter Jerkera Battle's apartment and shot her to death with an AR-15. Makowka also is charged with trying to kill another man in the apartment.

Tamir Johnson, 35, got out of his car and swung a bat, hitting the other driver’s door. That driver fired one shot that struck Johnson, authorities said.

Jorge Suarez-Santiago, 33, was sentenced to 5-to-15 years in prison in the drug-induced death of his 22-month-old son.

A man whose body was found in a field near Salisbury Elementary School on Friday morning has been identified.

ICE has confirmed the arrest of a suspected murderer from Honduras, Yobani Bonilla-Bonilla, aka, Gilberto Perez-Alvarado, in Easton in June 2025.

Police are investigating after a 37-year-old man was found dead on the 1400 block of Gaskill Avenue in Salisbury Township.

Sammy Sasso, a former Nazareth Area High School state wrestling champion, is charged with possessing unlicensed guns and a controlled substance after police said they stopped the car he was driving because of an expired registration.

Witness said Jose Vladimir Jerez, 24, of Allentown, was driving erratically while trying to pass another car when he crashed his car into a utility pole in October. A 20-year-old passenger, Ezequiel Hernandez-Cartagena, died less than 90 minutes later.

A former Easton Area High School resource officer who pleaded guilty to sending a sexually explicit image of himself to a 16-year-old female student in 2024 was sentenced to 9-to-24 months in Northampton County Prison, it was announced on Wednesday.

Said Bethlehem Police Chief Michelle Kott, “It’s not used for enforcement. It’s just a means, similar to the news media, of being able to bring up that camera and check the traffic conditions, or if there's an accident, it could be utilized for investigative purposes.”

Angel Martinez-Velez, 25, of Allentown, was shot and killed June 1, 2024, on the basketball court at Allentown's Fountain Park.